Team Q: LEAP’s Henry Fernandez, Alder Jeanette Morrison.
The long-awaited opening of the new Dixwell Community “Q” House is a week away. Here’s the lowdown on how a community advisory board and LEAP will take the reins.
Q House Qs For Alder Jeanette Morrison
Q: What is your position on the Q House Advisory Board and how did you assume that role?
A: I was elected as both the alder for the Dixwell community, which is the Q House side of Dixwell Avenue, and as the chairperson of the Q House Advisory board. Prior to being chairperson of the Q House Advisory Board, I was the chair and co-chair of the Q House Steering Committee and the Q House Building committee respectively. After those two segments, and we became an official city-supported committee, I was elected in January of 2020 by the Q House Advisory Board membership to my current position as chairperson.
Q: What purpose does the Q House Advisory Board serve? What is the board in charge of?
A: Each member of the Q House Advisory Board is a community member. While not every one of them lives in New Haven, they have some type of affiliation with New Haven, and they are voices of the community. Often when the government has things happening or going on in the community, they put their own people in. It is very hard to identify what is needed by the people if you are not part of the group. The special thing about this particular group is that these members come from all walks of life — different financial backgrounds, community residence, and educational backgrounds. The board is the community’s voice versus the government’s voice. The board is in charge of supporting the mission and the operations of the Q House. As far as programming is concerned, our job is to come up with various ideas, solicit ideas from the community, and make sure that those services are offered at the Q House. The board is also in charge of fundraising for a Q House endowment. A lot of money needs to be raised because the ultimate goal for the Q House Advisory Board is to be able to take the building back from the city and become an independent nonprofit as it was when it started back in 1924. Those are the two functions of the advisory board: programming — making sure that the Q meets the needs of the people — and fundraising to help the Q House become independent as it used to be.
Q: What is LEAP’s role/job at the new Q House?
A: LEAP is the entity that answered the call to the request for proposals (RFP) to manage the Q House building itself and to program in what we call “Q House proper.” There are four separate entities in the Q House building: the Stetson Library, the Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center, the Dixwell-Newhallville Senior Center, and the Q House proper. The Q House proper includes programming rooms such as a gym, fitness room, dance studio, kitchen, recording studio, and community conference rooms. These four entities are separate but they also need to function together. LEAP’s core responsibility is to manage all of that, along with the programming of the Q House proper. LEAP’s job is to make sure that all of these things are functioning for the community at large.
Q: What made LEAP a good fit for the Q?
A: We needed an organization with the type of expertise to operate the building. LEAP has a very good track record of servicing young people. Young people ages seven to 24 is their core clientele. They also have a very good track record of managing their funds correctly. LEAP has been in the community since the 90s, including specifically the Dixwell community. It was a match made in heaven to me. They know the community. They have worked in the community for 30 years and so LEAP helping to expand services in Dixwell just seems to me to be the right fit for the community at large. This partnership is going to work out; it has to work because we all have the same goal and that’s high quality programming for kids and adults.
Q: Why does the Q House need an outside entity to manage and oversee the building and its programming?
A: There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to a community center. The Q House is a city entity. For example, in the City of New Haven, with Covid, every building you go into, you have to wear a mask. That’s one of the responsibilities of LEAP; to make sure that everyone is adhering to the rules and regulations of the city. As a municipality, the city can get money to do stuff. However, in my opinion, we do not have the manpower that’s necessary or the experience to be able to manage a community center. We have great people who work for the city for example: the Youth Department and the Community Services Administration. But we needed someone or something to be able to make the Q House its own thing. LEAP is there to help the Q House as we build towards independence. While they’re there, LEAP is expanding services and opportunities for kids, adults, and seniors.
Q: How long will LEAP manage the Q House?
A: Right now LEAP has a three-year contract with the city. That three-year contract is scheduled to end in 2024. However, in 2023 the city is going to need to look at where the Q is, in addition to where the advisory board and their fundraising efforts are. It takes a lot of money, a lot of financial effort, and a lot of operational needs. If the Q House Advisory Board is not in the position to take over the building, then the city is going to have to re-evaluate the partnership with LEAP, depending on how things go — which I think will go wonderfully, because they’re putting a lot of time and effort into making this a great site. In 2023, we’re going to have to go back to the table. Will we need to extend the contract for another year? Will we need to extend the contract for another multi-year contract? We won’t know until we get into 2023, and then we can cross that bridge once we get to it.
Q: Will there be any programming at the Q House that LEAP does not organize/manage?
A: Cornell Scott Hill Health Center is its own entity. They have their own entrance, their own everything. Even though LEAP manages the building and Cornell Scott will be a part of the weekly meetings, LEAP does nothing on that side. The senior center is similar. LEAP is not in charge of elderly services however, there will be a lot of intergenerational programming taking place. The Stetson Library is its own entity, and they have their own staff. However, there will always be programming amongst all of the partners. Even though the entities are separate, every quarter there will be some type of joint programming that happens that shows the unity between those entities even though they function as their own entities at large.
Tremayne Sweat Photo
Q House Qs For Henry Fernandez
Q: What is your role at LEAP? What will your role be at the Q House?
A: I am the executive director at LEAP. I oversee the organization as a whole. My job comes with lots of things but primarily it comes with trying to make sure that we have good managers and leaders in the organization and then I provide support to those managers and leaders. LEAP will be hiring a director and deputy director of Q House programs who will be on LEAP staff and will be based at the Q House. I made a commitment to the Q House Advisory Board and to the City of New Haven that until we have hired that staff, I will play a leadership role at the Q House, making sure everything runs smoothly and that the building is up and running. Well actually, I made two commitments. One to the City and the Advisory Board: Until we have our team fully in place, I would play a leadership role. I also made a commitment to my board at LEAP that I would play this role and make sure that we are in a very strong place both in terms of our work at the Q House and all of the other neighborhoods we’ve made a commitment to. I made a commitment to make sure that all of that happens and that our programmatic leaders are able to do their jobs and make sure that those sites run well. I’m fully committed to making sure the Q House is successful as it’s opening. One thing that people ask me is whether we will close our Jefferson Street Center or our other five neighborhood sites, and move all our programs to the Q House. The answer is “No.” The Q House is a new and important project for us, but we will continue to do everything else we already do and more.
Q: What is the relationship among LEAP, the Q House and the City of New Haven?
A: LEAP has a contract with the City to manage portions of the Q House; that is our actual business relationship or contractual obligation that is laid out in our agreement with the City. Then, we have a relationship with the Q House Advisory Board: where they advise us and we report back. The board makes suggestions about programming for instance, and we report back, letting them know what we’re doing consistent with our budget and this gives them the opportunity to provide feedback. Our job fundamentally is to manage programming in the Q House proper. LEAP is responsible for running and identifying others to run programming as well. When we say the “Q House proper,” we mean the spaces that are not managed by Stetson Library, Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center or Elderly Services. The Q House proper spaces include: a gym, kitchen, art studio, dance studio, music studio, game room, meeting and conference spaces, as well as a fitness room. LEAP’s job is to make sure that there is high-quality programming in those spaces. LEAP is one of the four partners in the Q House; there is a real desire that the whole be bigger than the sum of its parts. Therefore, a second responsibility we have is to coordinate collective activities with all of the building’s partner occupants (including the Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center, Stetson Library, and Dixwell-Newhallville Senior Center); bringing them together, talking through different opportunities, and finding chances for working together.
Q: How does LEAP plan to manage/oversee both the building and programming at the Q House?
A: LEAP is actually working through quite a bit of this now. Yakeita Robinson, the chief of staff at LEAP, and I are meeting with different groups talking about use of the space at the Q House. We are really focused on identifying the programming. Part of this is designing and managing programs directly, but it is also working with community partners to identify other organizations and initiatives that could use the space. Right now, we are having conversations with the organizations that are already out in the community and who already have a good track record. We’re asking ourselves: who can we bring in? For some of the programming, we will provide it directly, and for other parts, community members will come to us to request space. We’re still working out what we will be charging organizations and people who want to use space. Some of the pricing for groups that want to use space will be related to whether or not they are charging members of the community or not. We will also be running a LEAP site out of the Q House with after school programming that has a focus on literacy and homework assistance, similar to our other sites across New Haven. A site coordinator and New Haven high school and college student counselors have been hired and the program is starting up in partnership with Wexler Grant School.
Q: What is your goal/vision for the partnership between LEAP and the Q House?
A: An organization becomes successful when they become an institution people build their lives around. That is our goal with the Q House — to work with others to help it become a community institution again. So many people’s lives were successful in significant part because of the Q House, its original history as a settlement house, and then the many programs it ran over the years. The Q House was a Gateway into New Haven and into the north, for so many people moving from the south. That is a tremendous legacy and one that we at LEAP are proud to support and proud to be a small part of.
All residents ages seven and older can attend programming at the Q House beginning on November 1. Updates will be available shortly at dixwellqhouse.org.
The Q House ribbon cutting ceremony will be on Saturday, Oct. 30 from 11 a.m. to 1p.m. RSVP by 10/25 at dixwellqhouse.org to attend.