Southworth has lived in Millvale for close to a decade, and earlier this fall he became the operations manager for the Millvale Community Development Corporation (MCDC), the organization's first employee in 25 years.
If you’re a regular attendee of Millvale Days, the annual two-day event that takes over the borough in early to mid September, you may have run into Trevor Southworth around the KSWA wrestling ring.
“I love that we have open streets wrestling. That’s definitely a highlight of the year.”
Southworth has lived in Millvale for close to a decade, and earlier this fall he became the operations manager for the Millvale Community Development Corporation (MCDC), the organization's first employee in 25 years.
Up until this year, it’s been completely run by volunteers.
“This is a big capacity increase for the MCDC. In general, I see this position as supporting the projects that are already happening, being a point person for people in the community on how to get involved,” Southworth said.
Originally from North Hills, he studied accounting at Temple University’s Fox School of Business. He said his keen interest in organizational efficiency and business processes led him to work with small businesses after he graduated and returned to the Pittsburgh region.
Prior to joining the MCDC, Southworth held an operations manager position with a local theater and helped them establish operational procedures. He said the experience gave him “confidence” in creating systems from scratch.
“I don’t know standard procedure in a corporate setting, but whatever I’m working with I can figure it out, and that definitely seems like the vibe of the MCDC,” Southworth said. “I appreciate the resourcefulness. It’s been a really well run organization.”
In alignment with the Triboro’s Ecodistrict initiatives and a general focus on food security after the disruptive arrival of COVID-19, the MCDC will bring on another full-time employee in the coming year to address food system resilience throughout Millvale, Sharpsburg and Etna. This position focuses efforts on an important issue that affects residents on a daily basis. Southworth says he is excited to have his capacity-building work support such vital programming in our area.
In the warmer months, Southworth said his favorite place in Millvale is the community gardens and that’s where he’s been most active in the community up until this point, but he’s looking forward to digging into the bookkeeping and paperwork at the MCDC so the volunteers can focus on “the fun stuff.”
“If anyone has a dot that they want connected, I’m a good place to start and I’m happy to try and figure things out.”
Want to get involved with the MCDC? Email Trevor at trevor@millvalecdc.org. Committees include: Bike/Pedestrian Committee, Gardens of Millvale, Millvale Music Festival, Pride Millvale, Rivertown Kidz, Business Association of Millvale (BAM), Property Development, Triboro Ecodistrict and Be Our Neighbor.