Weekly CB&O Newsletter

Check out what out Community Building and Organizing Team has been up to this week!

z

Community Gardens and Greenspaces 

This week, Doreen launched free fishing courses at Beaver Pond Park, one of the few public bodies of water designated for fishing in New Haven. The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection stocks the pond with trout and catfish throughout the year. On Wednesday (July 18th), Doreen taught the basics of fishing to a group of 42 students. On Saturday (July 21st), she worked with Fixing Fathers, a New Haven organization that works to strengthen father-family bonds, to put on another workshop.

32 people attended the workshop on the 21st and learned how to tie certain knots, how to cast, and different safety precautions to take. The lessons connect residents to a local greenspace and underutilized community fishing site and allow community members to build a coalition invested in the ecology of local waterways. Fishing is a great outdoor activity for the whole family and we have it right here in Newhallville! if you are interested in scheduling a fishing course with Doreen, call her at 203-415-3646. 

At the Learning Corridor, Doreen and Haley honed their concrete recipe for garden stepping stones. On Friday (July 20th), they guided Newhallville Ambassadors through the process of creating the stones so that the Ambassadors can teach younger students how to make their own. Each student will place their customized stone in the Learning Corridor garden. The stones and beautification activities give the students a sense of ownership that makes recurring visits to the garden more likely.

Doreen and Haley also began working closely with Newhallville resident and gardener extraordinaire Mr. Alonzo (pictured below) in the Learning Corridor garden (also known as the Hazel St. garden). At 90 years old, Mr. Alonzo still tends to the community garden almost every day. He sowed the bounty flourishing in the garden this season: collard greens, callaloo, kale, tomatoes, corn, squash, and herbs. In partnership with the Learning Corridor, Mr. Alonzo will work as the Learning Corridor Garden Keeper. He will continue to manage the garden and oversee plantings. His lifetime of gardening wisdom and knowledge of urban horticulture in New Haven will inform the lessons Doreen and Haley teach to visitors and student groups. Mr. Alonzo already gave Haley tips to ensure the pumpkin patch she planted with students on July 11th will be successful.  On Monday (July 23rd), rain prevented Haley and Doreen from hosting an Explore.Discover.Create session at the Learning Corridor so kids were taken to the Harris and Tucker school. 

Adam coordinated the delivery of a truck-load of wood chips to Sherman Forest on Wednesday (July 18th). The wood chips will be used to cover trails in the forest and protect trees from weeds along the tree corridor that runs parallel to Sherman Parkway. Adam will work with volunteer groups to lay the mulch.

Wednesday (July 18th), Adam, Will, and Jared visited resident Kim Martin who lives on Sherman Parkway.  The NHS team worked with Kim to bag and clear yard trimmings from her backyard.

On Sunday (July 29th), the Mt. Zion Seventh-day Adventist church is sponsoring a road ride with doctors on the Farmington Canal Trail. Residents can stop at the Learning Corridor to ride a bike and talk about healthier living with a doctor from the Mt. Zion Health Ministry. Doreen coordinated the event Kim Holmes-James who works at the Mt. Zion Health Ministries.

Women’s Empowerment Mural

On Wednesday (July 18^th), 12 New Haven Public School students who are apprentices at Artspace this summer visited the Women’s Empowerment Mural with their mentor Roberto Lugo. Doreen coordinated the event. The students are working with Roberto to build a large scale ceramics piece that will be showcased at Common Ground Highschool.                                   

The group met with Kwadwo Adae, the artist behind the Women’s Empowerment Mural, to discuss the motive for the mural and the role of art in shaping social development. After meeting with Kwadwo, the group walked down the Farmington Canal Trail to the Learning Corridor to discuss hosting a workshop on ceramics for Newhallville residents. The meet-up demonstrated the potential for the mural to inspire future programming and catalyze public art elsewhere in the community. 
The unveiling ceremony has been postponed until early September when Kwadwo returns from Ecuador where he will be working on another project.

What we are reading this week…

In this article, read about how bike advocacy can produce bike equity and how it often fails to do so. Doreen works to bridge the gap between cycling infrastructure and Newhallville residents.

Read about Roberto Lugo’s work to empower communities of color through his ceramic art here. He visited the Women’s Empowerment Mural with a group of students from Artspace on July 18^th.

Want to get involved in any of these projects? Sign up to volunteer here