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2010-06-01 issue:

PULSE attracts Mennonite young adults

Pittsburgh Urban Leadership Service Experience celebrates 15 years

by Anna Groff

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Pittsburgh Urban Leadership Service Experience (PULSE) celebrated its 15-year anniversary in July 2009. The small Pittsburgh program rooted in the Mennonite tradition also celebrated a threefold increase in applicants from last year and increased support from donors.



According to Jessica Wilson this growth comes from intentionally communicating PULSE's values and mission, which is to "cultivate a community of young servant leaders to transform Pittsburgh." Wilson is former board chair of PULSE.



"We've become more sure of who we are," Wilson says. "The values and the way we do our work draws in many young people from Mennonite backgrounds."

Photo on left: Charity Grimes, PULSE participant from Goshen, Ind., with her Sustainable Plant Program at Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh. Photo provided.



Over the past 15 years, PULSE has brought over 100 college graduates to Pittsburgh and one-third of alumni still live in Pittsburgh.

While PULSE's name over the past 15 years has changed from "PULSE" to "Mennonite Urban Corps" and back to PULSE, executive director Chris Cooke says the Mennonite identity of PULSE remains an important component. 



While Cooke is Presbyterian, he says, "Mennonite identity comes from who PULSE is at our core," he says. "It's important to know who you are ... you are who you are by what you do."

At the same time, Cooke says he is excited for the diversity of participants for next year. The participants live together in the eight-bedroom house. Participants come from Mennonite and Catholic backgrounds, among others. Cooke says community living should function like a rubber band: stretching individuals but not stretching them too far.



Wilson, who comes from a Catholic faith background, says PULSE shares values with other faith backgrounds and attracts non-Mennonites to the program.

"While we aren't evangelical, PULSE allows us to share our faith and values," she says.


However, PULSE leadership is not intentionally working to become more ecumenical, Wilson says. The majority of participants come from Mennonite colleges and universities, as well as a small majority of its eight-member board of directors.

Photo above: Participants from the 2009-10 year gather on their front porch in East Liberty—a neighborhood in Pittsburgh. Photo by Chris Cooke.




Additionally, Cooke praises the quality of the participants and alumni from the Mennonite colleges and universities, namely Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, Va., Bluffton (Ohio) University and Goshen (Ind.) College.



A participant's story
Emily Swora, one participant from Goshen College, works as the outreach coordinator at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater in East Liberty. 



"To be valued by my community, my placement and Chris has impacted how I see my role as someone in the community," Emily says. "Without PULSE, I would've been more 'me-focused.' Now I’m more Pittsburgh- and community-focused."

According to Swora, most of this year's participants identify as Mennonites and they have the strongest connection to Pittsburgh Mennonite Church over other churches in the city. One of the other participants, Kyle Wetherald from Bluffton University, is a pastoral intern at PMC.

Swora says she feels more rooted in "communal faith" than she felt in college. She says their house spirituality practices include discussing moral and ethical questions, singing together and talking about faith.



Swora says she met young adults who have moved to Pittsburgh for a job and live alone, and she has experienced their desire for friends and connections. For her, PULSE offered an instant "support group," and much more.

"There's accountability; it's hard to fall through the cracks," she says.



The foundations of PULSE

John Stahl-Wert, who attends Pittsburgh Mennonite Church and president of the Pittsburgh Leadership Foundation, founded PULSE in 1994. Prior to that, Stahl-Wert worked as a director in the Discipleship Ministries Office of Eastern Mennonite Missions.



Stahl-Wert describes the three distinctive qualities of PULSE not found in Mennonite Voluntary Service programs and similar programs:

First, the seminar component—in which participants learn about the city, themselves and social issues during one afternoon per week.



Second, the placements at various non-profits in the city relate directly to the individual participants' interests and skill set. These placements include a diversity of work that includes art and radio.

"[PULSE] is more about the development of the participant than a to-do list we may have for Pittsburgh," says Stahl-Wert "When we [have a to-do list], we miss a palate of creativity. I used to say to PULSE applicants, 'Your service matters but I'm interested in what will come to your mind and who you will become over time.'"

Stahl-Wert says it appears that Mennonite Church USA is now thinking this way too about service and leadership development. "PULSE has been an encouragement to the church," he says.


The third distinctive is PULSE's local funding and local board that is in support of Mennonite Church USA. 

Stahl-Wert describes PULSE as "spiritually connected" to Mennonite Church USA, but organizationally independent. "Local control offers sustainability," he says.

Areas of growth

This 15 year anniversary provides a time to reflect on the past and plan for the future, as well as celebrate the overcoming of financial struggles PULSE faced about four years ago and to note PULSE's operational maturity, Wilson says.



Wilson says the board is considering a variety of growth areas: adding a new house with a similar program model, engaging a different population in a different program model and deep engagement with alumni and local supporters—all while staying true to PULSE's mission.



"We're coming at opportunities in the future with operational strength,' she says. "We're asking 'How can we pursue our mission even further?'"



Cooke says he hopes to see PULSE move into new areas of Pittsburgh as a mechanism for community and neighborhood development with a missional focus.

"Place matters," he says, "The neighborhoods that Kingdom-minded folks help cultivate can have a profound effect on our cities."

Stahl-Wert's original dreams for PULSE included the hope that the program could offer a mechanism for young people to think creatively and see possibilities around them in Pittsburgh. 



One example is the Union Project, an abandoned Baptist church just down the street from the PULSE house. In 2001 several PULSE participants and friends saw the potential of the church building. They acquired grants to renovate and run programs.

The Union Project continues to function as a community center, art studio, office space, place of worship and more. The founding board of directors in 2001 included: Jessica King, Heather Kropf, Chad Martin, Justin Rothshank, John Stahl-Wert and Milonica Stahl-Wert.



PULSE celebrated 15 years on April 17 at the Union Project in Pittsburgh, Pa.

According to Cooke, the event, PULSEations, raised over $5,000—double what the event raised last year. 

For more information, visit www.pulsepittsburgh.org

. To donate to PULSE, go to http://www.pulsepittsburgh.org/support.html.

Anna Groff is a board member of PULSE and assistant editor of The Mennonite.

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Additional Notes

Mission:
 PULSE cultivates a community of young servant leaders to transform Pittsburgh.

We Believe In:
-Engaging in the possibility of the city
-The transformative power of serving
-Celebrating the creative energy of young adults
-Building strong and enduring relationships
-The exploration and development of faith

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