Pennsylvania nonprofit corporation
Community Access Project builds software that surfaces two things people miss: public assistance they already qualify for, and community events nearby.
Neighborhoods covered — Pittsburgh
A large number of people who qualify for these programs never apply, because nobody told them they could.
We maintain a directory of public assistance programs open to people in Pittsburgh. Each entry explains who generally qualifies, names the specific thing that most often stops people from applying, and links directly to the agency that decides.
We decide nothing and we sign nobody up. Every link goes to the government agency or nonprofit that administers the program.
SNAP · WIC · Food pantries · COMPASS
LIHEAP · Dollar Energy Fund · Duquesne Light payment help · Lifeline
Working Pennsylvanians Tax Credit · Property Tax/Rent Rebate · Free tax filing in Pittsburgh · Free tax help, year-round
Medicaid · CHIP
Child Care Works · Free school breakfast
Allegheny Link
Free legal help
Reduced bus fare
Call 211 · Allegheny Connect
More come as they are found.
A neighborhood bulletin board, not a social network.
Our first project is a free iPhone app for Pittsburgh, coming soon. It gathers public events automatically from the published calendars of libraries, museums, parks, community groups and small venues — nobody has to sign up for their events to appear — and organizes everything by neighborhood. The app opens on the one you live in.
Everything in it is something happening — a time, a place, a thing to go to. You can post your own, to your friends, to a group, or to the whole city.
The benefits directory lives inside it, on its own screen.
If you run a library branch, a community group, a park program or a small venue, we will list your events.
Community Access Project is a nonprofit corporation organized under the laws of Pennsylvania. The software is free. Pages for public institutions — libraries, parks, public universities — are permanently unclaimable, on the principle that civic space belongs to nobody.
Write to us to be listed, or corrected.