From the Annual Summit to Year-Round Impact: TPS Advances Youth Leadership

The Pittsburgh Study (TPS) remains deeply committed to advancing child thriving through partnerships with schools, organizations, and institutions across the region. A key strategy for this work is the annual Youth Thriving Summit, which offers young people meaningful opportunities to engage, connect, and lead.

We are grateful for the generous support from the event sponsors and their generosity which made year’s Summit possible. Thank you! The Heinz Endowments, AE Foundation, UPMC, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, The Hear Foundation, Jewish Healthcare Foundation, Sheila Reicher Fine Foundation

The annual Youth Thriving Summit is a cornerstone of our broader effort to build shared curriculum and resources that support youth advocacy and regional initiative. With an equity-first approach, TPS aims to amplify youth voices, foster leadership, and connect young people with experiences that build confidence and community impact.

By connecting with other teen leadership initiatives across the region, we are reimagining how youth collaborate and lead— scaffolding brave spaces for young people from urban, suburban, and rural areas to unite, share, and grow. This ongoing effort is cultivating a vibrant network of youth leaders who remain active throughout the year via linked events and programs.

Looking ahead, recruitment for the 2026 Youth Planning Committee is expected to launch this fall and will meet weekly online to help shape the 4th Annual Youth Thriving Summit.

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The Pittsburgh Study (TPS) is a collective impact initiative.  We collaborate across systems and disciplines, convening a variety of partners, organizations, and individuals to collectively promote child thriving and racial equity in our region.

TPS is not just one study. We’re made-up of multiple large and small research-informed, co-created interventions that span from pregnancy to adolescence to school-based and community-level programs.

The Pittsburgh Study is unique because we invite neighbors to be part of doing science together as Citizen Scientists.  We encourage deep involvement in all aspects of the science by serving as community co-leads and members of our scientific committees. We are committed to returning data to the people and communities who help to produce knowledge and to ensure that data are translated to action. We conduct research WITH community (not traditional approaches to research that has been done “to” or “on” communities).

We believe that community members are experts. Strengths, assets, resources, and wisdom are ever present in our neighborhoods and communities. We center community voices and expertise, and together, uplift innovative practices and local solutions.

We are accountable to research practices that promote reciprocity. We aim for equitable benefits for participants, our community, and academic scientists. We are accountable for shifting standards of equity within our networks of institutional partners. We are accountable to young people and their families. We seek to develop, model, and translate programs and practices which are anti-racist, healing-centered, and trauma-sensitive. In a word, we build toward a humanized Pittsburgh and Allegheny County.

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