Good Neighbor Podcast: Pittsburgh
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Pittsburgh. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Leila Carter helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Is your business serving the residents of Pittsburgh? Then, we need to talk! Visit gnpPittsburgh.com to schedule your free interview.
Good Neighbor Podcast: Pittsburgh
E9: Corporate Life to Community Leadership: Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition Transforms Communities
What makes Maria Cohen with Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition a good neighbor?
Looking for a master class in community building? Maria Cohen's journey from corporate America to leading the Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition reveals powerful lessons about neighborhood vitality, collaboration, and finding purpose through service.
When Maria's friend told her "your neighbors need you," little did she know it would launch her into executive leadership of one of Pittsburgh's most impactful community organizations. The Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition operates through 8-12 specialized committees addressing everything from education to litter patrol, bicycle-pedestrian concerns, and even health initiatives—proving that limited resources need not limit community impact.
What makes this organization remarkable is their collaborative approach. While most nonprofits struggle with silos, SHUC thrives through partnerships with the JCC, Center for Loving Kindness, Friendship Circle, local libraries, and neighboring communities like Greenfield and Hazelwood. These connections manifest in vibrant community celebrations including night markets, cultural festivals, and Pride events that stitch together Pittsburgh's diverse neighborhoods.
Perhaps most fascinating is Maria's personal evolution alongside her professional role. When pandemic stress overwhelmed her, sound healing became her sanctuary—eventually leading to certification as a sound healing practitioner. This perfect blend of self-care and community service exemplifies how personal well-being and neighborhood vitality intertwine.
Ready to experience Squirrel Hill's community magic firsthand? Visit their night market this Saturday on Murray Avenue from 6-10pm, check out shuc.org, or follow them on social media. Better yet, let Maria's story inspire you to find your own neighborhood organization and discover how community engagement transforms not just places, but people.
To learn more about Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition go to:
Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition
(412) 422-7666
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Lila Carter.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of a community-based organization and nonprofit in Squirrel Hill? Today, I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Maria Cohen, with the Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition. Maria, how's it going?
Speaker 3:Thank you for having me here. It's going well, Lila, and I really appreciate you taking the time to get to know our organization better.
Speaker 2:Thanks so much for being here. We're excited to learn all about you and your business. So I understand you're the executive director there. Tell us about this company.
Speaker 3:Yes. So the Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition is a local nonprofit. We give voice to the hopes and concerns of our residents, institutions, businesses and visitors, and we work to preserve, improve and celebrate the quality of life in our vibrant Squirrel Hill neighborhood. We're comprised of, at any given time, eight to 10, maybe even 12 committees. We have right now a current volunteer board of 20 board members and our committees range from anything to education also litter, patrol, bike, ped, our built environment we are a registered community organization and health we just put on a new committee that's more health related.
Speaker 2:Excellent. So a ton of interest there. That kind of span all sorts of needs for the community. How did you get into this business?
Speaker 3:Well, I came from a more corporate environment. I was really involved with consumer products, then more the architectural space and in 2019, one of my friends sent me the post for a position that happened to be this one and she said, maria, your neighbors need you. I was really highly involved in like PTO at high levels, including more of the philanthropic work, teacher appreciation of the philanthropic work, teacher appreciation always involved in also being a homeroom parent and 412 Food Rescue, also just Kutch's crew so many different organizations and she thought that that would be a natural fit. I guess she was right.
Speaker 2:Oh, what a standout moment for you in your life, I'm sure. Thank you, yeah. What are some myths or misconceptions in this industry?
Speaker 3:I think that nonprofits can get a reputation of not doing enough with the resources that they have or that they have unlimited funding, which is just simply not the case. And what we do we operate with a very limited budget and are able to get a lot accomplished with that. And we do, we operate with a very limited budget and are able to get a lot accomplished with that. And we do work with a lot of other organizations and collaborate a lot and our volunteers. So we try to do as much as we can for our community and our neighboring communities.
Speaker 2:So we know marketing is the heart of your business. Who are your target customers and how do you attract them?
Speaker 3:Really our neighbors are really who we want to engage, and then also neighboring communities.
Speaker 3:So we do that in a variety of ways. We, of course, use what everyone else else does with like social media and you know, instagram, facebook I guess it's X and others but the heart of what we do is really getting out into the community with things like events like tonight we are working with Greenfield. They invited us to their Pride event for the first time. That's from working and collaborating on other events with both Hazelwood and Greenfield, like something that we do that's called a holiday mingle every year with families. We also do things like we have our night market in Squirrel Hill coming up this Saturday, have our night market in Squirrel Hill coming up this Saturday, farmers markets Also. We host Day of the Dead, lunar, new Year and many other events and partnering events. So that's how we really get engaged we do also, of course, we have a website where folks can look up volunteer opportunities. But our newsletter is the easiest way for us to keep in touch with our neighbors and surrounding communities, to let everyone know what's going on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it sounds like community outreach is really important to the nonprofit here. Have you ever thought about doing your own podcast? Have you ever thought about?
Speaker 3:doing your own podcast A little bit, but I guess that also, with everything that we have going on and the limited resources, I haven't really had time to do it, but would certainly recommend think about that and looking into all of the areas that we work with, because it could be really interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and very informative for the citizens there. So, outside of work, what do you do for fun?
Speaker 3:Oh, I, I, um, lila, I, I love to do so many different things, so I really enjoy getting out into our parks and trails. I love live music we have so many different options here and I really love small venues as well, like like the Thunderbird Cafe or Mr Small's Theater. I really engage in, like in any type of like activity that would be more physical or movement, like pure bar, hiking, biking, skiing, yoga almost anything with music and and movement I love. And then I really love to explore all of our 90 neighborhoods but all of the surrounding areas. I love to travel.
Speaker 3:I love food we have so many options here in Pittsburgh and so many good um local chefs as well. Um, and then um I, I, like, I love to cook, so I'm getting my Blue Zone cooking certification. I also really enjoy like sound baths and sound healing, so I just got my I just earned my sound healing practitioner certification and I love being with, like doing things with my husband, my, my kids, families, family and friends, so just having adventures and experiences and I volunteer a lot.
Speaker 2:Oh awesome, you and I would get along. I'm also foodie and I love live music. Pittsburgh is such a great place to live for those things. Our food scene, our music scene are so awesome, and also the health and wellness support in the area is great too. So let's switch gears here. Can you describe a hardship or a life challenge that you overcame and how it made you stronger? What comes to mind? Yes.
Speaker 3:Lila, I think that so many of us experienced this during the pandemic. But I certainly was in a situation where there was increased anxiety and stress just because of everything going on and when you're really supporting community and also a family, like things happen with everyone's families, like we lost a lot of important family members, you know. All of these kinds of things added up and I just really needed some extra support. So what I did? I went. I actually sought out the support of a therapist who does EMDR, but what really changed my life was that one of my friends took me to a sound bath and literally like it cleansed me.
Speaker 3:I had tears streaming down my face in the best way possible, continued going, and then that's why I decided to earn my sound healing practitioner certification. I took that and am now able to engage in sound baths for places like the Hear Foundation, pittsburgh Foundation. Actually, my Pure Bar classmates did a sound healing for them. That was actually related to um. We were doing something for um breast cancer awareness. Um, I do it for my friends and family and it's really been a help to to engage, and so it's it's me helping myself and helping others is what sprang out of that.
Speaker 2:I love that you said that. Uh, I feel like there's just now, uh, so much more awareness about being mindful of your vibrational state for your wellness and sound healing kind of encompasses all of that. So I love that. So, maria, please tell our listeners one thing that should stick with them about Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition.
Speaker 3:We are a very collaborative organization. We work with so many other incredible groups, including JCC, center for Loving Kindness, most of the other neighboring organizations and neighborhoods, fips, friendship Circle, the Pittsburgh Learning Collaborative. Uncover Squirrel Hill. Visit Pittsburgh, jada House um. Uncover squirrel hill. Visit pittsburgh uh, jada house I I may have said friendship circle already here foundation, um, we're part of. Um. Uh, we work with the local libraries, um. Stand for all and also just really think that that work is very important in helping to support our city as a whole. I also am part of the community working group for the new comprehensive plan. It all ties together and so we are a piece of that. But it's really important to get involved with your neighborhood if you're able to, so I would encourage anyone that's able to get involved with us or whatever their neighboring or their neighborhood is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it sounds like Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition really exemplifies what a nonprofit should be when they're focused on community engagement and just really bringing people together and working in a collaborative way with these different organizations. So thank you for the work that you do there.
Speaker 1:How can our?
Speaker 2:listeners. Learn more about Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition.
Speaker 3:Well, you could come to our night market that's happening this Saturday, which is on Murray Avenue, from Beacon to Forbes, and that's from 6 to 10. To Forbes, and that's from 6 to 10. You could also check out our website, which is shookorg, so it's S-H-U-CO-R-G. Our office, if you'd like to come to visit me, is 5604 Solway. And then social media our handles are at Facebook. It would be at Squirrel Hill Mag. We do put out a magazine three times a year that is free to the public, so that's another way. And then also Instagram is a huge one, of course, and that's at Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition. We have our newsletter that is really helpful to the community and you would just need to sign up on our site or come out to visit us, you know, even at a farmer's market or somewhere else and if you, if you give us your contact information, we'll put you on our newsletter. So, mainly events and and really engaging with our newsletter. Well, maria.
Speaker 2:I really appreciate your time today and having you as a guest on our show. We wish you and the nonprofit the best moving forward.
Speaker 3:Thank you, Lila. I wish you the same and really appreciate engaging with you today.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPPittsburghcom. That's GNPPittsburghcom, or call 412-561-9956.