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Essential Pittsburgh: Giving More of The Pittsburgh Promise to African-American Males

Megan Harris
/
90.5 WESA

A recent look at The Pittsburgh Promise, a scholarship Pittsburgh Public School attendees can qualify for which helps them pay for college, found African-American males are receiving significantly less financial support than Caucasian males, females, as well as African-American females. Saleem Ghubril, executive director of The Pittsburgh Promise, is in studio to explain why African-American males aren't qualifying, and ultimately not receiving, as much of The Promise as anticipated. 

Ghubril discusses the potential changes needing to take place in order to insure the equality of scholarship acceptance among all students: 

"There needs to be more support services in the community alongside our schools to meet kids mental health needs, physical health needs, to address some childhood trauma issues that are not being dealt with, to provide some academic support services, maybe even some financial literacy. …What we can do better is insuring that the pipeline doesn’t have as many holes in it and the support services that kids need are indeed in place." -Saleem Ghubril

Also, meet two men who are traveling across the country to raise awareness for important causes, and we'll discuss Roots Pride Pittsburgh, an even created out of dissatisfaction with local Pride events coordinated by Delta Foundation. 

Cross Country (starts at 21:07)

We’re going to introduce you to two men who are crossing the country this summer, one via bicycle the other walking, as a means of helping others. Up first is Greg Crawford, Dean of the College of Science and professor of physics at the University of Notre Dame, who is biking across America to raise awareness for rare diseases. Pittsburgh native Jared Reichbaum is walking across the nation in an attempt to register more people for the bone marrow registry.

Inclusiveness for Local LGBT Advocacy (starts at 41:20)

June is Gay Pride month around the world, but here in Pittsburgh there’s an ongoing conversation about diversity and inclusiveness among Pittsburgh’s LGBT organizations and larger community. Critics charge that the Delta Foundation of Pittsburgh, which coordinates local Pride events, does not represent the full diversity of gay life in our area. Joy KMT and Michael David Battle join us in studio to talk about the issues and the organization that they have worked to found, Roots Pride Pittsburgh.

More Essential Pittsburgh segments can be found here

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