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Pittsburgh City Council

Glen Hazel families turn out to back afterschool programs at Burgwin Recreation Center.

Written by Amy Whipple

Sixteen residents — including six children — turned out to support programming at Glen Hazel’s Burgwin Recreation Center, as council considered whether Stop the Violence (STV) dollars should foot the bill.

“More and more kids lose their homes, and their grown-ups are losing their jobs,” said one of the children at the July 8 committee meeting, “so I think that they should make more…afterschool programs.”

Currently, Saundra and James Cole provide activities at the center for neighborhood children, but it is no longer sustainable to do so. The proposed legislation asks the administration to seek proposals to take over programming.

“There are multiple council members at this table who have programs just like this, operating small nonprofits on shoestring budgets,” said Council Member Barb Warwick of Greenfield, whose district includes Glen Hazel, “but that’s not how it’s supposed to work.”

Warwick drew pushback during the June 24 meeting when she asked that the money — capped at $200,000 for one year — come from STV trust fund.

She followed up during the July 8 meeting and said, “The purpose of Stop the Violence funding is to provide culturally competent social services for our highest need communities, especially our youth.”

 She noted the free city-funded activities available for her children at Greenfield’s Magee Recreation Center. “In poor communities across this city, communities like Glenn Hazel, kids don’t have that,” she said. “Instead, we say to those communities, ‘Figure it out for yourselves.’”

According to Warwick, Mayor Corey O’Connor has said the administration is willing to “work toward a solution.” Council voted to hold the bill two weeks to give him that time.

Connections to this story

Topics:
Parks & Public SpacePublic Safety & EMS
Governments:
Pittsburgh City Council
Public meetings:
City Council · July 7, 2026
Sources:
Resolution 2026-0643 — transferring the amount of two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000) to the Department of Parks and Recreation…

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