All Restored After Fire

On the afternoon of March 23, 2015, Ward 21 Alder Brenda Foskey-Cyrus looked out the window of her Newhallville home to see a fire raging across the street. Foskey-Cyrus prayed it wasn’t the neighborhood the local community center.

Much to her dismay, it was.

“I remember looking out my bedroom window and screaming,” she recalled. ​“It was absolutely devastating.”

On Tuesday, members of the city and that community agency, the Believe in Me Empowerment Center (BIMEC), came together to celebrate the restoration of the center’s building.

The city had awarded BIMEC a $55,000 grant in 2012 for façade upgrades, funded by a Façade Improvement Grant Program. After the fire in 2015, the city awarded the center a $30,000 grant for for renovations.

BIMEC, which is located at 423 – 425 Dixwell Ave., offers a variety of programs for community residents, including summer programs for children, an emergency food bank, and vita tax preparation.

In 2002, James Walker and his wife Barbara founded the organization to serve the Dixwell and Newhallville neighborhoods. Today individuals come to the center from all over.

“I felt there was a need in our community to try to create a small social service agency for the people in this area,” he said. ​“They shouldn’t have to go somewhere else.”

BIMEC has programming for both children and adults. For its older clients, the center offers a supportive housing program that provides a drug and alcohol free residence. It also retains a case management system, which boasts counseling and job placement services, and it connects low-income residents with both private and public benefits, such as health insurance and food stamps.

One of the center’s greatest assets is its emergency food bank. For Foskey-Cyrus, the food bank is invaluable, as it gives kids meals they ordinarily would not have access to.

Walker agreed. ​“People have called and said they only have a jar of water and one egg in the fridge. For them, this is so helpful.”

BIMEC’s offerings relating to incarceration help children, young adults and parents in the same family. As the majority of clients seek help with re-entry into society from prison, BIMEC’s programs work to instill life skills in clients and connect them with appropriate resources.

Among its extensive programming is a Middle School Reading for Reasoning Program for the children of incarcerated parents. The program works to empower at-risk children by negating the stigma and isolation often associated with incarceration. Specifically, it connects children with adult and peer mentors. Many of the peer mentors, who now attend New Haven Public High Schools, previously attended the program as kids.

Three kids addressed the crowd Tuesday to explain how the program improved their relationships with their incarcerated parent. They alluded to the shared experiences with counselors that allowed them to speak freely about their experiences and emotions of having a parent behind bars.

Richard Allen, an ex-offender, praised BIMEC for its devotion to the community.

“James Walker took a chance on me, and I’m a better person because of it,” he said.

In speaking to the crowd, Mayor Toni Harp remembered her own experience helping at a BIMEC Thanksgiving food drive. Recalling the high demand from the community, she noted that BIMEC’s response was greater than she imagined.

“Believe in Me’s place in this community is reaffirmed each and every day by the manner in which it helps clients believe in themselves,” she said. ​“This facility moves New Haven forward one resident and at a time.”