NeighborWorks Week 2015

Celebrating Community:

NeighborWorks® Week 2015

Every June, NeighborWorks® America and its national network of nonprofits mobilizes tens of thousands of volunteers, business people, neighbors, friends, and local and national elected and civic leaders in a week of neighborhood change and awareness known as NeighborWorks® Week.

Since 1986, NeighborWorks® Week has been an annual, national celebration of neighborhood pride and unity among organizations in more than 4,414 urban, suburban, and rural communities across the country. NeighborWorks® Week celebrates the efforts of local organizations working with partners and volunteers to create healthier, more vibrant communities.

This year, NHS of New Haven celebrated NeighborWorks® Week on Saturday, June 13, in Newhallville! We worked alongside residents to host some amazing volunteers from American Baptist Church, Bike & Build, the Ivy Street Community Garden, and NHS staff. 

We were particularly excited to host volunteers from Bike & Build. Bike & Build organizes cross-country bicycle trips which benefit affordable housing groups. In addition to raising funds for affordable housing projects, Bike & Build garners media and community attention for the affordable housing cause. Bike & Build fosters leadership and lifelong philanthropic service in its participants. This is Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven’s second year hosting volunteers from Bike & Build, who started their adventure in New Haven before biking across the country to Half Moon Bay, California. 

Volunteers worked on landscaping, gardening, community clean-up, and community beautification projects before coming together for a cook-out lunch in the Ivy Street Community Garden. After lunch, NHS Executive Director led volunteers on a tour of Newhallville, focusing on NHS' recently renovated projects.

Photo credit: David Sepulveda, New Haven Independent

The walking tour concluded on Lilac Street, where several new NHS homebuyers gathered for open houses and a ribbon cutting ceremony. Special guests included New Haven's Mayor Toni Harp, and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro.

Photo credit: David Sepulveda, New Haven Independent

The day was a wonderful representation of all of the positive activities taking place in Newhallville. We were happy to share a productive day with volunteers, residents, homebuyers, and elected officials!

Hopkins Senior Service Week

Senior Service Week

by Kelsey Sullivan, Resident Engagement AmeriCorps VISTA

On Monday, June 1 in the NHS Demonstration Garden, the Hopkins’ volunteer week started off with a lot of hard work and manual labor. Despite the steady drizzle and unseasonably cold temperatures, about fifteen students worked diligently in the garden all day, and completed some serious landscaping!

Three new shrubs were planted near the entrance of the garden, hosta plants were harvested from where they had sprung up along the southern fence, and a pile of refuse wood was broken down and removed from the rear of the garden. In the afternoon, two of the Hopkins teams hopped on the school bus to the Ivy Street garden. One enthusiastic crew dug out a deep trench along the rear fence of the garden, while others raked, weeded, and helped to organize materials inside the greenhouse. 

 

On Tuesday two Hopkins groups again took to the demonstration garden in the morning rain. This was another highly productive morning! One crew took on the laborious task of digging out the driveway and installing large stone slabs to make an attractive walkway. In the rear of the garden, another group layered cardboard to act as a weed guard over future planting areas which were then covered with leaf mold material. Finally, the remaining students diligently worked to install plastic edging around the planting areas, taking painstaking effort to shape the lining correctly.

 

 

In the afternoon I took a small group of volunteers to sweep and pick up garbage along Shelton Avenue between the Ivy Street Garden and the Shelton Avenue Community Wall next to Cerda’s Market. At the wall, the group stopped to collect two very heavy stone blocks and carry them back to the garden entrance to be installed among the new hosta plants as stepping-stones. Meanwhile, a few students and a determined Hopkins teacher collaborated to devise a way to fix a small break in the greenhouse roof.

On Wednesday I spent the entire work day with a Hopkins group at the Davenport Community Garden with the garden coordinator, Chris Prokop. The change that the students implemented in this garden in just one day was incredible! In the morning, the garden was composed of six or seven raised beds that had definitely seen better days. Many wooden boards were deteriorating, some of the sideboards were warped and bulging outwards, and the beds were full of weeds. Furthermore, the beds had been installed some years ago in a crooked pattern that was visually interesting, but that made the task of mowing the grass very challenging for Chris! By the time the students ended work in the afternoon, ten brand new garden beds had been constructed on-site, placed in neat rows and filled with topsoil.

 

The students even partially mulched the pathways with material that a neighborhood resident unexpectedly donated! The result was a dramatic visual change in the garden, and we hope that this workday marks the beginning of an exciting season for the Davenport Community Garden!  

 

 

 

On Thursday I again accompanied two of the volunteer groups to Ivy Street. The students were only with us until noon, but they still managed to complete an impressive amount of work! Some students used saws and loppers to prune trees and remove sturdy weeds, while many others cleared the garden areas of smaller weeds. Additionally, a group of students made fantastic progress with building up a new planting row along the garden’s south fence. The students worked with focus and enthusiasm right up until they boarded the school bus for the final time. 

 

 

 

We appreciate the positive attitudes, dedication, and transformative contributions made by these students, to three of New Haven’s gardens! Great work Hopkins class of 2015- we wish you the best in your future endeavors! 

2015 RLP #5: Resources

Community Resources:

2015 Resident Leadership Program

by Chandel Gibbs, Resident Engagement AmeriCorps VISTA Member 

This past Thursday, NHS hosted the final installment of our 2015 Resident Leadership Program. Our very own Jim Paley, NHS’ Executive Director, facilitated the last workshop: “Effectively Using Community Resources.” Jim started the workshop by showing the class a series of historic videos and images: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech; the 16^th Street Baptist Church bombing; Watts riots; Ferguson riots; and Baltimore riots.  Participants then wrote down the first thought that came to mind when viewing these images. This activity stimulated an in-depth discussion of community cohesion and chaos.

Jim’s objective was to figure out ways to bring about constructive change within communities. Participants learned about the Elements of Resident Leadership, including building teams to accomplish goals; the importance of forming alliances with police to enhance community policing; and identifying needs and finding resources to catalyze community change.

At the end of the class, we held our graduation ceremony for the RLP participants – complete with cake!

We asked participants to write down their ideas for community projects to undertake now that they had completed the RLP. Here are a few of their goals:

• “Project at overseas vision: help ensure women, youth, and children cultivate sustainable development in Indonesia.”
• “Develop and beautify resident veggie garden at 73-75 Kensington Street. This garden connects with new NHS property at Edgewood Ave.”
• “Bring lights into Huntington/Sheppard green space and camera at the corner.”
• “As a city, I think it’s important to optimize our bus system and make more direct routes between neighborhoods that don’t stop Downtown always. Also: more lines that run past 7pm.”
• “I would like to get more resources to people/families who have ‘family’ gardens.”

Thank you to everyone who participated in this year’s Resident Leadership Program! We look forward to future collaborations!

Solar Youth at The Ivy Street Garden

The Ivy Street Garden Welcomes Solar Youth

Connecting community groups is one of the Community Building & Organizing team’s favorite ways of contributing to New Haven’s neighborhoods. In Newhallville, we were able to introduce program coordinators and participants of Solar Youth, Inc. to the resident gardeners of the Ivy Street Community Garden. This introduction proved to be rewarding in many ways for everyone involved. The friendship provided welcome help and energy to the gardeners as they began to prepare the garden for new plantings, and gave the young Solar Youthers a space and opportunity to get their hands (and clothing) a little bit dirty. 

Throughout April and May, this particular Solar Youth crew, whose home base is located at King-Robinson Magnet School, walked over to the Ivy Street Community Garden to spend an hour and a half facilitating the garden’s upkeep. Along the way, students had a chance to learn about composting and healthy soil, planting seeds and seedlings, the purpose of a greenhouse, the nurturing process and working together to complete tasks. One occasion even allowed students an opportunity to work alongside two of Newhallville's beat cops. Time was also spent having engaging and fun conversations with the students. We learned that a great way to keep attention was to pass around a daisy as a pretend microphone to allow one speaker at a time. So clever! We’re so appreciative of the great work that Solar Youth does, all around New Haven. We look forward to continuing this collaboration!