Winfred Rembert: Art in Motion

Art in Motion

Winfred Rembert Visits NHS of New Haven

On Wednesday, July 31, NHS hosted an organization-wide screening of the documentary "All Me: The Life and Times of Winfred Rembert." We were thrilled that Rembert and his wife Patsy, both residents of Newhalville, were able to attend the screening and speak to NHS staff about their experiences. A self-taught artist, Rembert inspired us with his powerful, intricate paintings along with his incredible life experiences growing up in the segregated South. His works are largely autobiographical, depicting daily life along with traumatic encounters with bigotry and discrimination. Using sheets of carved and dyed leather as his medium, he composes a narrative of his time working in the cotton fields, being incarcerated, and serving in a chain gang. One of his most painful and moving pieces, on display at the Yale Art Gallery, depicts his experience surviving a lynching.

His remarkable abilities as an artist and storyteller are only surpassed by his ability as a human being to triumph in the face of adversity. We at NHS felt truly privileged to spend an evening with Winfred and Patsy, and encourage everyone to watch the documentary and provide their support to the artist.

If you'd like to watch "All Me: The Life and Times of Winfred Rembert" yourself, check it out here.

Contemporary Architecture Bike Tour

Touring New Haven

Touring New Haven’s Contemporary Architecture - by Bike!

On Saturday, June 29th, as part of the final day of the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, Elm City Cycling organized an architecture tour that lead participating bikers to architecturally significant houses located across New Haven’s neighborhoods. Since 1989, first-year Yale architecture students have participated in an annual competition, held during their spring semester, for which they must design an innovative, affordable, and livable housing scheme. One winning design is selected, and the architecture students (and some faculty members) construct the house over the course of the summer. Along with Habitat for Humanity, Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven has frequently partnered with the Yale School of Architecture for the annual Building Project; NHS funds the project and sells the house to a first-time homebuyer. 

The tour biked along a 10-mile route to visit 12 of these projects, all houses with the exception of the first completed project, which was the East Rock Park gazebo. There was no better way to view some of New Haven's best architecture sights! At tour's end, the 28 participants biked to 20 King Place in the Hill neighborhood. There, the homeowner greeted them with refreshment and a spread of snacks for the weary bikers. The real reward for many of the visitors was getting to see the inside of the contemporary-styled house and having a discussion with the homeowner about her experiences residing in it.

To read more about the Yale Building Projects that Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven has collaborated on, click here. To read more on the history of the Yale Building Project and more from the Yale School of Architecture, click here.

NW America Features Tammy Chapman

NeighborWorks® America’s Website: New Haven’s Feature!

Tammy Chapman's Featured Impact

Our parent organization, NeighborWorks® America, is a federally funded organization that oversees a network of more than 235 organizations- all with a mission to stable communities and create affordable housing opportunities for low- and moderate-income individuals and their families. In an effort to quantify all the work accomplished by the NeighborWorks® network, a state-by-state interactive map and infographic was devised. By clicking on any state on the map, you will see a profile of NeighborWorks® organizations’ impact on the state PLUS a story from a featured NeighborWorks® Organization.

Check it out here!

Emerge Literacy Program

Emerging Connections

Emerge Adult Literacy Program

 

NHS recently collaborated with Emerge Connecticut, Inc. and First Presbyterian Church in an effort to expand EMERGE’s adult literacy program to include one-on-one academic tutoring. Emerge is a local offender re-entry program aimed at providing men and women with skills, training, and paid work opportunities that will allow them to attain long-term stable employment and economic independence. As part of this, Emerge clients are able to participate in a literacy program to increase their reading comprehension, writing, and math skills.

Volunteers were trained to use Khan Academy, an online program that provides free educational tools for a variety of learners. We’re excited about the program and commend Emerge and their staff for the valuable contributions they make towards community stabilization. We’d like to thank our volunteers from First Presbyterian who devoted their time, as well as the dedicated staff at Emerge!

If you'd like to find out more about Emerge Connecticut and their services, check out their website here.

NeighborWorks Week 2013

NeighborWorks Week

June 1, 2013 - June 8, 2013

 NeighborWorks Week is a week packed with volunteer events and community engagement activities. This year's events kicked off with a street clean-up on West Division Street, followed by a week's worth of special homebuyer classes and volunteer events with Hopkins High School.

Saturday morning was a wonderful gathering of NHS staff and West Division Street residents, young and old, working together to clean, dig, and add some beauty to the street. Fortunately, we had enough tools to go around!

Monday through Thursday, NHS had the pleasure of hosting students from Hopkins High School. For three full days and a final half day, the Community Building and Organizing staff worked with rotating groups of students in their senior year who were ready and eager to give time and labor to help the community before they graduated.

It was a rough start with heavy morning rain on Monday, but the students were fearless! One group geared up with plastic bags as ponchos in order to spend time removing litter all along Sherman Avenue. Another group went door to door with flyers containing information from the city’s Urban Resources Initiative to help inform residents on how they can obtain street trees.

Fortunately, before long, the rains cleared and students were able to spend time at our future demonstration garden. Currently there is a vacant lot near our office complex that will eventually become an outdoor demonstration area showcasing rain gardens and storm water management techniques. So much progress was made because of the hard work by these Hopkins students!

 Another project students participated in was some good ol’ painting! Like any rehabilitated, older house, the NHS main building was due for some tender loving care and general maintenance. The students were happy to help us out! Deep cleaning and a couple applications of fresh paint did wonders for one of the entrances to our main office building.

While our days were active with volunteer efforts, the evenings were similarly busy with various educational classes. New Haven residents gathered each night to hear from our staff at the HomeOwnership Center to learn tips and valuable information related to becoming a homeowner. One night was dedicated to providing current homeowners with strategies on home maintenance. Another night was devoted to a special Spanish version of our Financial Fitness class. Additionally, an 8-hour homebuyer class on Saturday included a surprise cookout for lunch!

Finally, to end our resident-focused week, we held a wonderful Pancake Breakfast for NHS HomeOwners. Homeowners from NHS’ past and present met and shared stories with each other and NHS staff. This first annual event is one we definitely look forward to continuing!

2013 Multicultural Festival

Inherit the Earth

4th Annual Multicultural Festival

Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven and its subsidiary, the New Haven HomeOwnership Center, hosted its 4th annual Multicultural Festival this past Saturday with its partner Start Community Bank. Since 2009, these neighboring institutions dedicated to serving the needs of New Haven residents have come together once a year to host this springtime festival meant to celebrate New Haven’s diversity.

“New Haven is a city of diversity,” said NHS Executive Director Jim Paley. “It’s part of its strength. This festival is a true celebration of life, diversity, and the spirit of the people of New Haven.”

Bill Placke, President and CEO of Start Bank, agreed. “The purpose of this event is to celebrate the Whalley Avenue community and the people who make it a great place to live and to work.”

While many of the attendees at this year’s festival were veterans of last year’s festival, many more were first-timers enticed by the festivities. Families in particular took advantage of the free food and fun offered by the neighborhood businesses and other NHS partners that sponsored the event.

Art also had a prominent presence at this year’s festival. In tandem with the “Inherit the Earth” theme, NHS of New Haven and Start Community Bank asked local students to depict what “inheriting the earth” meant to them. An art show took place on the NHS campus commemorating those who brought the expression to life on paper.

 
The festival concluded by presenting awards to individuals who have done exceptional work to improve their communities. The honorees included: Joanne Sciulli, Executive Director of Solar Youth; Mattie Stevenson, an avid community gardener; and Lanissa Gardner and Jackie Failla, two active students from Common Ground High School. All of our honorees demonstrate esteem, respect, creativity, and a love of the earth that is an example to us all.

Thank you to everyone who supported our festival and who came out to celebrate with us. We look forward to next year’s event!

Photos courtesy Tom Ficklin.

RLP #3 & #4 2013

RLP Recap

Classes 3 & 4: Planning Successful Campaigns + Understanding Power for Community Change

Two fantastic gatherings took place recently as part of our 2013 Resident Leadership Program: Sessions 3 and 4 of a 5 part series of classes. The first session focused on planning successful campaigns, in which we learned five important steps: 1) identify the issue, 2) define your team, 3) research the power and players, 4) develop a path to a winning strategy and 5) evaluate the campaign. Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven’s Executive Director, Jim Paley, introduced these concepts by providing an in-depth look at his professional campaign for community revitalization through affordable housing development. Hearing the successes he has achieved and obstacles he has faced over the more than 30 years of his work in New Haven, participants were able to understand his process in the form of an interactive case-study with actual events and conditions as lessons to learn from. Furthermore, these experiences and strategies were presented in an outline format that allowed the attendees to relate information presented to their own interests and concerns. Following the presentation, the participants formed teams of five or six, to create a thorough plan for their own new, designated campaign.

With a new skill and strategies to think in terms of deliberate campaigns, our participants were geared up for the next session: “Understanding Power for Community Change.” The format for this class was a little unique as we had the pleasure to hear from not just one speaker, but four! Joining us were: Erik Johnson, the Executive Director of the City of New Haven’s Livable City Initiative; Lee Cruz, Community Outreach Director for The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven; Stephen Cremin-Endes, NHS’s Community Building Specialist; and NHS’s Executive Director Jim Paley.



The speakers did a wonderful job of providing insights into the ways in which power and opinions play vital roles in the decision making process. Stephen introduced to everyone how to create an easy-to-make and useful power mapping tool. This tool allows a user to place people in one of four quadrants: powerful and supportive; powerful and unsupportive; powerless and supportive; and powerless and unsupportive. Jim then provided some examples of how to use this tool and an understanding of how it provides the groundwork for community change. This tool is necessary to create leverage that can be applied to promote movement in a positive direction.

After this we heard from Erik who described the existing opportunities and issues currently facing in New Haven. This part of the discussion was eye-opening and allowed us to better understand how he sees progress as possible through a focus on shared values. The final discussion to this engaging session drew on Lee Cruz’s vast experience in community building. He gave both an overview and a couple of specific stories related to his work, which was beneficial for learning strategies that work in communities. Whether we’re trying to create relationships with those in a foreign community or our own, he explained, genuine interest and provoking open-ended questions are key.

Thanks to our speakers for sharing all these important ideas and techniques!