New United Way Chief Has Been There

The incoming chief of the United Way of Greater New Haven knows some of the struggles single parents face — because she has walked in their shoes.

The incoming chief, Jennifer Heath, is in transition to take over as president and CEO of the agency on July 1. She has been at the agency for 10 years, and worked in social-service policy, research and programmatic roles in New Haven for the past two decades.

At the United Way, Heath’s focus has included supporting programs that gave single parents support and practical advice — at the doctor’s office, at school-based parent resource centers. Like: Don’t try to be perfect. ​“Be kind to yourself.”

Heath learned those lessons after her first husband died of cancer. Their son Ethan was 2 at the time. She raised Ethan alone until she remarried some years later.

“There were definitely times when I felt so overwhelmed,” Heath recalled during an interview on WNHH radio’s ​“Dateline New Haven.” ​“I was grieving. I was trying to figure out how to keep a house going. I was working full time. I had a 2 year-old son. It was a dark time.

“Even though I felt kind of guilty about it, I needed to take some time out to read a book or spend a few hours with a friend or take a walk.”

The Boy At The Water Fountain

Heath discovered a passion for helping people while growing up in Raleigh, N.C.

“I was raised with a very strong faith. I grew up southern Baptist, which is fairly typical for that part of the country. That particular denomination has gone in directions that I don’t necessarily agree with; I’m involved [now] in a UCC church here.

“But there was a strong emphasis on mission, on helping others, on being part of this larger world, and doing things for others.”

Heath recalled as a teen participating in church-organized summer ​“mission trips” to paint churches or run young programs in low-income neighborhoods in different communities.

“It really impressed me the many ways I was blessed. My family wasn’t wealthy. But we weren’t hungry.”

On a visit to her parents’ home not long ago, Heath came across a paper she wrote in high-school about one of those missions. Around 13 at the time, she helping bring a group of young children to an air and space museum. The paper was about a little boy, maybe 4 or 5 years old, on that trip.

“I remembered in reading this paper just being shocked at how much time he wanted to spend at the water fountain. Here we were in this amazing giant museum. And he really wanted to be at the water fountain. … [I learned] as a young teenager what it means to work with a young child who really has his own mind about things.”

And, she said, ​“it was a great exercise in learning patience.”

Heath continued learning lessons in helping-others work — and acquiring policy expertise — as a student at Davidson College and at Princeton, where she earned a masters in public policy; and, in New Haven, at the advocacy group Voices for Children, at Yale’s (then-named) Bush Center, at the Holt, Wexler and Farnam consulting group, and finally at United Way.

She talked about all that and about her goals for United Way — in tackling early-childhood education, parental support, health care, and ​“income stability”; and in acting as a communal ​“convener” — in the ​“Dateline New Haven” interview. Click on or download the audio file at the top of this article to listen to the entire episode.