A block party with a mission is planned for June 13 by neighbors who live in the Winchester Avenue/Newhall Street stretch of Newhallville.
In order for the event to happen, organizers are soliciting the help of residents and community partners.
Teresa Smith Hines, co-chair of Newhallville Community Resilience Team (NCRT), said the upcoming block party is part of a larger series of events in the Newhallville area that will help build community. The series, called “Celebrating Newhallville 2015 block by block,” was created after results of a study done last summer showed Newhallville to be a struggling neighborhood. Members of NCRT visited 150 addresses in the area and obtained 77 completed surveys.
The study, according to Hines, attempted to answer the question: If social cohesion were improved in the area, would crime go down? Newhallville has one of the highest rates of gun violence in the city, with most of the survey respondents saying they had heard a gunshot in the area and 62 percent saying that friends or family members had been killed in a violent act.
The study asked residents, among other things, what they would like to see happen in the area. The most popular responses were community building, youth services and better policing discussions.
Hosting the block party, Hines said, is a way to show the community that their involvement in the survey was valued.
“We heard you,” Hines said. “This is our first big effort to respond.”
The block party would allow members of the community to meet one another, and improve neighbor-to-neighbor relations. Wednesday at 6 p.m., NCRT is hosting a meeting at ConnCAT at Lincoln Bassett School, where members of the community are invited to attend and share their ideas for the block party and contribute to the planning of the event.
Following the June 13 block party, plans are in the works to include other areas of Newhallville in future events.
“Most people don’t know each other,” she said. “We’re hoping to create the platform for them to meet their neighbors.”
In the past, NCRT hosted a number of other events to try and build upon community in the area. The team was formed in late 2011 in response to a number of violent incidents in the area, with the mission of uniting and strengthening the community through improved relations between neighbors.
Last year, the organizers started a series of luncheons with top Newhallville cop Lt. Herbert Sharp called “Community Conversations.” Community members were able to sit down with New Haven police officers and share their concerns. Hines, who has been a part of NCRT since its inception, stressed the importance of community engagement in order to continue these conversations and address the concerns raised in the survey.
The NCRT is seeking all “champions” to help make this block party series a success. Those interested are encouraged to come to the meeting at ConnCAT this evening, or call Hines at (203) 988‑2262 or her co-chair Nina Fawcett at (203) 940‑3808. Daniella Beltran and Maurice Williams can also be contacted for information at (216) 536‑7639 and (203) 589‑1691 respectively.
