Vibrant Pittsburgh’s mission is to accelerate the business community toward equitable, inclusive, and diverse workplaces, creating a future-forward region. Vibrant Pittsburgh envisions a future where Pittsburgh employers offer inclusive workplaces that foster prosperity and belonging, making them a top choice for people of all backgrounds.
We believe that a diverse workforce is essential to the ongoing economic vitality of the Greater Pittsburgh region. We must attract, retain, elevate and educate people of all backgrounds, including New Americans, immigrants, and refugees and create an environment that is inclusive and welcoming.
It is critical that the regional workforce be prepared for the job requirements of today and tomorrow, and that we attract qualified and diverse talent from across the country and around the globe. Skilled, educated foreign-born talent, ready to work in the United States, is a significant source of economic growth, innovation, entrepreneurship, and job creation throughout the country, and is essential to the long-term success of the Greater Pittsburgh region.
Like the rest of America, Greater Pittsburgh has a proud history of immigrants who came to pursue the American dream and worked side by side with people of varying racial, ethnic, cultural and other backgrounds to create greater levels of economic prosperity. Growing and sustaining a qualified and diverse regional workforce is a legacy that can and must continue.
Vibrant Pittsburgh is an economic development nonprofit that seeks to address one of the greatest challenges facing the Pittsburgh region, its aging population and workforce, by providing leadership to accelerate the growth rate of diverse workers in the region. We do this in three ways:
Our region has suffered decades of population decline that has left it with an aging workforce and as one of the least diverse major metros in the United States. Retaining and attracting minority workers is crucial to the region’s future since more than 50% of the people entering the U.S. workforce today are minorities. If we do nothing, our region’s population growth will trail behind national and competing region growth rates. However, we can overcome this challenge if we can increase the diversity of our workforce from its current state of 11% to 26% over the next ten years.
“Pittsburgh region employers are having difficulty finding talent with the skills necessary to take their organizations to the next level.”
“Organizations realize the changing demographic trends and are struggling to attract and retain talent of color for their Pittsburgh region jobs.”
“Organizations, instead, are recycling talent, poaching people from one another.”
Also, “given the region’s aging workforce and looming retirements, ensuring a welcoming, diverse and inclusive place where younger workers can live and build a career will be critical.”
We engage regularly more than 2,500 diverse job seekers; 1,700 newcomers that we have helped settle into the region through welcome programming; 500 diverse affinity groups with more than 50,000 constituents with which we support, promote and work; 80,000 people that we have engaged in diverse talent attraction initiatives; and more than $200,000 in mini grants that we have provided to more than 75 diverse and immigrant community serving organizations. Since the launch of Vibrant Pittsburgh, the growth rate of diverse workers in the region has more than doubled from 1.14% to 2.84%.
Vibrant Pittsburgh does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, ancestry, sex, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, genetics, or military status in any of its activities or operations. These activities include, but are not limited to, hiring and firing of staff, selection of volunteers and vendors, and provision of services. We are committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all.
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