2015 RLP #2: Effective Communication

Let's Talk! Effective Communication:

2015 Resident Leadership Program

by Kelsey Sullivan, Resident Engagement AmeriCorps VISTA Member

On Tuesday, April 7, the Community Building & Organizing team was excited to host the second installment of our 2015 Resident Leadership Program. The theme of the workshop was: “Let’s Talk! Tips for Effective Communication” and was facilitated by Velma George, a longtime community member and esteemed Neighborhood Specialist with the City of New Haven's Livable City Initiative.

Velma shared her extensive knowledge and expertise on the qualities of effective communication and the obstacles that break communication down in our organizations, home life, and professional relationships. Through a variety of interactive activities, Ms. George led the class through concrete communication practice with an emphasis on developing a strong understanding of verbal and nonverbal communication as well as reviewing strong listening skills.

The curriculum clearly resonated with the program participants. In the opening ice-breaker, everyone had only two minutes to draft a campaign slogan that they would use if they were running to be the mayor of New Haven, and they were challenged to limit their slogan to only six words. Later, in a unique drawing activity, participants had to sketch a bug creature as Velma described it out loud, but no one was allowed to ask any questions regarding what the bug was supposed to look like. Each interactive activity highlighted the importance of communication skills and different strategies for effective communication. Class participants responded with a candid discussion about how to implement these skills in our own homes and neighborhoods.

Tuesday night’s event was the second of five workshops that Neighborhood Housing Services is offering as its 2015 Resident Leadership Program. The next workshop will be the evening of Tuesday, April 21^st and will focus on “Staying Strong through Recruitment and Retention.” It promises to be an inspiring event, and we look forward to seeing our class return on the 21^st!

Community Mural in Newhallville

An Awesome Mural

by Kelsey Sullivan, Resident Engagement AmeriCorps VISTA Member

The new community mural would replace this current mural along the Farmington Canal Trail.

Last week, NHS’ Community Building and Organizing team was thrilled to learn that we are the latest recipients of a $1,000 grant from the Connecticut chapter of the Awesome Foundation!

The Awesome Foundation is a truly unique network of localized chapters whose trustees pool their own money to fund community projects.  The awesome project that earned the Awesome Foundation’s grant is a community mural collaboration between NHS and local entrepreneur and artist, Kwadwo Adae. Mr. Adae is the founder, director, and head instructor of the Adae Fine Art Academy in the Ninth Square district of downtown New Haven. He has agreed to lend his artistic vision in helping us to develop a new community mural along the Farmington Canal Greenway in Newhallville, and to engage local residents throughout the planning and implementation process. Neighbors living nearby will have the opportunity to provide feedback on the initial sketching and design of the new mural, and local children will be invited to help with some of the painting early this summer.

We are excited to be recognized by an innovative community-based funding network, and we look forward to the ideas, inspiration, and meaningful outcomes that we know will arise from our collaboration with Mr. Adae and the Newhallville residents!

2015 RLP #1: Building Leaders

Building Leaders, Building Communities:

2015 Resident Leadership Program

 by Beonca Duncan, Community Engagement AmeriCorps VISTA Member

Earlier this week, we kicked off our 5^th annual Resident Leadership Program!

The five-workshop series began on Tuesday evening with the class “Building Winning Teams,” which was facilitated by our own Director of Community Building and Organizing, Stephen Cremin-Endes. 

For our first class we were joined by participants from various New Haven neighborhoods such as Newhallville, the Hill, Beaver Hills, and West River. The diverse group was able to enjoy delicious food and partake in light conversation and networking opportunities before tackling the first workshop of the series.

Our first classed was filled with enthusiasm and open dialogue about what skills were needed to create a “winning team.” Participants in the class worked in groups sharing experiences on past teams they were in and what skills are needed build an effective team. By the end of the class, a few participants were able to show off what they learned by participating in a hilarious skit! The skit allowed the participants to role play team dynamics and the problems and opportunities that can arise in a team setting.

 

 

We look forward to getting together with this group again for next week’s class “Let’s Talk! Tips for Effective Communication” and look forward to another enthusiastic class!  

Winter Gardening

Winter Gardening:

Meeting with the Hill Garden Club

New England’s long winters are a trial for all of us. For gardeners and others with green thumbs, the winters can seem especially long.

So what’s a gardener to do when the ground is still frozen and covered with snow?

Members of the Hill Garden Club meet monthly, year-round, to discuss gardening tactics, strategies, successes, and challenges. Their March meeting took place at the Wilson Branch Library, and the topic du jour was preserving harvested food. 

Our AmeriCorps VISTA Members were on hand to help concoct the perfect way to preserve crops so that they can be enjoyed year-round. The gardeners shared their pickling and fermentation know-how and old family traditions. Together, the club looked through instructional books and online forums for the perfect pickling recipe.

 

The club then tried their hand at pickling a head of cauliflower, following a simple recipe that required only salt, water, and slight seasonings to allow the natural flavor of the cauliflower to come through. Everyone agreed that the pickling process was easy – and a fun activity to replicate at future meetings with different types of vegetables!

 

If you’re interested in gardening and would like to swap ideas, seeds, and stories with other avid gardeners, come to the next meeting of the Garden Club! The next meeting will be on Thursday, April 16 at the Hill Museum of Arts at 210 West Street.

Visiting North Guilford Nurseries

Visiting North Guilford Nurseries

by Chandel Gibbs, Resident Engagement AmeriCorps VISTA Member

Last week, our Community Building and Organizing (CB&O) team and gardeners from the Ivy Street Community Garden paid a visit to North Guilford Nurseries, a farm owned and operated by a small family. Set in the hills of North Guilford, the farm operates as a wholesale greenhouse. After our experience bringing a greenhouse to the Ivy Street Community Garden, we were curious to see the larger-scale activities produced by this particular greenhouse.

We met with owner Cody Christensen and his two sons, all of whom work as full-time staff at the farm. They told us the history of their farm and its business model, along with their involvement in the retail industry. They also discussed the obstacles faced in operating a greenhouse, such as when their greenhouse was destroyed in 2013 after a huge snowstorm. The family rebuilt the greenhouse with new and improved equipment, giving us plenty to keep in mind as we discuss the future operations of our own greenhouse.

Towards the end of our visit, they showed us some features of the greenhouse. The greenhouse was equipped with a heating system, irrigation via a local pond, and various heavy-duty equipment and machinery for greenhouse operations. It is important to note that the entire greenhouse, including the electrical work, was rebuilt and constructed by the family. The family aims to explore new possibilities, and they have many interesting ideas on how to grow and expand their business. 

We were so excited to engage with this family and to discuss ideas about farming and planting.

Spring Break Immersion: Volunteers from Yale Chaplain's Office

 Spring Break Immersion:

Volunteers from Yale University Chaplain's Office

On Monday, March 9, NHS hosted 9 volunteer participants from the Yale University Chaplain’s Office Spring Break Immersion Program.

These tireless volunteers worked with us from 10:00am-3:00pm. We started the morning with introductions and a conversation about the student’s interest in participating in the program. The volunteers all agreed that they shared a desire to explore and better understand the city that they currently call home. 

We then geared up with a host of shovels to tackle the snow and ice in the driveways and walkways around two NHS-owned properties on County Street. While shoveling, we explained NHS’ neighborhood revitalization philosophy, emphasizing how renovating clusters of houses on a block can have a greater impact than renovating just one house. Volunteers also got to see the quality of work NHS puts into its rehabs.

At lunch, we continued our conversation on housing issues in New Haven and how they connect to issues of socio-economic inequalities, access to healthy food, community and economic development, and transportation. 

We were so excited to engage with this group of volunteers and share such a productive day with them.

MLK Day of Service 2015

MLK Day of Service

We were excited to reunite three of our wonderful volunteer groups for an MLK Day service event, just as we did in 2014. Volunteers from Squash Haven, Connecticut Public Allies, and Dwight Hall at Yale joined us at 216 Crown Street, the location of Hallah Edutainment. Hallah Edutainment promotes various learning initiatives for local youth.

Our volunteers dispersed into five groups to work on a number of tasks to help Hallah Edutainment make their program space as productive as possible. Volunteers helped to spruce up reclaimed wood that will be used as a stage, remove ceiling tiles to make room for acoustic ceiling clouds, organize student discussion spaces, and scrape paint from walls. 

 

A well-deserved lunch break featured food donated by local New Haven restaurants: Westville Pizza, Chap’s Grill, Jeera Thai, Jake’s Diggity Dogs. During lunch, the volunteers took part in a conversation intended to provoke considerations about how things have and have not changed since Dr. Martin Luther King’s generation. We then watched a 40-minute video of the 1963 Children’s March in Birmingham, Alabama, protesting segregation in the city. At the film’s end, the student audience shared their impressions of the film. All agreed they were impressed with the children’s bravery and ability to take part and found the film to be inspiring.

 

 We hope to see these groups together again next MLK day, if not sooner!