The Steel Valley Authority is an inter-municipal economic development agency incorporated by the City of Pittsburgh and eleven riverfront municipalities all within the Mon River region. Over the past 24 years the SVA has earned a reputation of significant accomplishments in economic revitalization and pioneered the Strategic Early Warning Network (SEWN) in Pennsylvania gaining incomparable expertise in business and manufacturing investment, retention and development.
The SVA was founded in 1986 to retain and revitalize the region's economic base, focused on saving and building "high road" companies and jobs.
The Steel Valley Authority's three areas of focus are jobs, community, and capital.
Jobs-The SVA has been managing industrial retention for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The Authority, through the Strategic Early Warning Network, has made significant contributions to the retention and revival of industrial enterprises, saving or creating nearly 8,000 jobs, and impacting many more workers and communities indirectly. The SEWN Network has saved companies from Pittsburgh to Erie to Altoona, and has become a model state and nation-wide.
Community-The SVA has also been responsible for a number of significant community development and redevelopment projects in its member communities, including the successful conversion of a 200,000 square-foot armory to City ownership, resulting in a new manufacturing facility. The SVA also created the first Brownfields inventory in Allegheny County, and created and spun-off the "Mon Valley Regional Development Fund," potentially leveraging millions of dollars for neighborhood reinvestment
Capital-The SVA has been managing an impressive national investment project called the Heartland Labor Capital Network. A major success of the project has been to promote new national venture capital funds, financed by labor-management and public pension funds. These "Heartland" funds will invest in small and medium sized businesses, and help revitalize manufacturing and related industries in industrial cities. The Network has also commissioned a book called "Working Capital" and launched a web site, www.heartlandnetwork.org.
The SVA Board of Directors is comprised of up to three citizen delegates from each member municipality, and has been providing leadership from a broad cross-section of the community, from retired and active union leaders to small business owners to local community volunteers. The Board is organized into the executive, personnel, technical review, and program committees. The SVA staff includes the executive director, manufacturing director, finance specialist, financial coordinator, administrative assistant, and trusted consultants. The board and staff work closely together.
The Steel Valley Authority is affiliated with the Regional Jobs Corporation and the Pittsburgh Heartland Fund.
- The Regional Jobs Corporation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation established in 1992 for the purposes of promoting community and economic development, job retention and business growth for Pennsylvania, and, as a shareholder in our local investment fund, will weigh in on future investment and economic policies for the region. The distinguished multi-sector Board of Directors of the SVA/RJC has already helped to steward hundreds of thousands of dollars of small grants to a number of social and community development activities in the Mon Valley-Pittsburgh area.
- The Pittsburgh Regional Heartland Fund will be a unique community development financial institution which would invest capital in Western Pennsylvania firms. It will target small and medium sized manufacturing businesses and support local and employee ownership and "high performance" business practices.
