Office of Promise Fulfillment
Our Office of Promise Fulfillment (OPF) promotes college readiness among young people to build a strong foundation for post secondary learning.
We provide connections to a wide variety of out-of-school time opportunities that engage students through their interest areas, encouraging them to explore meaningful opportunities that will assist them with their future life goals.
At the heart of our work is a drive to empower students as agents of community change and transformation. Through mentoring and powerful discourse OPF builds relationships with young people that extend beyond school walls and support them as they become the next leaders of our world.
Scholar Project
The Scholar Project is an after school and summer time for high school students. The program’s goals are to assist students through high school graduation, promote a college going culture, and empower students as agents of community change. Throughout the year students learn important life skills like budgeting, emotion management, and self-efficacy. Students participate in project-based learning that enhances their critical thinking and problem solving abilities. Past project topics include: research methods, 3D printing solutions to social problems, service learning, and video game design. Experiential learning plays a large role in the program, leading students to attend events around the city, hear from influential speakers, and visit college campuses.
Academic Support
Academic support is provided on-site at Westinghouse high school during the school day and at partner programs after school. Our staff and volunteers work with everyday with students at the YMCA Lighthouse program and the Men of the House student-athlete program.
Summer Learn and Earn
The Learn and Earn Summer Youth Employment Initiative is a collaboration between the City of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, and Partner4Work to provide work readiness training and summer employment to youth. HCV is a current contractor, providing and placing students at meaningful jobs opportunities in the community. Participants have worked as teaching assistants, camp counselors, business and social entrepreneurs, community researchers, video game designers, journalists, photographers, urban gardeners, and community planners.
We Promise
We Promise is a mentoring program created by Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS) to eliminate racial disparities in achievement of the Pittsburgh Promise scholarship. Presently, only about 13% of Promise recipients are African-American males despite comprising 27% of the PPS population. HCV plays the role of lead mentor at Westinghouse high school to run the weekly mentoring program. We work with youth to reach the 2.5 GPA and 90% attendance requirement of the scholarship, all while exploring manhood and what it means to raise each other up.
