Milestones

The executive director has worked with hundreds of youth from the Hilltop and West Side Communities. Some of the organizations that have collaborated with CASS programmatically include Voices Against Violence, Every Child Living Creative Project, Warrington Recreation Center and Shadow Student Athletes Development Services Inc. The Youth Renaissance Project was developed as a result of these partnerships for the youth to elevate their creative skills to a professional level.

 

July 2015: CASS settled into its first “Brick and Mortar” location on Brownsville Road in the Mount Oliver area of Pittsburgh.

2015-2021: More than $90,000 in grants was secured from the Birmingham Foundation and The Emmons Bradley Foundation for demonstrating effective youth engagement with the CASS and YRP.

 

2015-2021: Student participants, under the guidance of the executive director, created several music albums and documentaries of program events.

Testimonials

Kalief – 19 years old, Pittsburgh, PA
Kalief is a young man who resides in Beltzhoover in a single parent home. He was first connected to Marquise in 2008 through the Voices Against Violence summer camp and they reconnected in 2014. Marquise was a volunteer with the program and became a mentor to Kalief and exposed him to various aspects of the music business.

 

“He (Marquise) basically showed me the ropes about the music industry, helped me develop a better vocabulary and helped to make me a better person overall,” Kalief said. “Most people my age are lost and not really on track. When I see some of my friends from high school, they are not on the same level as I am.”

 

When Kalief’s father was killed as a result of gun violence, he immersed himself in music to help him deal with the tragic loss. “It gave me more drive and helped me grow to be the man I am and do better than my father did in his time on this earth.” Kalief said a program like CASS is extremely important because many youth today are so focused on the street violence, drugs and are not productive.

 

Kalief went on to graduate from the Community College of Allegheny County and planned to attend the University of Pittsburgh to study mechanical engineering.

 

Anijah – 14 years old, Pittsburgh, PA
Anijah is a 14-year old girl who lived in a foster home in Mt. Washington. Prior to coming to the CASS program, she was introverted. Marquise gave the young people at the VAV summer camp several options to express themselves creatively. One of the exercises was listening to instrumental music and creating lyrics in response to the music.

 

Anijah began interacting with others and went to the recording sessions full of enthusiasm and creativity. She even participated in a talent show where both her birth and foster mothers attended.

 

Her birth mother expressed gratitude to the executive director for helping her daughter to blossom. Anijah was awarded a prize as the young person who experienced the most positive transformation during the summer camp.