Women of the Mercy Corridor is an oral history project in which youth interview women about their lives, challenges, and triumphs. From teachers to business leaders, nuns to entrepreneurs, and church leaders to engineers, each of these women have a unique story to tell. And the youth interviewers they spoke to have a knack for asking the right questions and listening to their stories.
SLB piloted the project in Fall 2017 when twenty-five women who live or work in the Hill District, Uptown, and Oakland neighborhoods of Pittsburgh were interviewed by twenty-nine girls between 11 and 17 years of age who live in those same neighborhoods. The resulting interviews — along with reflections from the interviewers — were published in 2019 in booklet and CD form. View the booklet here
The project continued in Summer 2024 with an additional forty-one women who live, work, or were raised in the Hill District interviewed by forty-eight teens. Rather than publishing a CD and booklet, SLB chose to create full transcriptions of each interview for ease of access by people who are hard of hearing, learning English, or prefer to learn by reading. Transcriptions also were created for the interviews collected as part of the pilot project.
The collection below contains all sixty-six interviews created to date. Reflections from the youth who conducted the interviews can be found here.
Women of the Mercy Corridor is made possible with generous support from McAuley Ministries. Special thanks to the Jeron X. Grayson Community Center, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Hill District Branch, the University of Pittsburgh Hill District Community Engagement Center and all participating youth and adults.