Contributed by LEAP
A LEAP production of the Nutcracker this past winter.
A local youth tutoring and recreation nonprofit took another step closer to remaining in charge of the recently-resurrected Q House community center as alders endorsed a contract that could last 10 more years.
The local afterschool organization LEAP — or Leadership, Education & Athletics In Partnership — has run programming in the Q House since its 2021 re-opening in a new building at 197 Dixwell Ave. after a nearly 20-year period of dormancy.
LEAP is now halfway into a three-year contract with the city to operate programming in the revived Dixwell community center, where the nonprofit has hosted everything from bingo to ballet to farmer’s markets to Halloween parties.
The city has drafted a new contract with the organization that would guarantee another five years of Q House leadership to LEAP, beginning this July (and replacing the final year of the current contract) and running through 2028. At the end of that five-year term, the city and Q House board would be able to renew the same contract annually.
That new deal recently won a key vote of support from the Board of Alders Finance Committee. The full Board of Alders is expected to take the matter up for a final vote in May. The aldermanic committee’s vote of support on April 10 followed a unanimous vote in January by the Q House Advisory Board to approve that same renewed city contract with LEAP.
Dixwell Alder and Q House Advisory Board member Jeanette Morrison, who helped bring the community center back to life.
At the April 10 Finance Committee meeting, Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison (who also serves on the Q House Advisory Board) reported that “over 800 people per week go in and out of the Q‑House,” from ages “six to 106.”
LEAP operates programming throughout the building six days per week. Its current contract allows the city to pay the organization up to $100,000 per year for managing the building.
The new contract would continue to pay LEAP a $100,000 annual management fee and would allot up to $250,000 each year for “operating expenses.”
“They really get the word out into the community,” said Board of Alders President and West River Alder Tyisha Walker-Myers in praise of LEAP. “Every time I go there, the Q House looks wonderful, just like it did when we cut the ribbon.”
Edgewood Alder Evette Hamilton commended the city and Q House Advisory Board for thinking ahead and finalizing a new contract well before the end of the current one. “Consistency of programming is important,” she said.
“During this first year of opening the Q‑House to the public, LEAP has worked with community partners and the City of New Haven to offer a wide range of services, activities, and programs to support the City’s interests and needs,” they wrote. They also noted that the city advertised a request for proposals (RFP) for the Q House management contract, and LEAP was the only entity to respond.
Q House was supposed to be a non-profit entity responsible for its own fundraising and operating expense including building it. Organizers failed so as usual, Mother State paid for it - and once again, all of New Haven is funding a new department. This $350K is just the beginning - additionally, the upcoming budget, there is another $200K in utilities, insurance, wifi and so on. So the real number is more than half a million a year and growing...and growing...and growing...