After serving Allegheny River communities for more than a decade, the Millvale location of North Hills Community Outreach has outgrown its North Avenue home and is looking to stretch out into bigger digs--and looking to the same community it has served for so long for a little help along the way.

Founded in 1997 after the previous year's flooding left numerous North Hills families in need of assistance, the agency helps families throughout the North suburbs who have suffered through loss of employment, natural disasters, the death of a breadwinner, or other traumatic circumstances. It provides transportation, emergency shelter, food, counseling and support to people in need.

The agency has four locations with headquarters in Hampton. The Millvale satellite has been particularly important because it is well positioned to serve the Allegheny Valley communities of Etna, Sharpsburg, Aspinwall and Millvale, which were heavily damaged in last year's flooding.

Now, after that same flooding made the organization postpone expansion efforts, the Outreach is ready to enlarge it's Millvale operation and eliminate some of the shortcomings of its present location.

"It doesn't have good handicapped accessibility and it doesn't have private spaces where we can talk with clients," said Fay Morgan, executive director. "We've actually had to pass on many opportunities to add programming because we lacked the space even for people to sit down."

Even in the best of times, the North Avenue facility was undersized, but during the height of last year's flood recovery, the extra manpower had volunteers and staff doubled up in their cubicles.

The organization has teamed up with Millvale to use the borough's community center. The new Millvale satellite will be housed in an expanded second floor of the center that will provide 2,000 more square feet of space than the North Avenue site as well as rental spaces for other non-profit organizations.

In exchange for spearheading the $2.6 million fundraising effort to renovate the second floor, the Outreach will be able to lease the Community Center site from the borough for $1 per year for 33 years..

"This helps us be strong and have the funds we need, so it's not our rent we're paying for if someone is evicted and needs help," said Ms. Morgan.

The agency has managed to raise $950,000 so far, and in addition to traditional donations and a commemorative brick sidewalk campaign, it is seeking in-kind donations from the business community.

"We need windows, we need carpeting, we need ceiling tiles, lighting fixtures, drywall," said Ms. Morgan.

"We need all these things donated because we don't have all the money ... we would have been close to half way, but with the devastation in the South, the cost of building materials and professionals is going to be going up."

In addition to Katrina-related inflation, the agency also faces a tight deadline. They hope to begin construction sometime this month and move into its new home by next fall.

After conducting a survey, Ms. Morgan said North Hills Community Outreach hopes to add services the community showed an interest in, including senior services, the county's Womens Infants and Childrens supplemental nutrition program, called WIC and children's programming.