Parents Graduate” Into Community Leaders

Olivia Gross Photo

Yisel Ortiz with sons Anthony and Jared.

Church Street School had seven graduates Wednesday — who are parents, not students.

The parents were learning how to become community leaders. They have been enrolled in the UCONN People Empowering People program (PEP), a free 14-week leadership development course meant to strengthen ties between individuals and their community. 

The course was funded by a state grant from the Connecticut Trust Fund. It was the first one that Church Street has hosted in four years.

Facilitators Hector Velazquez Jr. and Guadalupe Kuilan were trained by University of Connecticut to lead the course. Each session was designed to build skills like parenting, communication, and leadership. Participants will now spend four more weeks on a joint community-building project that they will plan by themselves. For the project, they plan on hosting a community-wide event at the end of the summer for all Hamden parents to increase public knowledge of the educational, childcare, food, and transportation resources available to them.

Each graduate was invited up to the podium to discuss what the program has meant to them and then received a certificate and gift bag, along with a hug from Kuilan. The evening ended with a catered dinner.

Guadalupe Kuilan at the ceremony.

Kuilan said she was grateful that they had been able to get the funding for the program: If money is coming into the community, we need to jump on it and use it.”

The course was advertised through a Hamden public schools email and a flier sent home in kids’ backpacks. The parents joked about the success of old-school flier marketing.

Program graduate Tara Rucker became a homeowner in Hamden in the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. With a young son, she was looking for ways to meet more community members. She completes the program with good friends and a feeling of empowerment, she said.

The celebratory cake.

Participant Yisel Ortiz’s twin sons were born in Puerto Rico. They moved to Connecticut in 2012 and have lived in Hamden for three years.

Ortiz said that the course was a great opportunity to learn the basics of how to be a leader. She tries to volunteer with her sons whenever she sees that volunteers are needed. 

This is not Ortiz’s first experience with a leadership development program. She completed the Single Mothers Actively Reaching the Top (SMART) program, which pushed her to start school at Albertus Magnus College, where she’s earning a degree in psychology. Her sons, Anthony and Jared, were proud of their mom Wednesday night.

Ketisha Brown, Monica Reisner, Church Street Principal Karen Butler, Guadalupe Kuilan, Tara Rucker, Jay Kaye, Rebecca Joseph, Yisel Ortiz, Vicki DiCristiforo, Hector Velazquez Jr.

Ortiz proudly motioned to her sons from the lectern. Even if I’m not leaving millions of dollars for them, I’m leaving them something better — the power of community service and making a change.”

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