Funded by a grant from the Theology Program, a new project at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary’s Metro-Urban Institute will shed light on the impact of COVID-19 on Black and Latinx communities by collecting and sharing their experiences. The grant will also support the efforts of local ministries and organizations to bring technology and resources to students in need.

Pittsburgh Theological Seminary’s Metro-Urban Institute has received a $150,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation to work with church-sector and community-based organizational networks in metro-Pittsburgh to: (1) collect and curate stories and data illuminating COVID-19’s impact on Black and Latinx communities; and (2) reinforce capacities within and between ministries and organizations to bridge resources (e.g., computers for public school students being taught remotely, and direct assistance for agencies responding to intensified local needs). The title of the project, facilitated by the Seminary’s Metro-Urban Institute, is “Sharing Technology and Sharing Stories: Listening, Learning, and Responding to Differential, Race-based Impacts of COVID-19.”

Professor of Urban Ministry and Director of the Metro-Urban Institute the Rev. Dr. R. Drew Smith—the project’s lead investigator—elaborates: “We will gather stories from at-risk communities to create four video narratives, each focused on a particular area of the virus’s impact in Pittsburgh’s Black and Latinx communities: access to health care, access to technology, the learning needs of children, and the situation of essential workers.”

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