New Haven Independent

The people there are participating in an experiment in community empowerment. They were selected at random earlier this year by canvassers from the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. Their charge: to talk about how to make the Hill a better place, then to make that happen. The foundation has pledged $100,000 a year for several years to help them do it.

The participants already spent day-long sessions listing their priorities for the Hill. Their top priority: a new family resource center. The center would offer one-stop shopping for families and young people to get help or find fun, constructive stuff to do.

Wednesday night they decided to look for a central location in the Hill to set up a small office, and hire one full-time and one-part time staffer. Volunteer Julie Anastasio ticked off a list of requirements for the staff positions. “They must be leaders and team players, able to get stuff done, find out what else is going on in the Hill, have excellent communication skills to work with a diverse population, and at least one of them should be bilingual.”

Then they hope to recruit people in the neighborhood already involved in small-scale projects and help them obtain grants. Grantwriter par excellence Jim Farnam also encouraged people to apply to the Community Foundation’s Small Grants Program; he mentioned a woman who got a few hundred dollars to start a book club with mothers and young children. The group talked about other institutions to approach for money, including local foundations, banks, and Yale-New Haven Hospital.

The next meeting in the series takes place on Sept. 22 at the Boys and Girls Club in the Hill.