Faculty member presents at Chancellor's event

Associate Professor Mary Ohmer’s project team presented at the Chancellor’s event at the Homewood Community Engagement Center where they spoke about Community Based Participatory Research: Research on Equity and Power.Community-based participatory research is a research orientation that aligns lived experience, community expertise, and academic knowledge to address community challenges. Drs. Mary Ohmer (Pitt Social Work) and Shannah Tharp Gilliam (Homewood Children’s Village), and their research team members, Donnell Pearl (Community Researcher and Homewood resident) and Miranda Micire (MSW Student) explained how they are using this research orientation to strengthen Homewood resident civic engagement on the topic of equitable development. Attendees discuss civic engagement and the role a University in promoting equitable development via resident engagement.  The presentation included: Dr. Mary Ohmer spoke about why they are doing this project, including: National and local trends: increasing gentrification and wealth inequality among neighborhoods; Housing pressures in Pittsburgh:  - including a shortage of 17,241 affordable units; rents and average housing values have almost doubled since 2007.  Close proximity of Homewood to E. Liberty and concerns about displacement.  Homewood presenting a unique opportunity to prevent the negative effects of neighborhood change and foster equitable development.  Thus our project is engaging residents to influence equitable development to ensure that all residents participate in and benefit from Pittsburgh’s economic transformation, especially communities that have historically faced the greatest inequities.Donnell Pearl talked about why this project is important to him as Homewood resident and how he got involved in it.Miranda Micire talked about how she is applying the skills and knowledge from the COSA program in the project. Dr. Shannah Tharp Gilliam talked about why the project was important to HCV and why she wanted to partner with me and the school and how REP is a genuine partnership. Dr. Mary Ohmer ended with why this project is important to the university and community and that the project represents the essence of CBPR