Pittsburghers and elected officials gathered June 12 to break ground on a new inclusion center for the city’s autistic and disabled community. Evolve Coaching, which provides specialized job and coaching services to neurodiverse adults, will create a state-of-the-art accessible building in Garfield. Slated to open in 2026, the Evolve Coaching Inclusion Center at 5025 Penn Ave. will offer meeting and event spaces, an independent living training floor, a media center, and a public art gallery.
City, county, and state representatives attended the groundbreaking including Pa. Sen. Lindsey Williams and Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato. Pa. Reps. La’Tasha D. Mayes, Abigail Salisbury, and Dan Miller also voiced their support.
“In Allegheny County, we are working every day to create communities where opportunity is not just a concept, but a lived experience,” a post from Innamorato reads. “The Evolve Coaching Inclusion Center will bring that vision to life.”
Evolve Coaching was co-founded in 2014 by former therapists Joe Farrell and Heather Conroy — Pittsburgh City Paper’s Person of the Year in Business in 2023 — with a mission to help Pittsburgh become “autism’s most livable city.” After supporting more than 700 clients and growing yearly, the Inclusion Center, the organization says, “represents the next physical manifestation of Evolve’s big vision,” and will expand services for its base of neurodiverse college students, job seekers, and artists.
Evolve also envisions the Center adding to the already-thriving arts scene in Garfield and will participate in the monthly Unblurred gallery crawl on Penn Ave.
Conroy tells City Paper she first toured the Center’s future building — formerly the television repair shop Carl’s TV & Electronics — in winter 2021. (Pittsburghers might recognize the Carl’s ghost sign, still visible on Penn Ave., which will be updated with the Evolve logo in its signature purple.)
Officially breaking ground after four years has been “a journey, but everyone’s been really supportive,” Conroy says, crediting $1.5 million awarded through Pennsylvania’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) for making the large-scale renovation project possible.
Until the move into the building, Evolve has operated out of co-working spaces, where Conroy says the organization is “bursting at the seams,” and it’s sometimes difficult to provide privacy and create an optimal sensory experience for clients.
“Our community is really ready,” Conroy says. “It’s time to have our own space and to control what happens in that space.”
The three-story Inclusion Center will emphasize transparency and accessibility and undergo a top-to-bottom remodel that includes adding an elevator. A first-floor art gallery will feature artists’ work through glass accordion doors, a patio in back, and an accessible parking spot.
The building’s lower level will house a media center and podcast studio, with post-production opportunities to edit accessible features like captions and audio descriptions. Evolve’s offices will move to the second floor, with more meeting space for clients and inclusion trainings.
A former third-floor apartment will be renovated into an independent living training space equipped with a galley kitchen, laundry, and a pull-down bed that allows young adults to prepare for transitions to work, school, and independent living.
Conroy says there’s still room to “get messy” during construction and the organization is also exploring creating space for screen printing on the gallery level, along with possible decompression spaces or a lactation room. Evolve is hoping to raise an additional $1 million while the project is underway.
Conroy believes realizing the Inclusion Center is a result of Evolve “following the mission” and listening to clients to fill service gaps for autistic adults.
“That transition age, youth and adults, isn’t often the focus when you think about autism,” she tells CP. “I think because it’s our one focus, we’re really excellent at the work we do [with] arts, counseling, coaching people to get through school, and to find and keep jobs. That all came about because of just wanting to respond to our community’s needs.”
Correction: This article has been updated to distinguish between local elected officials who appeared in person vs. those supported via public statements.
This article appears in Jun 18-24, 2025.
