Markeshia Ricks Photo
Newhallville Co-Chair Kim Harris encourages teams to take a radio slot.
East Shore Chair Lisa Milone updates the team on the closing ceremony.
The One City Initiative website is live. The logo for the initiative continues to evolve. And ideas and plans for 60 days of summer adventures and the expo to kick things off are coming together.
That’s the latest update from an 12-management team effort to bring the city together this summer and maybe beyond.
Spearheaded by Newhallville’s management team, neighbors gathered again for their monthly meeting at City Hall Monday evening to report their progress in laying the groundwork for “60 Days of Summer,” a community-led initiative to ensure that from June 28 until Aug. 26 families can have fun, affordable “adventures” — in every part of the city.
It was clear that neighbors already see a future for the effort beyond this summer as they contemplated changes to the logo. Newhallville’s Kim Harris said she comes at the project from the idea that often times people don’t get out of their neighborhoods to see what other parts of the city have to offer. She hopes the One City Initiative can change that, and not just during the summer.
Westville/West Hills Co-Chair Marjorie Weiner checks out the branding.
At the kick-off expo, each management team will have a table to showcase who they are and what they’re about. But there also will be opportunities for neighborhood businesses and organizations to host additional tables to promote the different free and low-cost adventures that will be offered during the 60 days of summer. There also will be fun activities at the expo including face-painting and arts and crafts for children to simply enjoy.
“Who is paying for these tables?” Florita Henderson asked, ever mindful of the bottom line. She said by summer the Dwight Management team has exhausted its funding for programs and wouldn’t be able to afford to rent tables. Also, Dwight’s team doesn’t have programs in the summer, could they still have a display to talk about what’s coming for the fall?
Dwight Management Team President Florita Gillespie wants the logo to be a little brighter and showcase all the management teams
Harris said of course and encouraged Henderson to turn to neighborhood churches that might allow the team to borrow tables in exchange for being on display during the expo. The Newhallville and Dixwell management teams have a knack for leveraging relationships for in-kind services.
Harris’s church, Mount Zion Seventh-Day Adventist Church, which recently bought out a theater room at the Bow Tie Criterion to take neighborhood children to see Black Panther, is now helping the neighborhood get information to those who don’t have access to the Internet by acting as street captains.
“Our churches are out there and they want to be of help to us,” she said.
Westville/West Hills’ Marjorie Weiner reported that she had collected two boxes of books from neighboring towns Woodbridge and Bethany that the initiative will distribute to children throughout the 60 days. And that there would be more opportunities to collect in New Haven.
Harris said she’s spoken with the folks at Union Station who are willing to do tours of the train station and provide books and engineer hats for the visiting children.
“Once you step out on faith and start asking people for help they are willing to act,” she said.
The One City Initiative will make its radio debut Thursday on WNHH’s “Dateline New Haven” program.
Was this ONE CITY Henry Fernandez's vision he proposed for New Haven during his ill-fated run for mayor? Good ideas live on! Hopefully we have not heard the last of Henry. When he goes swimming, dolphins come out to greet him. He is the most interesting man in New Haven, dare we say, the New Haven region!