“Safe Neighborhood” Quest Looks To Year 2

One year after the long-awaited implementation of a $1 million federal grant to make Newhallville a safer place, its governance committee is examining its progress and on the hunt for a new project manager.

Current project manager Arthur Edwards is moving on to a new gig with the Board of Education. His last day with the Newhallville project was Friday.

The grant came from the U.S. Department of Justice ​“Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation” program to enlist Newhallville neighbors in the quest of making that section of the city safer over the long term.

This past Tuesday night the governance committee set up to oversee the grant’s implementation, which is made up of alders who represent Newhallville, the co-chairs of the Newhallville Community Management Team, and other neighborhood leaders, met publicly with city Youth Services Director Jason Bartlett and Edwards for a first-year update. Bartlett oversees the program from his perch at City Hall.

Rather than argue about sensitive issues in front of a reporter, the committee met in executive session to discuss Edwards’ departure and who might replace him. Members had a passionate discussion there about a grant that Bartlett awarded without the committee’s input to a West Haven group co-founded by the person who manages the Youth Services Department’s finances. 

Alder Delphine Clyburn, who sits on the governance committee, has said that she had no idea that the group had received any of the grant money and had been asking for an accounting of how the grant has been spent in the first year.

She got that information Tuesday night, noting after the meeting that the budget narrative made no mention of the West Haven group as a recipient of a grant, and Bartlett did not present at Tuesday’s meeting.

“It was $5,000!” Bartlett, who controls the grant, could be heard yelling in a small conference room Tuesday in the Opportunity Center at 316 Dixwell Ave., where the meeting was held.

According to the budget narrative that the governance committee received Tuesday, the initiative spent about $169,723 in the 30-month lead up to the first year of implementation. The bulk of that covered the cost of Edwards’ salary, a consulting contract with the University of New Haven and some Byrne grant-specific travel and training.

During the implementation year, which started April 25, 2107, one full-time and one part-time outreach worker was added to the staff. The initiative also got a headquarters in the neighborhood at 660 Winchester Ave. Grant money also started rolling out to several Newhallville-based groups to the tune of about $174,651. Year one implementation costs totaled $431,773.

After the meeting, Bartlett sent the Independent this file of regular spending reports approved by the governance committee. It shows that Clyburn signed off on Byrne ​“mini-grants” on June 4, 2016.

The Newhallville-based groups that received Byrne Grant money the first year are:

• $19,000 in sub-grants for the Newhallville Governance Committee
• $70,000 Newhallville Youth Stat
• $18,776 to Newhallville community programs
• $20,875 Newhallville Youth Ambassadors program
• $5,000 Christian Community Commission/Promise Land Initiative
• $20,00 Farmington Canal
• $10,000 NAFI Youth and Police Initiative
• $3,000 Newhallville Neighborhood Corp.
• $3,000 Neighborhood Housing Services
• $5,000 The Perfect Blend Mentoring Program

With more than half the grant spent, the narrative estimates that in the second year the remainder of the grant, or about $398,505, will be spent in a similar fashion.

Edwards noted that the main purpose of the grant was to drive down crime. Crime has indeed dropped. He said that he believed the push to have more activities — whether it was access to summer camps or jobs for the population of boys and young men who are at risk or have had previous contact with the criminal justice system — has helped make a difference. Gun-related crimes are down more than 50 percent in the neighborhood.

The other purpose of the grant was to have more coordination and less duplication of services and programs among the groups. Edwards said that also is happening.

For instance, The Perfect Blend Mentoring Program, which is run by former Newhallville Community Management Team Co-chair Jeanette Sykes, serves older girls and young women in the neighborhood. Those girls are now working with the younger girls in another program called Precious Angels, which has a similar mission.

Byrne grant funds were used to cover the cost of training provided during the One City Initiative, which united all of the city’s management teams in an effort to provide free and low-cost activities as well as skills to help people step up to leadership roles.

“The next step is how do we sustain these programs,” Edwards said.

Edwards is leaving to take a position with the Board of Education. Bartlett said he will be posting the grant manager position to find his replacement.