On December 6th, my group and cohort went to our last site visit to Fayette County to present our findings and deliverables to the Fayette County Cultural Trust Fund and Uniontown City Council. This journey would not be possible without the support of our professors, stakeholders, and other community members who took time out of their day and meet and speak for our project. As our fourth year of the Appalachian Collegiate Research Initiative comes to a close, I wanted to reflect on my sustainability’s group deliverables that we have made for Uniontown’s government and what future groups should look forward to in the next years. I wanted to thank our stakeholders (Crystal Simmons and Daniel Edwards and Michael Cox from FCCT) and all the professors (Michael Glass, Bryan Shultz, Kris Kanthak, and David Sanchez) for making this project possible for us. Without your support, we would not be able to pursue this project or present these solutions and visions.

We traveled back to the Connellsville Canteen last Friday to present with all the other groups (Urban Studies, Business, and Political Science) what we created in our deliverables to better the communities in both Connellsville and Uniontown. This was the first time my group was able to see what the rest of the team created too so it was also a learning experience for me. Each group focused on a different topic that would boost the county’s economic and sustainable development. Urban Studies tackled the issue of tourism and their ways to invest and prioritize community engagement. Political looked at focus groups to promote youth and civic engagement. Business created education and entrepreneurship programs to improve job sectors. And for us, we looked at public sectors in Uniontown to create solutions in their government. It was exciting to see everyone express their desired ideas and plans after having an entire semester’s worth of research. After finishing this semester, I learned the importance of ACRI and why Pitt decided to create this ten year Appalachian project. Appalachia faces unique social, economic, and environmental challenges, such as poverty, lack of access to healthcare, environmental degradation, and limited educational opportunities. ACRI provides a platform for researchers and students to investigate these issues and propose sustainable solutions to boost their economy. These are not overnight solutions, of course which is why Pitt has been working on this project for multiple years. Building off from previous years’ projects improves both our understanding on what is important for the community and creates detailed plans that cater towards these goals. Pitt students from previous years have partnered with the Fayette County Cultural Trust to develop proposals for events, create community maps, and draft grant applications.

Prior to the 12pm luncheon at the Canteen, my group went to Uniontown City Council for brunch to present our own deliverables of our organization chart and our gaps analysis. We also are working with the next sustainability capstone and the Frederick Honors College to create projects and internships for blight remediation in the upcoming semesters. Our 20 minute presentation consisted of explaining why we are apart of ACRI and how we could help and assist in strengthening Uniontown’s government. This project is both a class and a capstone for us, but it has the potential to have an impact on the daily lives of Uniontown residents. This is why we made it a point to speak openly with Simmons, the Executive Director of Uniontown’s Revedelopment Authority, throughout our investigation. We concentrated on the deliverables she felt would be most useful. We collaborated extensively with Uniontown’s redevelopment authority and engaged with representatives from several departments to ensure that we considered as many different people’s perspectives as possible.

A main issue we were hearing was job capacity. Either there were not enough positions to fulfill all the needs of the government or there were not enough people willing to take these positions, mainly due to moving out of the county for higher wages or interest in citylife. These were common issues Uniontown’s executives brought up to our group at our second site visit. So, our main deliverable was creating an organizational chart that structures and shows executives from multiple organizations that promote and develop Uniontown as well as a dream chart that incorporates additional positions that the city would emphasize for the future. Some of these organizations from the chart include the Redevelopment Authority of Uniontown, the Sheepskin Trail, and the Business District. The main goal of both charts is through Simmons’s words “play a key role in helping Uniontown progress their approval and implementation of STMP funding as well as provide an easier way to determine what government positions Uniontown needs.”

The purpose of our gap analysis is to help future groups understand what needs to be addressed in Uniontown’s governance. Of course, these objectives may shift over time, so the newt group could consider doing another poll of Uniontown representatives based on how much time has passed since a student group worked in Uniontown and when we conducted our gap analysis. Assuming students can use our gap analysis, here are some potential paths future cohorts could take: municipal training, waste management, zoning, code enforcement. These areas according to the analysis show they are in the most need for improvement. The anaylsis also showed where officials felt certain groups were funded well and better than other groups such as the Fire and Police Department.

Our final deliverables include a capstone, service opportunity, and internship centered on at least two of Uniontown’s most pressing needs: a blight removal plan and business resource collection through Pennsylvania’s Main Street Matters Grant. Blight is a major concern in Uniontown as it affects property prices and hinders businesses from establishing themselves in the city; this is hinted at in our gap study, in which two attendees reported and voted for “housing stock” as a need (see “Gap Analysis” in associated folder). To access this need, our group has facilitated and engaged in negotiations with Crystal and our professor, Dr. David Sanchez to identify how Pitt could help with home blight evaluations. Our idea was to have at least one group in next semester’s Sustainability Capstone complete some of these site assessments as part of their coursework. This deliverable is personally my favorite and I feel it would be highly valuable to not only Simmons but to the next capstone. A struggle my group faced was targeting a particular topic that was feasible and realistic to achieve in a short semester. By working on the Blight Remediation, that takes away that uncertainty that we stressed about; My group discussed topics involving Acid Mine Drainage and Space which ultimately was scrapped. I also feel it is a great option for Crystal to have another set of students advise and help with this issue in Uniontown without having to be worried about payments or an organization that would need to fund this.

Another service opportunity we wanted to add involved business resource gathering. We, along with Simmons and Dr. Bryan Schultz of Pitt’s College of Business Administration are working to design a fall 2025 internship to assist Uniontown in developing remediation targets and an implementation strategy for their Downtown Business District. Simmons informed us at our November 8th meeting that she had recently submitted a grant application to the Pennsylvania Main Street Matters Program. According to Simmons, this funding will help Uniontown create “a downtown condition assessment, assess each of the commercial structures to make decisions like if they need a façade grant, determine what type of business assistance is needed, form a business committee, conduct business enforcement, use iWorQ to track business licenses, create a business website, create a business flier, and develop resources for businesses.” A Pitt intern could still help Uniontown achieve some of these goals if even the funding does not go through. Once we have determined the capstone theme for next semester, we will spend the remainder of our time with Simmons developing a more clear job description. A main reason for having the internship in the Fall instead of the Summer is the amount of applicants possibly applying for this offer. According to Shultz, there would not be as many students in the summer who would choose to apply for this opportunity as many have their own summer plans.

Another significant takeaway from this semester’s work is the need to put the people first in achieving sustainable development. The key question we were asked at the start of the semester was how could we bring value and support the community. The next group working in Uniontown should carefully evaluate our materials, which will be made available in a folder on Microsoft Teams or Google Drive. With the establishment of the blight remediation internship, we hope to influence and inspire new sustainable projects in Fayette County. So by the time this project returns in the next year, the next sustainable group can leverage our research and findings for their own deliverables, just as we looked back on prior projects.