Contributed Photo
United Way’s Jennifer Heath with the “Game Changers.”
Five local people picked up community “Game Changer” awards from the United Way of Greater New Haven at a “Big Ideas” breakfast held this week.
United Way’s write-ups about the winners follow:
• Kim Harris is a community activist, local business owner, and serves as Chair of the Newhallville Community Management Team. Additionally, she is the owner of Harris and Tucker Preschool and, in 2015, co-founded a child-care coalition called Cercle to tackle a wide range of concerns about early education for black and brown children. In 2018, Harris launched the “One City Initiative,” pulling together the leaders of the city’s management teams to create citywide family-friendly events throughout the summer. She also founded a nonprofit that focuses on creating after-school enrichment opportunities for children in her neighborhood. Harris is committed to changing the narrative about Newhallville and building partnerships to improve lives in her community.
• New Haven-resident Camila Güiza-Chavez serves as the Community Outreach Director at Havenly, an organization that provides job training for female refugees who have settled in New Haven. Güiza-Chavez leads Havenly’s Fellowship program, which employs refugees in a bakery that also functions as a classroom for women to build the skills and confidence necessary to gain future employment. Güiza-Chavez teaches English classes to the women and forges partnerships with local organizations to help with other services. The work is complex and meaningful, and to do it well requires a level of humility, rigor, and grace, which she demonstrates every day.
• Robert Kreitler, a New Haven businessman and philanthropist, is passionate about high-quality education for children and youth, as well as workforce development for adults — particularly those who have experienced challenges, such as incarceration. In addition to providing financial support for many causes related to education and workforce development, he also gets involved by giving of his own time to be part of the solution.
• Jim and Mary Ann Emswiler lead the Hamden VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) site, which they started from the ground up three years ago. As VITA site coordinators, the Emswilers recruit, train, and schedule the volunteers who help serve hundreds of people from the region each year. The Emswilers also serve as tax preparers themselves, often taking complicated returns home to finish after hours. Over the past three years, their VITA site has brought in $2.3 million in tax returns for low-income families in the region. The Emswilers have a heart for helping people, and they go above and beyond to make sure their VITA services are provided with excellence, dignity, and compassion.