New Haven Independent

With a $20,000 federal grant from the Weed & Seed program, Literacy Volunteers of Greater New Haven partnered with the Yale Child Study Center (which already partners with the New Haven police department to run a nationally-renowned program for children exposed to violence) to create the Hill North Resource Room at the Hill North Police substation. A discussion about the program was the focus of a meeting convened at the Courtland Wilson branch library in the Hill by the Greater New Haven Literacy Coalition Wednesday morning.

Krystal Goring (pictured), a criminal justice major at the University of New Haven, was funded by the university’s President’s Public Service Fellowship to help create and run the program, which served a group of 9- to 14-year-olds three full days a week. “I’d never worked with kids before,” she confessed, but then proceeded to lay out a curriculum that included teaching the kids how to use computers, daily time for reading, and field trips to New Haven institutions such as the Shubert theater, the New Haven Colony Historical Society, and City Hall.

She and her fellow teacher, Sam Israel, hit the jackpot when they incorporated public speaking into the curriculum. Before going to City Hall, they had each student research the job of a person who works there; then they went to the aldermanic chambers and each participant spoke from the podium about what his or her “role model” does for the city. Goring said the kids gained so much confidence through the exercise that they included public speaking in all the other activities.

Another activity that was fun and meaningful was the contest they held to see who could sign up the most people in the Hill for library cards before the branch library opened in September. “We set a goal of 100 people,” Goring said. “We went everywhere, talking to people, and we signed up 145.”

Goring, who’s helping out in the fall program as well, says the experience led her to tailor her major to focus on juvenile justice. The new session will include different kids “” a hard decision, because many of the summer kids wanted to stay in the program, but organizers decided they wanted to offer the opportunity to a greater number of Hill residents.

In the discussion that followed, people suggested offering the program through the nine other police substations in the city and/or through the public school system.