Hosanna House 'A Place Called Hope' Celebrates 20 years
Thursday, December 03, 2009
By Deborah M. Todd, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

When guests recognize the past year of service at Hosanna House during the Ambassador of Hope Gala tomorrow, they also will reflect on the organization's 20-year progression from an innovative concept to a Wilkinsburg institution.

Affectionately dubbed "A Place Called Hope" by founders, Hosanna House Inc. began as a somewhat lofty goal for a community in the midst of lowered economic prospects and rising crime rates.

After Wilkinsburg was declared a distressed community in 1987, a study conducted by the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work suggested creating a social services institution to cover a wide range of issues facing residents.

Covenant Church of Pittsburgh formed Hosanna House Inc. in 1989 and purchased the former Homer Middle School on Wallace Avenue the following year to house the facility.

Using about $5 million for repairs and more than 500 volunteers for manpower, the facility opened in 1996 as a community center.

Today Hosanna House hosts dozens of social service agencies, provides affordable health care through the Wilkinsburg Family Health Center, offers child care and workforce development programs and opens its doors for local youth to use its gymnasium, pool and computer facilities.

"Not much has changed as far as the basic needs and services we provide ... but the demand has dramatically increased," said Hosanna House Executive Director Leon Haynes III.

"Our first year, we served about 9,000 people. Today, 37,000 people would have walked through our doors this year alone. We're touching a lot more people than we ever have in terms of services and opportunities."

Former Wilkinsburg mayor Robert Pitts, who served in 1993-94, said the relationship between Hosanna and community leaders allowed him to gain greater understanding of residents' needs and touch their lives in a way he may not have otherwise.

"[When I was] the mayor, there were a lot of things the community needed," he said. "Hosanna House was a place where I learned about the needs of the community.
"I got a lot of hands-on experience by cleaning up and getting acquainted with the community people just by building Hosanna House and listening to what people had to say."

Mayor John Thompson said the organization took its community service efforts to new levels in 2007 through a collaboration with Action Housing Inc. to develop 20 affordable housing units in the Peebles Square area.

Mr. Haynes said in the next 20 years, he hopes the organization will play a larger role in housing development in the region. But he also said he has smaller goals in mind for individual residents.

"I would like every child in Wilkinsburg to have an opportunity to learn how to swim," he said. "I want Hosanna House to be a part of the revitalization of our young people through job training, placement and employment.

"We already have a job-training component today, and they can learn through services we have like health care and maybe some child-care work in our health care environment."

But Robert Menges, founding board member and associate pastor of Covenant Church of Pittsburgh, said his greatest hope for the next two decades is that what Hosanna brought to Wilkinsburg can be duplicated in other areas.

"I'd like to see Hosanna House reproduced in other communities and to become a model for what a community center could be in other communities and cities," he said. "Whether or not that will happen, I can't say, but it's a model that can work in a number of different settings."

Hosanna House Inc. will kick off a year of celebrations with tomorrow's gala. It will continue with a Leadership Banquet in April; a Highmark Walk-A-Thon in May; a Summer Night's celebration at its Sherwood Property in August; and Babette's Feast, a dinner serving Hosanna's homeless and disabled families, in November.

For more information on Hosanna House's 20th anniversary celebration events, call 412-243-7711.