Thomas Breen photo
Making art at The Neighborhood Place. Below: Junta ED Daniel Reyes introduces Mayor Toni Harp.
A two decade-old Fair Haven after-school program has moved into a new location, more than doubled in size, and beefed up its programming to include equal parts homework help and arts and crafts.
That program, The Neighborhood Place (TNP), celebrated its first day of the school year Monday afternoon at the Atwater Senior Center at 26 Atwater St. in Fair Haven.
Run by the local social service nonprofit Junta for Progressive Action for the past two decades, the after-school program has begun its first full year based out of a community room and cafeteria at the city senior center. It previously operated out of Junta’s headquarters a block away on Grand Avenue.
Daniel Reyes, who became Junta’s executive director last year, said that 75 local kids, mostly from Christopher Columbus Academy and John C. Daniels School, have registered to participate in this year’s TNP. That’s up from around 30 student participants when the program was on Grand Avenue, and from around 50 from when the program began its transition to Atwater last year.
TNP is free and open to all city residents age 5 to 14. It is scheduled to run every week of the school year from Monday through Thursday, 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Enrollment is capped at 75 for now, Reyes said; more spaces may open up depending on whether or not everyone who is registered actually shows up.
“TNP is an integral part of our mission,” he said. “Both for the advancement of Latino youth, and for cuing up children for academic success.”
Each day’s session is divided evenly between homework help and artistic activities like drawing and origami, said TNP Coordinator Kattia Mendez-Gonzalez (pictured). All of the instruction is in both English and Spanish, she said; around 30 percent of the enrolled students are native Spanish speakers who were displaced from Puerto Rico to New Haven following Hurricane Maria.
Reyes said that the program has historically tilted more towards the arts. As a trained teacher himself, he wanted to make sure that one of Junta’s signature youth engagement programs also prioritizes math, reading, and other homework support. TNP has three dedicated instructors, he said, two program aides, and a host of college student volunteers.
Miguel (pictured), a 7‑year-old second-grader at Columbus Academy, took a moment out of his time cutting and coloring a paper heart with cat ears to tell this reporter about how he loves how TNP ends every academic year with a pizza party and ice cream.
“They let us go outside and play,” he said as he listed as favorite parts of the program. The “cat heart with ears,” he said, was a gift for his mom, in memory of a beloved pet.
Marlu (pictured), a 10-year-old sixth-grader at Columbus, also showed off her animal-inspired artwork. Hers was a black-and-white sketch of a wolf mid-howl. “I love art,” she said. “I love drawing and painting, both people and animals.” When she grows up, she said, she wants to be a veterinarian.
When she’s not drawing and talking about friends with art at TNP, she said, she’s getting help with her math homework.
Estrella (pictured), a 12-year-old seventh-grader at Columbus, said that she too loves the time she can spend drawing at TNP. She wants to be an artist when she grows up, she said. In particular, a fashion designer who specializes in coats.
David Greco, the executive director of the Fair Haven arts nonprofit Arte, Inc., said he worked with Reyes upon the latter taking the helm of Junta to move TNP from Junta’s headquarters into the larger space at Atwater, where Arte already hosts regular art workshops with seniors.
“We’re trying to make this space not just a senior center,” he said, “but a community center.”