by | Jan 18, 2021 6:29 pm | Comments (1)
MLK sponsors during Monday’s drop-off.
Maya McFadden Photo
Organizers of an annual indoors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day community teach-in took this year’s event across the street and outdoors Monday — with a lesson by example in community partnership.
Continue reading ‘Sororities’ MLK Day Event Moves Outdoors, Targets Needy Families’
by | Jan 14, 2021 2:21 pm | Comments (6)
When a new pot of $26 million pours into New Haven to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic and racial inequities, much of it will flow to grassroots emerging leaders of color who too often miss out on philanthropy.
So promised Community Foundation For Greater New Haven President Will Ginsberg.
Ginsberg made that promise Thursday morning during a joint appearance with board Chair Flemming Norcott Jr. on WNHH FM’s “Love Babz Love Talk” program.
Continue reading ‘$26M “Step Forward” Targets Covid, Equity’
by | Jan 6, 2021 10:19 am | Comments (0)
Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Southern Connecticut submitted the following release about a national grant it has received to help vulnerable youth.
Continue reading ‘$75K Headed Here To Help Vulnerable Youth’
by | Jan 5, 2021 2:37 pm | Comments (0)
Nine nonprofits are getting off the ground with the help of a new network founded by veteran community organizers in Newhallville.
by | Dec 2, 2020 2:38 pm | Comments (0)
Maya McFadden Photo
Food giveaway at Barnard last week, one of many in New Haven as hunger grows during the pandemic.
(Opinion) Imagine: You’ve just lost your job due to the pandemic, and now you don’t know how you will afford your next diaper run. Or, you can’t go to work or school, or partake in daily activities, simply because you can’t access the period or incontinence supplies you need.
Continue reading ‘Pandemic Puts Basic Health Needs Out Of Reach For Many Families’
by | Nov 20, 2020 11:42 am | Comments (19)
Sam Gurwitt Photo
Sign of the time: No longer, thanks to building sale.
Hundreds of hungry people have lost two sources of free meals — one permanently, one temporarily — as cold weather sets in, the holidays approach, and the Covid-19 pandemic resurges.
by | Nov 18, 2020 12:37 pm | Comments (4)
A presentation slide from Tuesday’s meeting depicts the various areas of support that the drop-off center will target.
When a new drop-off center for people transitioning out of prison comes to Wooster Square in January, the program will have some friendly faces — and even a few potential new collaborators — in the neighborhood.
Continue reading ‘Wooster Square Neighbors Welcome Planned Re-Entry Drop-Off Center’
by | Oct 16, 2020 12:53 pm | Comments (43)
Steve Hamm Photo
Steve Hamm Photo
“There’s a lot of us that are still out here. I’ve known people who fell asleep outside and died.”
Steve Hamm Photo
“Before you could walk into the library and stay there. You could look for jobs. You could look for food pantries. Without a phone, without internet access, it’s very difficult for people living in tents, living outdoors.”
Sizing up the challenge ahead — and how we as a community can meet it.
by | Oct 15, 2020 5:23 pm | Comments (8)
City of New Haven
You can’t throw a rock in New Haven without hitting a nonprofit organization, quipped one neighbor.
Yale-New Haven Hospital services are all over the place. And there already are mobile units out there from a range of state and local mental health services.
So why does the city need for yet a new agency, however worthy, especially when government budgets are so tight?
Continue reading ‘Non-Cop Crisis Team Pitched To West Siders’
by | Oct 15, 2020 2:07 pm | Comments (1)
RABHYA MEHROTRA
The meeting.
Twenty-one thousand people who work in Connecticut schools are looking for help navigating the social and emotional impacts of a pandemic — and are getting a hand from a new New Haven-based effort.
Continue reading ‘Educators Thrown Social-Emotional Pandemic Lifeline’
by | Oct 6, 2020 10:53 am | Comments (4)
Zoom
Monday’s virtual Board of Alders meeting.
The Board of Alders voted unanimously in support of transferring $100,000 in city funds towards paying for a planning study for a new social worker-centered mobile crisis response team.
Continue reading ‘Alders Transfer $100K For Crisis Team Study’
by | Sep 18, 2020 12:46 pm | Comments (6)
Paul Bass Photo
Covid killed Demelle Turner’s and Marquel Caesar’s chances of throwing touchdown passes this fall. Instead they found themselves throwing soil into garden beds — with a team devoted to preventing violence.
by | Sep 16, 2020 11:46 am | Comments (2)
Emily Hays Photo
The youngest remote learners at the Boys & Girls Club hum to themselves as they seek to concentrate on their Chromebooks.
The 6‑year-olds were singing, older students were on their phones and fifth-graders were tossing a mini basketball. Amid all that, Da’quay Jeffries was able to concentrate —better than at home.
by | Sep 16, 2020 10:26 am | Comments (27)
City of New Haven
The city’s pitch.
A new mobile crisis response team that would have social workers rather than cops respond to certain 911 calls won a vote of support, as committee alders unanimously endorsed transferring $100,000 in city funds towards paying for a planning study for the program.
by | Sep 15, 2020 12:25 pm | Comments (14)
DANIELA BRIGHENTI PHOTO
High-schoolers help prepare the Escape before work stopped.
The perennially-stalled and never-opened “Escape” youth homeless shelter lurched towards its formal demise at a city government hearing Monday night.
by | Sep 4, 2020 2:04 pm | Comments (8)
Paul Bass file photo
Police, firefighters, and paramedics response to 2018 K-2 poisonings on the Green.
A lead proponent of City Hall’s planned new social work-centered mobile crisis response team kicked off his citywide tour of the proposed program with a double-edged reassurance.
The initiative will neither be a magic bullet, nor an avenue to “defund the police.”
Continue reading ‘City Hall Pitches CMT On New Crisis Response Team’
by | Aug 11, 2020 6:59 pm | Comments (3)
Maya McFadden Photo
Bonita Grubbs.
Christian Community Action, Inc. (CCA) is partnering with the Housing Authority of New Haven to renovate 660 Winchester Ave. and revive its transitional housing and training and support program for homeless New Haven families.
by | Aug 11, 2020 6:43 pm | Comments (4)
Emily Hays Photo
State Department of Housing Commissioner Seila Mosquera-Bruno cuts the ribbon to the new Portsea Place.
The first renters have moved into a renovated blue-and-cream house in the Hill as part of a new approach to young-adult homelessness.
Continue reading ‘Ribbon Cut On Apartments For Homeless Young Adults’
by | Aug 2, 2020 4:53 pm | Comments (1)
Courtney Luciana photo
Halloway with Elicker at Martinez School food distribution event.
It was Yvonne Halloway’s first free-food pick-up. With hard times growing harder and with supplemental unemployment benefits expiring, she and others around her didn’t expect this visit to be their last.
Continue reading ‘As Vise Tightens, Food Giveways Provide Lifeline’
by | Jul 23, 2020 10:18 am | Comments (6)
Nora Grace-Flood Photo
Provider Tennille Smalls: “Just keep swimming!”
As centers close in droves nationwide, New Haven childcare providers are staying alive during the Covid-19 pandemic with a mixture of grit, commitment, government assistance — and hope for a new round of federal aid.
by | Jul 21, 2020 9:41 am | Comments (7)
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Chapel Haven residents honoring the organization’s recently-expanded name, the Chapel Haven Schleifer Center, in 2018.
A former employee of Chapel Haven was sentenced to 33 months in prison on Monday, after stealing at least $240,000 from both clients and the institution — and puncturing the school’s culture of “family” trust.
Continue reading ‘Ex-Chapel Haven Employee Sentenced To 33 Months For Stealing $240K’
by | Jul 20, 2020 11:54 am | Comments (2)
Nora Grace-Flood Photo
Selma Ward.
Before Selma N. Ward interviewed to become the new CEO of the Children’s Center of Hamden, she wrote a vision statement.
“My vision has always been to help kids build a foundation for their future success,” it read. “I don’t want to see anyone defined by their past experiences: everyone deserves guidance, support, and education.”
Continue reading ‘Hamden Children Center’s New CEO Looks To Build On Storied History’
by | Jul 3, 2020 5:46 pm | Comments (1)
Maya McFadden Photos
The Community Soup Kitchen served 237 visitors an Independence Day meal of grilled hotdogs, rice and beans, bread, and ice cream on Friday.
by | Jul 3, 2020 10:00 am | Comments (5)
IfeMichelle Gardin participating in Thursday evening’s forum.
What could a “village mentality” look like in New Haven?
Less white saviorism from nonprofits and college students swooping in to help, IfeMichelle Gardin posited. More community-generated programs rooted in neighbor-to-neighbor relationships.
by | Jun 30, 2020 6:34 pm | Comments (0)
Ko Lyn Cheang photo
Jose Merced at his salon: Hanging in for now.
Jose Merced watched customers disappear and the rent bills mount at La Isla Barbershop on Washington Avenue in the Hill. Now he’s hoping a pot of federal COVID-19 relief money headed toward New Haven will offer him some belated business-survival relief.