Allan Appel Photo
Pink or red or salmon-colored cards up in Westville.
Westvillians raised their pink cards — or were they salmon-colored? or red? — to give the thumbs up to support for a local longtime after-school program and a job training program that has been in the neighborhood for 50 years.
The votes in support of the Greater New Haven Opportunities Industrialization Center (OIC) on Valley Street and the Edgewood PTA Child Care Program, Inc., a free-standing nonprofit housed at the Edgewood School, took place at the regular meeting of the Westville/West Hills Community Management team this past Wednesday night at the Mauro-Sheridan School cafeteria.
School Superintendent Ilene Tracey with OIC Board Chair Ernestine Kirkland.
Both groups were seeking formal letters of support from the management team to augment their requests for federal funds through Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) disbursements to be voted on by the Board of Alders.
OIC’s Program Manager Rev. Robert Lampkin is seeking $14,536 to underwrite training for eight certified nursing assistants and eight people learning phlebotomy. His group, part of national job-training program, offers the opportunity to un-employed or under-employed low income people, all living in New Haven.
The Edgewood PTA Child Care Program began 22 years ago as part of the Board of Ed, but has for a long time now been an independent nonprofit hustling for funds to continue offer child care, before and after school, to working families on a sliding scale.
In a 2014 general rollback of state funding for childcare, the group lost the salary of its director, said group representative Susan Lamar. This year they are seeking $50,000 in CDBG funding to replace that salary and to offer ten more child care slots and help subsidize the salaries of two or three teachers.
“We can’t keep going offering sliding scale without your support,” said Lamar.
Westville resident Carolyn Lusch votes.
Eligible to vote on the proposals were management team members who had attended three of the last six gatherings. When the team’s chairman, Josh Van Hoesen, distributed voting cards, there was some debate as to whether the color of the cards was red, pink, or salmon.
However, there was no debate on supporting the longtime local organizations as cards were held high across the room. The votes, authorizing the team’s board to write letters of support, were unanimous.
Last month, the group also selected and voted to support six groups across the management team area to receive a portion of the Neighborhood Public Improvement Program (NPIP) $20,000 grants organized through the city’s Livable City Initiative. The funds were dispersed as follows:
• Blake Street Traffic Calming — $1,000
• West River Watershed Coalition — $4,500
• Healthy Heart Program — $3,500
• Neighborhood Signs — $5,000
• Solar Youth — $5,000
• Victims of Gun Violence Memorial Garden — $500
