Member Highlight: Sharpsburg Neighborhood Organization

1. Organization: Sharpsburg Neighborhood Organization2. Founding Date: July 2014; Incorporated: April 20163. Executive Director: Brittany Reno; Board President: Shanna Carrick4. Current Staff Size and Composition: Two full time staff members.5. Geographic Area Served: The Borough of Sharpsburg6. Mission Statement: Sharpsburg Neighborhood Organization works to strengthen and engage the community of Sharpsburg. 7. What is one project or program that you are really excited about?We are really exited about our Community Vision Plan that we just received funding for from the Hillman Foundation that is set to start in January and go through April. We will be spending about four months gathering community input and doing intense community outreach, especially to reach people that aren't normally as active and involved with our other projects and community development efforts. We will be getting people's opinion on the quality of life in Sharpsburg in addition to their suggestions for improvements both in physically what they wish to see chance around town and in non-physical aspects as well. This will guide our work for the next five years as well will be able to show future developers what the community has created and work with them to achieve the town's vision. This is going to be a very resident focused project and will be intentional on doing things that are directly supported by the residents. Additionally, the Hillman Foundation has provided enough funding for us to implement the first part of the plan when it has been created. We are really excited to get this underway and see what people want for our community and figure out how we can achieve their goals! 8. What are some of the corporation's recent accomplishments?The biggest thing has been securing the funding for our community vision plan. Outside of that, this month, we are launching our resident driven Fight Blight Working Group which a lot of residents have signed up to participate in. The working group will focus on looking at the data around blight patterns in the community and will then come to a consensus as a group on how we can go about tackling this issue. Additionally, in October we had our third annual Sharpsburg Fall Festival, and it was the best one yet! We had around 1,000 residents come out to support the local businesses and entertainment that were present. We had tons of local vendors, makers, artists, performers, and much more! It was a great way to see the neighborhood come together and enjoy the beautiful fall day that we were lucky enough to have. 9. Tell us what you love about your neighborhood. What is your neighborhood's best kept secret?Everything about this neighborhood is great - the walkability of it, the riverfront park, its relationship between new and old residents, the affordable housing, the rich Pittsburgh history, everything! Something that a lot of people don't know is that the Heinz family is from Sharpsburg and it is also where Henry Heinz started his company. When he was young, his family had a garden and they grew way more vegetables than they could consume, so Henry started to sell them on the street and eventually one thing lead to another and the Heinz company was created! The history here is very rich and interesting and there are still some old Heinz family homes here that are some of the prettiest buildings in Sharpsburg. 10. What is a business in your neighborhood that partners with your organization for events, or has in the past? How has it helped you?We go to Brother Tom's Bakery, the great little neighborhood spot right next to our office, very frequently, so much so that they know us by name and our regular orders, for meetings and community organizers. We love to go to Dancing Gnome, which is a new brewery that just opened up earlier this fall, as it is a great place to meet as well. 11. What is an interesting fact about your corporation or its history?Our Executive Director, Brittany, founded SNO as a side volunteer project to do on her lunch breaks or after work sometimes, but so many people wanted to help out and were incredibly supportive that it became a full fledged organization two years later that the community really rallied behind. Brittany was able to create an organization like SNO with the support of PCRG and the Allegheny Conference for Community Development as well as with the residents of Sharpsburg who backed her throughout the whole process. 12. What are some of your upcoming events?The Fight Blight Working Group is taking off this month and the Community Vision Plan, including the community envision process where residents will go parcel by parcel and assess the conditions of properties, as well as a quality of life survey will begin soon too. In May, we will have our second Home Owner Resource Fair and Open Homes Tour. 13. Contact Information:

1. Name of contact person for further inquiries:  Brittany Reno
2. Email: brittany@sharpsburgneighborhood.org
3. Address: 800 Main Street
4. Link to Website: http://www.sharpsburgneighborhood.org/