Thomas Breen photo
ConnCAT President and CEO Erik Clemons.
A Science Park-based job training and education center has launched a new Covid-19 relief fund geared towards raising $600,000 to provide direct financial assistance to Dixwell and Newhallville families struggling during the pandemic.
The Connecticut Center for Arts and Technology (ConnCAT) announced the launch of their new Crisis Relief Fund in a Monday email press release.
The release states that ConnCAT has committed to raising $100,000 a month for the next six months, and that it has partnered with the Dixwell and Newhallville Community Management Teams along with Elm City Communities, the city’s housing authority, to distribute those funds via debit cards directly to neighborhood residents who are out of work.
The release also states that ConnCAT has already raised over $100,000 towards that goal, thanks in part to a $50,000 donation from Yale University.
“Given the crisis in which we find ourselves, we have a moral obligation to give hope to the people we serve,” ConnCAT President & CEO Erik Clemons is quoted as saying in the release. “That’s why we’re committed to proclaim the power of justice through service and, through a concerted effort, exact the wrongs of poverty.”
Click here to read more about the new fund.
See below for the full press release.
New Haven, CT (April 20, 2020) – The Connecticut Center for Arts and Technology (ConnCAT), today announced the launch of its Crisis Relief Fund to support families in the Dixwell and Newhallville communities with direct financial assistance during the COVID-19 crisis. With the support of major donors, local agencies and organizations, ConnCAT has committed to raising $100,000 a month for the next six months, for a total of $600,000. These funds are slated to support New Haven’s most vulnerable families with securing their most basic needs – food, medication, rent, utilities, transportation – through the summer.
In its first week, ConnCAT’s Crisis Relief Fund has raised over $100,000 towards its goal through support from a $50k gift from Yale University, $10k from The William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund, $25k from Craig Crews and Katherine McKenzie via their family fund at Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, $15K from Seedlings Foundation, and other donors and organizations. Elm City Market also has committed to donating non-perishable foods and setting up a Crisis Relief Fund donation request at the point of checkout. To establish the number of households in need, ConnCAT has partnered with the Dixwell and Newhallville Management Team Leaders, and Elm City Communities, the Housing Authority of New Haven, who will support the distribution of the funds via debit cards directly to those most impacted by the pandemic through a loss of work. In addition, ConnCAT will survey its own students through their adult and youth programming to find families in need.
“Given the crisis in which we find ourselves, we have a moral obligation to give hope to the people we serve,” ConnCAT President & CEO Erik Clemons said in a letter to donors last week. “That’s why we’re committed to proclaim the power of justice through service and, through a concerted effort, exact the wrongs of poverty.”
“The McKenzie Crews family is proud to support the mission of ConnCAT during these difficult times,” McKenzie said. “ConnCAT is an outstanding organization that contributes in countless ways to support the people of this community that we love.”
“In these unprecedented times, the stark economic disparities in our community are apparent,” said Karen DuBois-Walton, Ph.D., President of Elm City Communities. “We eagerly partner with ConnCAT to disseminate the funds raised to families who may benefit in the Dixwell and Newhallville communities. We’ve identified hundreds of families who receive affordable housing services and who are in need and on our waiting lists who may benefit from the funds raised by generous donors and are poised to quickly disseminate these funds.”
“We know that by supporting ConnCAT’s efforts, Yale will be able to assist in providing emergency relief for families in Newhallville and Dixwell during this crisis,” said Lauren Zucker, Associate Vice President for New Haven Affairs and University Properties. ” The Yale Community for New Haven Fund is proud to contribute toward this important work.”
“Few organizations are as much in touch with the holistic needs of the community and positioned to provide dynamic support that helps people move beyond survival,” said David Addams, Executive Director of William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund.
The purpose of the fund is to provide rapid emergency financial support to those in need through the distribution of debit cards. Recipients will be identified through collaboration with neighborhood management teams, service providers, and community partners. The ConnCAT Crisis Relief Fund is not intended to address all of the monumental economic needs of these neighborhoods but is positioned to provide some targeted short-term emergency funding for families in crisis. The effectiveness of this program will be greatly enhanced if we can raise and deploy money quickly.
The Newhallville and Dixwell neighborhoods have one of the highest concentrations of poverty in New Haven, with 45% of the families earning less than $25,000. As such, the majority of ConnCAT’s effort will be focused on supporting impacted families in those areas.
“It’s no secret that people are suffering,” Clemons said. “The impact and severity of the virus only exacerbate the issues of income instability and food insecurity that were already experienced year-round. The reality is we’ve always worked to be a trusted fixture in this community. That’s why we felt a moral obligation to ensure that our communities’ needs weren’t overlooked and forgotten while families struggle to make ends meet during a crisis they didn’t cause or could have predicted.”
ConnCAT, a 501(c)3 nonprofit charitable organization is a trusted community agency serving both the Dixwell and Newhallville neighborhoods and is uniquely positioned to advocate and raise funds and effectively provide direct financial support to families. ConnCAT is a dynamic agency creating empowering, arts-based educational environments for underserved youth and training programs for under and unemployed adults in medical billing and coding, phlebotomy, and culinary industries. In August of 2019, ConnCAT partnered with Kim Harris of Inspired Communities Inc., Nina Silva of the Dixwell Community Management Team, the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, and DataHaven to publish the “Newhallville and Dixwell Neighborhood Community Index.”
The “Index” was developed in response to neighborhood leaders’ desire to have a greater understanding of the respective neighborhood’s needs and to have a resource to raise funds for community needs. The report illuminates the high level of poverty and economic disadvantages in these neighborhoods. This same team of neighborhood leaders is coming together to help these crisis relief services.
In addition to securing partnerships from major donors, ConnCAT is encouraging individuals who are able to donate personally meaningful gifts, to do so with the information listed below:
Make a donation online at Conncat.org/crisis_relief_fund
Send a check payable to ConnCAT, referencing the ConnCAT Crisis Relief Fund. Please send to ConnCAT, 4 Science Park, New Haven, CT 06511
Make a donation through theGreatGive.org (Connecticut Center For Arts and Technology)
For questions, please contact Anna Blanding, Director of Impact Investments at ablanding@conncat.org