Pittsburgh Somali Refugee Project
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Project Team

Board Liaison: Sandi DiMola, Prabha Sankaranarayan

Project Coordinator: Center for Victims of Violence and Crime (CVVC)

Partners

• Center for Victims of Violence and Crime (CVVC)
  Provision of project management and training
• Center for the Study of Conflict
  Provision of evaluation
• MGR Foundation

• Lawrenceville United

• Arsenal Middle School
  
  

Executive Summary

There are more than 150 children of Somali or Bantu Somali origin in the Pittsburgh, PA school district and that diversity has led to violent conflicts among refugees and other local residents.

MBB joined the Center for Victims of Violence and Crime in a project focusing on ameliorating the violence by: 

• Acknowledging interests of various groups
• Correcting misperceptions of members of the communities
• Engendering respect across groups
• Promoting social integration and community mediation
• Building capacity within the communities to maintain these peaceful practices

As of November 2007, the community identified the CVVC as the Project Coordinator. The CVVC wrote a proposal for mediation based on "Application of the Third Side Model to Resolution of Ethnic Violence in a Pittsburgh Middle School" written by Sandi DiMola. Upon receipt of the grant from the Pittsburgh Foundation in November 2008, CVVC, in partnership with Chatham’s Center for Conflict studies and the community partners mentioned, began implementation of the project.

Map

Other Resources

	The Arsenal Middle School Project by Sandi DiMola
	Refugee Resettlement: Is Pittsburgh A Model? by Rachel Lunsford