Thomas Breen File Photo
794 Dixwell Ave.
The leaky roof of 794 Dixwell Ave. will soon get fixed, with the help of $300,000 from the city, in time for a new all-boys charter school to open there in the fall.
At a meeting in the aldermanic chamber on the second floor of City Hall on Monday night, the Board of Alders voted to grant local children’s mental health provider Clifford Beers Community Care Center $300,000 from the city’s general fund to make roof repairs to a vacant former school building at 794 Dixwell Ave.
Clifford Beers purchased the building in March from the APT Foundation, a healthcare provider specializing in addiction treatment. The APT Foundation had initially planned to revive the abandoned school building as a health center featuring a methadone clinic. But after acquiring the building in 2021, APT faced fierce pushback from Newhallvile neighbors who lambasted the organization’s lack of community engagement prior to purchasing the building and feared that an addiction treatment center could worsen drug dealing in the area.
Now, Clifford Beers is planning to renovate the massive brick building by the Newhallville-Hamden border to house some of its own operations, including proposed preschool, after school, and mental health programming.
The organization is also slated to rent part of the building to a forthcoming charter school started by Rev. Boise Kimber, who leads Newhallville’s First Calvary Baptist Church and the Connecticut State Missionary Baptist Conference.
The charter school, Edmonds Cofield Preparatory Academy for Young Men, will be open to 75 fifth grade boys starting this fall.
During a May 15 City Plan Commission meeting, city Deputy Economic Development Administrator Carlos Eyzaguirre said that this $300,000 constitutes a “matching grant” alongside whatever additional funds Clifford Beers may receive from the state’s Community Investment Fund (CIF) for the rehabilitation of 794 Dixwell Ave.
While Clifford Beers ultimately plans on building “the first trauma-informed community wellness education center” at this site, he said, this $300,000 will allow the organization to “quickly fix the roof of the building” so that they can “at least co-locate the charter school by the fall.”
“I’m very excited that this is happening,” said Newhallville Alder Brittiany Mabery-Niblack, whose ward includes 794 Dixwell Ave., after the meeting. “I know it’s going to be a great investment in our kids.”
On top of that $300,000 grant, alders also voted on Monday evening to approve a separate $250,000 two-year contract with Clifford Beers to coordinate the city’s Victim Services Support Network. Selected through a Request For Proposal process, Clifford Beers will provide case management and support services to victims of violent crimes.