The Blueprint InitiativeNavigating today.
Building tomorrow.
The Blueprint Initiative helps young people in Pittsburgh build the literacy, confidence, and readiness to reach college, trade school, and meaningful careers.
We prepare young people for what comes next.
The Blueprint Initiative is a Pittsburgh nonprofit providing education enrichment, support services, and college and trade-school readiness, meeting students where they are and walking with them toward their goals.
Education enrichment
Literacy, learning, and identity-building experiences that help students grow beyond the classroom.
College & career readiness
Hands-on guidance through applications, financial aid, trades, resumes, and interviews.
Support services
Mentorship and wraparound support that keep students moving forward through obstacles.
Opportunity shouldn't depend on a ZIP code.
We serve students in under-resourced Pittsburgh communities: young people whose talent is real but whose access to enrichment, mentorship, and a clear path forward is limited by circumstance.
When students lose ground over the summer or leave high school without a plan, the gap follows them for years. We work to close it early, so every young person can navigate today and build the future they choose.
Half of Pennsylvania students grades 3–8 read at grade level.
In 2024–25, just 49.9% of Pennsylvania students scored proficient in reading on the state PSSA exams, and the gap is widest for students who are economically disadvantaged, the very young people we serve.
Source: PA Department of Education, 2024–25 PSSA results
It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.
Those words from Frederick Douglass are where The Blueprint Initiative begins. Our founder, Ty-Juan Robert Salley, spent his career in workforce development sitting across from justice-impacted men and women who were brilliant, resilient, and full of potential, and thinking the same thing every time: if someone had shown up for them when they were young, their story would be different.
He saw the pattern everywhere. Children who struggled to read. Teenagers who fell further behind every summer while their peers moved forward. Talented young people watching the industries of the future from the outside, with no map and no invitation in. Not because they lacked ability, but because the systems around them were never built for them.
He also served as a CDF Freedom School Servant Leader in Pittsburgh, standing in the Harambee circle every morning, pouring into scholars who needed someone to believe in them before they believed in themselves. Several of our founding board members stood in that same circle. Years later, as professionals, they reunited to build something permanent. The Blueprint Initiative is not a program. It is a promise.
The Blueprint Initiative empowers K–12 students to graduate ready, rooted, and determined, equipping them with academic enrichment, summer learning, technology exposure, and college and trade-school readiness tools to design lives of purpose and possibility.
A future where the opportunity gap is closed, and every student, from every neighborhood and every background, has equal access to the enrichment, guidance, and resources that make the difference between a life that is survived and a life that is designed.
Equity
We meet every student where they are, removing barriers so each has a genuine chance to succeed.
Empowerment
Students are not problems to be solved. They are leaders in the making.
Excellence
We hold high expectations because we believe in high potential.
Resilience
We build the grit and adaptability to rise, because the path forward is rarely straight.
Opportunity
We open doors, build bridges, and create pathways that may not have existed before.
Purpose
We act with intention and serve with conviction, never losing sight of why we exist.
One path, from grade school to graduation.
Our programs are built to grow with a young person. A scholar can begin with us in elementary school and stay connected all the way into college and career. Three programs, one continuous relationship.
A free, eight-week summer program for K–8 scholars, licensed by the Children's Defense Fund. Mornings follow the CDF Integrated Reading Curriculum, daily Harambee, and social action. Afternoons are our Blueprint Innovation Hour: age-grouped technology enrichment from Digital Explorers (K–2) to Tech Trailblazers (6–8), plus swimming, yoga, chess, and Friday field trips. Meals included, at no cost to families.
Future-focused life readiness for any Pittsburgh high schooler, no application required. Town-hall style monthly sessions rotate through five pillars: Career Intelligence, Financial Power, Professional Identity, Technology Fluency, and Civic Leadership. Every student builds a personalized Next Chapter Plan that maps their pathway from senior year through age 25.
An intensive, year-long cohort for high school students ready to invest in themselves. Each scholar starts with a personalized Academic Blueprint, then builds through weekly group sessions, one-on-one mentorship, college and trade-school readiness, and a growing network of professionals. The year culminates in the Blueprint Scholar Showcase, where scholars present their growth and post-graduation plans to the community.
There's a way for everyone to help.
Give, lend your time, partner as a business, or simply spread the word. Every bit moves a young person forward.
Become a sustainer
Reliable support that lets us plan year-round.
Sponsor a scholar's place
Covers one child's Freedom School program fee.
Fund a child's summer
A scholar's full summer of books, meals, and caring staff.
A board built for this work.
Founding leadership spanning education, law, counseling, and workforce development.
Ty-Juan Salley
Tyree M. Sloan
Cydney Haines
Kayla Edwards-Scott
Christina Kenney
Kufere Laing
Help a young person build tomorrow.
Your support puts books, mentors, and opportunity in the hands of a student who's counting on it.