East End Cooperative Ministry: (6140 Station St)

The East End Cooperative Ministry (EECM) was collaboratively founded in 1970 by eighteen different churches in the East End. Between 1950 and 1970 when Pittsburgh was suffering from industrial decline and suburbanization, East Liberty lost thirty-seven percent of its population and experienced a demographic shift. White residents who could afford to leave did so, and African Americans moved into the vacated spaces. East Liberty's white population dropped from 90% in 1940 to 51% in 1980.

For over forty years the EECM served the area's homeless adults and at-risk youth out of a number of locations provided by its member congregations. With the assistance of East Liberty Development Inc, the EECM built this modern facility in 2013. Today, the ministry provides a wide range of community services, including a food pantry and community kitchen, emergency shelter and recovering housing, youth outreach and career development programs.

Sources:

East End Cooperative Ministry website. “EECM: Creating a Community of Opportunity in Pittsburgh.” Accessed April 17, 2019 at http://www.eecm.org/about-eecm/

Niederberger, Mary. “East End Cooperative Ministry shows off its new facility.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. October 25, 2013.

“Remembering the past: history of the merging congregations and their buildings.” Pittsburgh, PA: First United Methodist Church, 1993. Retrieved from Historic Pittsburgh Book collection, University of Pittsburgh at https://www.historicpittsburgh.org/islandora/object/pitt%3A00d085600m

Trotter, Joe W. and Jared N. Day. Race and Renaissance: African Americans in Pittsburgh since World War II. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2010.

U.S. Census Bureau. Population and Housing Reports and Racial Distribution Maps, 1940-2010. Prepared by Social Explorer. Accessed Nov. 5, 2018 at https://www.socialexplorer.com/