SVA 35th Anniversary Booklet
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HISTORICAL RETROSPECT 1985 2020 35 Years of Saving Jobs Investing Responsibly and Rebuilding Sustainable Communities
In Dedication SVA recognizes its founding friends and board members who blazed the path for the work it continues to achieve today Robert Anderson William Bramer Raymond Braszo Lois Brown Kent Bucholz George Buckner Richard Caligiuri Raymond Christman Benjamin Foreman Richard Grace Steve Gribschaw Jay Hornack James Humanic Robert Karsnak Charles Martoni Charles McCollester John McGuire George McShane Tom Michlovic Dominico Millio Frank O Brien Dolores Patrick Peter Perla William Saunders John Stember Michael Stout Thomas Sullivan Richard Terrick John Trunzo Amedo Veri Jr Rudulph Wynn www reallygreatsite com
How Our Region Came Together Started as a small regional initiative SVA came to fruition in response to the loss of manufacturing jobs in Pittsburgh the Mon Valley and our entire region The mission was to retain and revitalize the regional economic base after suffering the most severe industrial dislocation in the United States Through the decades our multi municipality organization expanded to five offices across Pennsylvania and continues to provide no cost services to companies For 35 years the SVA and its programs have set new milestones and achieved pathbreaking successes www steelvalley org
1985 Receiving a 590 000 grant from the Duquesne Light Fund to analyze the feasibility of reopening the LTV Southside Works by building a new state of the art continuous castor the SVA was off and running The mid to late 1980 s allowed the SVA to work with the Thornburgh Administration and Pennsylvania Legislature to implement components of the Penn Pride Economic Revitalization program This included a 15 million fund to provide feasibility studies and financing for local employee groups to purchase factories that were threatened by a shut down Another 50 million program provided loans or grants to local economic development agencies to help a client in hand open a factory or other business by building a public facility roads rail siding water or sewer lines www steelvalley org
1989 SVA s signature program the Strategic Early Warning Network SEWN was initially funded by Mayor Sophie Masloff and the City of Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority Commissioner Tom Forester and the Allegheny County Department of Development test piloted the program in 1990 Our business intelligence system would prevent closures and turn around small manufacturing firms In the early 1990s SVA led the River Cities Coalition to help pass a number of critical pieces of legislation to assist our communities This included the Industrial Communities Site Program that provided millions of dollars for brownfield cleanups After managing a former military factory mill site cleanup with federal resources provided by Congressman Bill Coyne SVA turned over the Hays Amory to the City of Pittsburgh for 1 00 It was later converted to a successful manufacturing facility www steelvalley org 1991
1993 With assistance from Governor Bob Casey s GAT Regional Director Barbara McNees PA DCED Deputy Secretary David Washburn and PA DLI Labor Management Cooperation Program Director Alice Hoffman the Commonwealth provided the first state level funding to expand the SEWN program across 21 counties in Western Pennsylvania SVA produced the first study on the importance of providing ownership succession strategies including ESOP buyouts to familyowned firms as part of estate planning and ownership transitions Our partners at the University of Pittsburgh SBDC would later establish a program for this purpose 1995 In collaboration with Steelworkers Secretary Treasurer Leo Gerard the AFL CIO Industrial Union Department and the AFL CIO Housing Investment Trust SVA cofounded the Heartland Labor Capital Network Our kick off event was a North American economic investment and revitalization conference held in June 1996 Keynote speakers included Texas populist Jim Hightower and current AFL CIO President Richard Trumka Heartland continues to promote practical jobs oriented responsible investment strategies www steelvalley org
2000 In the late 1990s and early 2000s SVA created and spun off the Mon Valley Regional Development Fund This project administered the first brownfields inventory in Allegheny County for cleaning up abandoned mill and industrial sites 2001 The first Heartland Network book Working Capital was published by Cornell University Press This tome promoted new stakeholder pension investment models that value long term investments in small and medium sized businesses The working papers for the book were commissioned by the Ford Rockefeller Mott and McKay Foundations They were presented at the 2nd International Heartland conference in Washington DC Keynote presenters were the late Senator Paul Wellstone former Congressman David Bonior above left and then USW International President Leo Gerard above right www steelvalley org
2003 On recommendations from the PA Department of Labor Industry the SVA was commissioned to author the United States Department of Labor Layoff Aversion Guide This was touted as a national tool kit for job retention and layoff aversion strategies SVA later implemented the Layoff Aversion Training and Technical Expertise LATTE project to assist other states in the development of early warning and layoff strategies SVA also co authored the Next Generation Manufacturing Policy This was a set of policy proposals that guided the Rendell Administration in strengthening banking economic and workforce supports for manufacturing and other Pennsylvania industries 2005 After strong support from the Casey and Ridge Administrations the Rendell Administration grew our job saving SEWN program to cover 49 counties in the Commonwealth This extended our reach to Central Pennsylvania communities and included the opening of our capitol office in Harrisburg www steelvalley org
2006 Our Heartland Network worked with Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard to convene an all day regional roundtable This meeting focused on revitalizing the economy and urban centers of Pittsburgh and southwestern Pennsylvania Joining our distinguished speakers was Winston Hickox portfolio manager for environmental initiatives at CalPERS California Public Employees Retirement Trust the largest pension trust in the world 2007 SVA led the formation of a statesponsored multi agency Pennsylvania Auto Project in anticipation of the potential bankruptcy and crash of the Big Three This coalition provided outreach to manufacturing and related firms in the auto supply chain Governor Ed Rendell sent a letter to 500 auto related company owners in the Commonwealth to help companies avoid layoffs assist dislocated workers and expand into diversified markets www steelvalley org
2009 Commissioned by a 50 000 award from the Heinz Endowments the Heartland Network produced its second book Up From Wall Street The Responsible Investment Alternative The endowments went on to assist in the formation of Heartland Capital Strategies HCS an initiative to build an international responsible investment center In the same year SVA was asked by the Commonwealth to launch the Pennsylvania Center for Advanced Manufacturing Careers Commissioned by the PA DLI in collaboration with WIB DCED and the Dept of Education the center produced cutting edge publications to direct state policy in addressing manufacturing skills gaps 2010 SVA opened our 3rd office in Wilkes Barre and had provided statewide assistance to over 700 manufacturing firms saving over 16 000 jobs Two years after SVA provided layoff aversion training the State of New York launched their layoff aversion program NY ASSET to address the financial market crash impact on four economic sectors saving over 1 000 jobs in its first year SVA led the formation of the National Call to Action NCTA to Retain Restore and Create Jobs initially sponsored by the US Department of Labor The NCTA included national corporations such as GM and Ford The group had a strong focus on rebuilding the manufacturing sector revitalizing domestic production and spurring new green job industries www steelvalley org
2011 With DLI Corbett Administration sponsorship the SVA opened its fourth office in Southeast PA This collaboration with the Bucks County WIB expanded SEWN services to 67 counties Heinz Endowments awarded SVA 250 000 to lead a project to develop green cooperative laundry and potential worker owned forms The initial grant was conceived under a new partnership in Pittsburgh SVA completed four rounds of Community Revitalization Grants to projects in SVA member communities with assistance from Senator Jay Costa and Representative Marc Gergely Heartland Capital Strategies launched a series of Responsible Investment RoadShows in Atlanta Los Angeles Detroit Philadelphia Chicago and Washington DC The meetings brought together economic impact investment leaders to help cities and industries recover from the 2008 financial markets crisis and Great Recession www steelvalley org 2012
2013 The SEWN program celebrated it s 20th Anniversary celebrating its accomplishment of saving over 19 000 manufacturing jobs in 900 firms This was done at a cost of around 1 000 per job saved making it the most successful state sponsored layoff aversion program in the country Our LATTE training program had traveled to Wisconsin Virginia Nevada Michigan Tennessee and Ohio Heartland held City Capital Roundtables in Pittsburgh and Boston to further develop collaborative planning programs with mayors and elected leaders The sessions included educational components around the importance of responsible investing SVA succeeded in developing new partnerships amongst the NCTA NortheastMidwest Institute and bi partisan Congressional Caucus representing 18 states This collaboration won new language in the federal Workforce Investment Opportunity Act WIOA that now requires states to establish layoff aversion programs Heartland was commissioned by the AFL CIO and supporting sponsors to author the Responsible Investor Handbook Our guide illustrates how the investment of workers capital assets can be targeted to generate specific ESG benefits The Thursday Expresso newsletter was launched to over 1 000 subscribers www steelvalley org 2014
2015 The PA Department of Labor Industry committed to increasing the SEWN layoff aversion program budget to a record 1 5 million This increase brought the opening of our fifth SEWN office in Erie Heartland completed the first draft of our responsible investor guidebook and acquired a contract with Greenleaf Publishing UK The book was marketed as the 5th book in their popular responsible investment series The SEWN program closed out the 2015 16 program year with a record setting number of jobs saved 1577 It also did so at one of its lowest cost effectiveness levels yet 863 per job saved SVA s LATTE program presented a training session on layoff aversion in Georgia with future presentations scheduled for North Carolina Colorado and Ohio The Responsible Investor Handbook launched with assistance from Heartland staff sponsors and the publisher Copies have landed in the hands of capital stewards legislators and numerous key members of the responsible investing community www steelvalley org 2016
2017 SVA received continued support and renewal funding from the PA Department of Labor Industry for our SEWN program Program year 2017 ended on an even higher note with 1820 jobs saved Our Regional Directors have been working to establish Manufacturing Alliances on both sides of the state to further assist business owners with solving pain points in their company The initial meetings have brought together more than 50 manufacturers Based on both our SEWN work and that of Heartland we were invited to collaborate with The Century Foundation a progressive think tank from New York on a High Wage America project to rebuild Heartland cities This has taken us into Heartland towns to assess human and physical capital gaps Heartland also established the Labor Capital Strategies Fellowship in collaboration with Georgetown University s Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor the Working Poor The first year brought seven candidates from various universities www steelvalley org
The High Wage America project continued with events in Cleveland and Chicago It culminated in September with an event in Washington DC featuring former Vice President Joe Biden Executive Director Tom Croft coauthored the introduction paper on this project with SEWN being featured as a best practice in layoff aversion The Manufacturing Alliance in Bucks Montgomery County hosted a conference with participation from over 600 manufacturing companies SEWN ended the year saving 1477 jobs at a cost of less than 1 000 per job saved The Heartland Fellowship grew in both the number of students and hosts Fellows participated in their assignment with responsible investment partners as well as Brown Bag Lunches and workshops with some of the most prestigious organizations in the country including Amalgamated Bank www steelvalley org 2018
2019 In 2019 SVA updated and relaunched their Layoff Aversion Playbook to further amplify the work of the SEWN program The program year ended with saving 1 491 jobs and saving the Commonwealth more than 47 million in Unemployment Compensation dollars Our Labor Capital Strategies Fellowship continued to prosper with it s largest class yet who traveled from universities across the nation to work with partners up and down the East Coast SVA hosted a Steel Cities Capital Roundtable event bringing together Heartland affiliated investors elected leaders and capital stewards from banks developers labor industry and the community Commissioned by PNC Bank and cosponsored by the AFL CIO HIT and PRI the event attracted more than 80 participating organizations with a keynote from Pennsylvania State Treasurer Joseph Torsella The event identified several opportunities and challenges in moving forward a sustainable investment strategy for Pittsburgh and the surrounding regions www steelvalley org
The Next Decade and Beyond The Steel Valley Authority is taking this Emerald Anniversary to celebrate our heritage and plan for our next 35 beyond Given the pandemic of 2020 and unrest within our country the work of our SEWN and Heartland programs is needed more than ever We will continue to give voice to the underdog save jobs and companies to keep our Pennsylvania communities prospering and work to provide our state and country with a more sustainable planet Support the work of the SVA by giving of your time talent or treasure by Serving as a member on one of our Advisory Boards Spreading the word about our work to your networks and communities Donating to our Saving Jobs Fund to support our services for companies who need it www steelvalley org
