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Transcript
My name is Melvena Daniels. My birthday is October 14th, 1985. My relationship to the Hill is that I am a community leader, a community organization director. I provide programming to the Hill District, and I’m a lifelong resident. My childhood… It was more community. I am 1 of 13. I am number 11 out of the 13. A lot of my brothers were kind of stair stepped, so we are around the same age. I always had someone to play with. I lived in those areas where we all looked out for each other. All of our parents looked out for each other. They looked out for us kids. It was just a lot to do as far as playing outside. We did a lot of games outside as far as it tag, and hide and go seek, and riding skates, riding bikes, playing football, flag football. We did a lot of stuff like that. So I lived in Francis St. from the age of 1 to 12, and then I moved to Chauncey Dr. which was from 12 to 18, and then I lived up in Sugar Top for early 20’s. The struggles I faced when I was young was having parents that were addicted to drugs. My mom was kind of the functional addict where I didn’t know. Our house never lacked anything. She always had three meals on our table. We always had the latest shoes. Our house was clean, so she was more functional. She tried to hide it, which my father… he was not. I am a strong woman, and I would say I am a strong woman because of adversity. I’m a strong woman because I am not a statistic, meaning that I’m not one that came up in this community, stayed in this community and became a victim to the community. I came up in the community, but I also found my way out, and I’m still able to give back. I’ve been working since I was 13 years old, so the program through the Learn and Earn, back then, it was Summer Youth Works, and my first job was at the Hill House Association. I was an assistant to a lady named Charlotte McDonald, so I did that at 13 years old till I was about 15 years old, and then I was a waitress at Bob Evans, which I loved that job because at the time, when you’re in high school and you’re making $150 in a day, that was a lot of money, so I really enjoyed that job. Then I went to school and became a project manager for Turner Construction and an office manager. So I was then stationed at Northview Heights, so I was running their trailer offices, and doing meetings, and punch lists, and stuff like that, and then I became an a consultant for Housing Authority at Pittsburgh Housing Authority. I was their project manager on their development team. I did that for seven years. Then I went to the University of Pittsburgh and I was a project manager there. But then I talked to Reverend Grayson, and they wanted to pull me on full time to run this program, and here I am. So I serve the Hill in many capacities. I have a commercial kitchen down at ACH, Clear Pathways, where I do my catering business at. So I’m able to serve the community through my food ministry. I love that I manage people at the Community cafe so I’m part of that management team and partnership with them where I do certain food items for them and just partner with them throughout the year. I also manage at the church, Wesley Church. So my hands is kind of involved everywhere in the community. Some of my favorite aspects of the Hill District community is the people. Some of the people are very solid. Most of the ones I knew growing up, but I still know till this day. The location of the community is very solid, and it’s very central. The arts in the Hill District and the people who came out of it that is now famous, we have a lot of talent in the community and had a lot of talent in the community. This era now, I believe, is less community, and when I was growing up, again, it was more people who were more involved. It was more members of the community that cared about the community. as far as littering and looking out for each other and just simple things like that. That meant a lot back then versus now. There’s still some people that originated in the community who want to see the change and still look out for you, but then there’s a lot of people who migrated to the Hill that really doesn’t care about the value. The changes I would like to see on the Hill is more united community, less gentrification. I would love for more of African Americans to own more businesses on the Hill, more development, more African American development.