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.
On Tuesday, 11 volunteers from the New Haven Wells Fargo region took to painting, scraping, sanding, and pulling up old vinyl tiles in the rental unit. Our group of lady painters was of the highest caliber, as not one smudge occurred in any of the three rooms requiring trim work and multiple coats of glossy paint. Several more hardworking guys took on the kitchen tile. Slowly but surely, they ripped up four layers of flooring to expose the original wood floors underneath. The team then pressed on to the stairwell, which hadn’t been painted in years and needed a fresh coat to pass inspection. Despite some precarious heights and balancing situations, the group was fearless under the leadership of Kim, the Vice President and District Manager of the New Haven Valley branch bank, leaving beautiful work in its wake.
The next day, a group of 7 Wells Fargo volunteers undertook finishing touches and outside work. Half of the group took to the yard to sand and seal the fence straddling the property line. It was in need of some extra care for upcoming seasons, and the volunteers saved the homeowner weeks of labor. Meanwhile, within the house, other volunteers finished up the trim work in certain areas of the house. One woman took a heat gun to over four layers of paint that the house had acquired in its hundred years of existence. Another brave soul finished repainting the ceiling of the stairwell and other small, out of reach details that the previous day’s team couldn’t get to. A lot of ladder-holding and teamwork was needed, but in the end, the team prevailed! At the end of the work day, three members of the team painted the stairs in the stairwell as the final bit of work. They literally painted their way out of the house!
The collaboration that took place to make this project happen was fantastic to see. Students talked and met with key city officials and a few vocal residents to hear their ideas about having a street event. Engaging chalkboards were made and set-up on Lilac Street with open-ended statements for residents to fill in, such as “I wish there was ___ in Newhallville,” “I wish our block had ___” and “I wish this (vacant lot) was ___.” From what we gathered, people would love Newhallville to get the following: jobs, gun control, a teen center, an arts building, and educational programs. While there were some great ideas made by parents and other adults, the responses, and pictures, that were provided by the children of the neighborhood were amazingly creative. One contribution from the younger generation included a request for a dirt bike park! Everyone truly enjoyed the music that played throughout the day. Best of all, this was a fantastic opportunity to connect with local residents and see what they want most in the neighborhood they call home. It was great to see so many people out and about!
If all this wasn’t enough, we also had volunteers doing projects in the area while the Yale students engaged residents with their chalkboards. Yale Dwight Hall offered their hands and sweat to help NHS in our ongoing efforts to help local residents obtain front yard light posts. These lamp posts add beauty and safety lighting to the yards of these residents. The amazing volunteers from Yale Dwight Hall spent the better part of four hours digging the holes and trenches for these lamp posts.
Leslie started the class with an exercise in active listening. Participants interviewed each other for five minutes each and, without taking notes, had to summarize their partner’s traits to the rest of the class. This activity emphasized the importance of truly listening to another person, instead of focusing on wording your reply to their words.
Afterwards, the class watched a brief video: a case study of Savannah, Georgia. In the 1970s, Savannah was suffering due to deteriorating housing stock, a lack of safety, and a loss of culture. “We were losing our community,” one Savannah resident remarked in the video. When the city shifted gears and urged Savannah residents to take charge of their neighborhoods, however, residents became aware of just how many assets they had at their disposal. Long-standing connections among residents became the building blocks of neighborhoods eager to revitalize their communities by engaging City Hall and each other. In its current state, Savannah looks much different than it did in the 1970s, and the residents are still rallied around the power of community organizing.
Class participants then had a lively discussion of what a community should tackle first – its needs or its assets. This led to a chicken-and-egg discussion that eventually concluded on a note of balance and moderation. Needs must first be identified, true, but once the assets available to the community are laid out, the need may be further refined or expanded. Needs and assets are a continuous interplay essential to all community organizing. By staying positive, though, great things can happen.
Why is CO2 a problem? Although CO2 will not kill you like other pollutants, its global effect on the planet is extremely damaging because of its impact on the earth’s climate. CO2 traps the sun’s heat in our atmosphere and raises the earth’s temperature. This drastically affects the habitats of all forms of life while also causing disruption and extinction. It has, and will, influence agriculture, food supplies, transportation, industry, the economy, and even where we choose to live.
