Laura Glesby File Photo
Rev. Boise Kimber at 2020 Newhallville Management Team meeting.
Throughout the first of six planned “listening sessions,” Newhallville residents shared cautious optimism about about the general concept — and questions about the details — of an effort to replace a planned methadone clinic with a mental health center in a former school building at 794 Dixwell Ave.
That “listening session” took place online Thursday night, drawing dozens of neighbors.
For the past few months, neighborhood resistance has been gaining momentum against the APT Foundation’s unannounced December purchase of 794 Dixwell, which the organization planned to use as office space and a substance use treatment clinic.
Since then, a different plan has emerged. In mid-March, Rev. Boise Kimber of First Calvary Baptist Church approached APT CEO Lynne Madden about buying the building; Madden expressed openness to the idea if she could find an alternative location for the methadone clinic. Kimber developed the idea for a “Resilience Academy” — a community wellness hub and gathering space with mental health services at 794 Dixwell — alongside the children and family mental health care organization Clifford Beers. Kimber and Clifford Beers last week won $2 million in state funding for the project, a significant step on the way to matching the $2.45 million that APT originally spent on the building. And in the past week, they recruited the city’s former Livable City Initiative director, Serena Neal-Sanjurjo, to help iron out the plans.
On Thursday evening, Kimber and Clifford Beers CEO Alice Forrester hosted the first of six community meetings on the proposal. Kimber said this “listening tour” will help shape plans for the Resilience Academy.
“We want to hear what the community has to say,” Kimber said. “We’re talking about: How do we grow Newhallville, and how do we be inclusive of what is going in this building?”
In a presentation to the 30 Newhallville community members who attended the first meeting, Forrester explained that Clifford Beers would offer trauma-informed mental health care at the site alongside other services.
“We understand that the traditional mental health model of going once a week is a privileged model,” said Forrester. She noted that for patients who need to work, typical mental healthcare systems are not always accessible on a regular basis. And, she added, “there’s not a trust in the system itself.” Clifford Beers would plan to include both clinical services and less traditional “peer-to-peer mentor” programs, Forrester said.
Forrester also said she hopes to build a training program directed at recruiting and teaching Black and Latino clinicians, who are vastly underrepresented among mental health professionals.
Maya McFadden Photo
Alice Forrester at a 2021 roundtable conversation.
In addition to mental health care, Kimber proposed a childcare center (with before-school, after-school, and summer programs) and a vocational training program (with classes potentially ranging from carpentry to hair styling.)
Kim Harris, the chair of the Newhallville Community Management Team, emphasized that “it’s important for community people to have leadership positions.” If a haircutting class were to come into being, she suggested, Gary Gates, whose barber shop is across from the Dixwell Avenue site, is “the best barber in town. There’s no reason he shouldn’t get that job teaching kids.”
“This building will be to empower this community,” said Kimber.
When would the Resilience Academy go live? asked Harris.
If APT agrees to sell the building, Neal-Sanjurjo replied, it could take about a year to complete the project.
Neighborhood resident Addie Kimbrough asked how much the childcare program would cost for parents.
“If there was a fee, it would be extremely minimal,” said Forrester, who pointed to Clifford Beers’ existing early childhood center as a mostly publicly-funded program.
Ward 20 Co-Chair Barbara Vereen suggested adding a “resource center” in the building “where people in the community can go and know what resources are available to them,” as well as a gathering and meeting space that various neighborhood groups could sign up to use.
Vereen also asked about the group’s plans to keep the center open in the long-term, “so that we’re not having the same conversation in five years.”
“Clifford Beers has been pretty sturdy with our longevity,” said Forrester, noting that the state bonding money would also limit the organization from selling the building in the near future.
“Part of my thinking around any kind of community development is connecting it to the community and keeping it sustainable,” said Neal-Sanjurjo.
Neighbors pressed on this point. “If you at some point need to close your doors and sell, what assurance do we have from you that you won’t sell it to a buyer the community doesn’t want?” asked resident and artist Iman Hameen (pictured). She asked Neal-Sanjurjo to include language to that effect a “written agreement.”
“You can always write into an agreement how you want it to be sustained,” Neal-Sanjurjo responded.
Harris noted that “a lot of us have one foot in and one foot out because of the way things have happened” historically in the neighborhood. It’s hard to trust that a positive community hub could really work out, she said. “If this organization comes in and doesn’t do right by us, it is your responsibility to speak up,” she urged other attendees.
Still, most attendees express tentative hope about the project.
“This conversation is a better fit with the fabric of the community,” said Ward 20 Alder Devin Avshalom-Smith.
Future “listening tour” sessions are planned on April 14, at 10 a.m.; April 20 at 6 p.m.; April 28 at 6 p.m.; May 11 at 6 p.m.; and May 25th at 6 p.m.
Newhallville beware of the carpetbaggers. The spear headers ethics are highly questionable. Better encrypt the cookie jar. There is a reason they both are unemployed.