Daniela Brighenti Photo
Lampo.
It is not every day that board meetings for the Housing Authority of New Haven are stocked full of cupcakes, chicken wings, pastries and beverages.
Tuesday’s Board of Commissioners was, as part of a celebration of public-housing kids graduating from high schools.
“Now we come to the most exciting part of our agenda,” HANH Executive Director Karen DuBois-Walton said.
This school year, HANH administrators identified just over 30 students in their last year of high school living in their housing complexes. They reached out to these students back in the fall, explaining the services and support that HANH would make available for them to help them make it to the finish line.
DuBois-Watson awards students with a certificate and a gift bag.
The idea of hosting a graduation ceremony of sorts for these students dates back to three years ago, DuBois-Walton said. She added that after noting the potential of the graduates, HANH leadership wondered if they could do even more for their students.
Enter an HANH initiative called “Elm City Believes.” Now completing its second year, the initiative seeks to help youngsters living in HANH properties reach their academic goals; it does so by providing a series of partnerships and programs with schools, educators and community-based organizations.
Elm City Believes provides tutoring for young children, supports after-school programs around the city and provides childcare for parents of young children, while ensuring that “cost is not a barrier.”
“It’s about how to promote the culture of ‘school is important,’” DuBois-Walton said. “How to help families break the cycle of poverty, investing in the kids while they are young so they can have the skills they need later on.”
Programs for high-schoolers focus particularly on developing “employment-related skills” for teenagers, as well as on helping them apply to college and for financial aid.
“This is my favorite thing HANH does,” said board Chair Erik Clemons. “I’m a huge proponent of finishing. The fact that you have finished [with high school] allows me to say the world will be better with you.”
Jordan Lampo, a Wilbur Cross High School grad, was one of ten students present at Tuesday’s ceremony. Lampo has been living in a HANH complex since her family moved to New Haven over ten years ago. She will attend Yale University in the fall.
“Because of them,” Lampo said of HANH, “I had a place to come home to every day.”
She noted that not all kids across the country have access to programs like those offered by Elm City Believes.
“It’s not ensured for everyone, you know,” she said. “Keeping kids in school, that’s ultimately what they’re doing.”
