Operation Better Block

In the wake of social disturbances which rocked American inner-city communities in the late 1960's, Homewood-Brushton residents created Forever Action Together, Inc. (FAT) to stimulate the political, educational, social, and economic life of the community. In 1969 the Housing Committee of FAT, inspired by an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that detailed a summer youth program in New York that encouraged self-help to overcome neighborhood blight and deterioration, traveled to New York and returned with a modified program model.

With initial funds provided by the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, the Program to Aid Citizen Enterprise (PACE), foundations, local businesses and corporations, Operation Better Block, Inc. (OBB) was established in 1970 and incorporated in 1971 to promote the revitalization of Homewood and to restore it to its former vitality. Early on, OBB focused exclusively on community organization, an approach predicated on the belief that the problems of physical development, economic development and cultural development could be best enhanced by working with the individual residential blocks that comprised the neighborhood. Implicit in this approach was the recognition that community development must be a bottom-up process; that residents assume the primary role in formulating community development goals and objectives consistent with their perception of neighborhood needs.

In 2010, OBB expanded its core services from one to five. In addition to community organizing, OBB began providing services that focus on outreach, safety, youth development, and community development ( real estate development). The decision to provide services in these areas is a direct result of OBB’s “1,000 Conversations” campaign, in which staff listened to the concerns and priorities of over 1,000 Homewood residents, information from evaluations of over 1,500 properties conducted by the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work.