Blogs

November 4, 2019

In August 2018, the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (NJHMFA) made a groundbreaking announcement: it would begin partnering with hospitals around the state to encourage them to provide affordable housing in their communities. The first of its kind in the U.S., the initiative provides financial incentives to nudge New Jersey’s health care systems to actively address some of the social determinants of health affecting their patients and neighbors. It’s a model that overwhelmingly seems to make sense to everyone involved—and that’s already garnering interest from state finance administrators around the country...

https://shelterforce.org/2019/11/04/nj-pays-hospitals-to-build-affordable-housing/

OAKLAND, Calif. — November begins the peak season for charitable giving in the United States. Over the next several months, donors and foundations will allocate billions of dollars to progressive causes. And this year, the stakes are higher than ever: The future of the climate, of abortion rights and of our democracy are on the line...

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/19/opinion/philanthropy-black-women.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage&fbclid=IwAR2NYLka8b4dUrV4jTf389MAlBSgm13L-jfecW4C-RWXhMNvsxpFe1_bewM

Do you want to make a difference in your community?

The Community Foundation Neighborhood Leadership Program is accepting registrations for an information session on Dec. 11.

What:

The Neighborhood Leadership Program is a networking, skill building and grant program for resident leaders of New Haven, West Haven, East Haven or Hamden. We are here to support you in your efforts to create a stronger community.

When & Where:

Wednesday, December 11, 2019 5:30 p.m.- 7:00 p.m.
The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven 70 Audubon St., New Haven

Why participate?

You believe in the value of community. You see an opportunity to create a change that supports community. You want to meet other people like you.

Register Now

By Lori Bezahler and Lateefah Simon
Presidents of the Akonadi and Hazen foundations

On November 16, 2019, our talented and smart Connecticut students will attend the Malcolm Bernard HBCU College Fair in New York City. See the link below for Channel 3 News Coverage.

Fixing Fathers, Inc. Channel 3 News

WSJ By Donovan X. Ramsey

A new study using sophisticated brain scans found an association between screen use and the development of young children’s brains...

Source NYT

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/04/well/family/screen-use-tied-to-childrens-brain-development

As a teenager on the autism spectrum, Roxanne was home schooled during high school because she had been bullied in the younger grades. Because of that decision, her parents did not know that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) entitled Roxanne to services that would have helped her transition to gain work experience and a job. Then the family heard about Ability Beyond, a nonprofit that empowers people with developmental disabilities to work and live as independently as possible in communities of their choice. Continue reading.

New Haven, Conn. (October 31, 2019) - The report Greater New Haven Community Index 2019: Understanding Well-Being, Economic Opportunity, and Change in Greater New Haven Neighborhoods was published today by DataHaven and a team of regional foundations, including The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, hospitals, government agencies, and community organizations. Widely used by public and private organizations throughout the region, the Community Index is a comprehensive, 120-page report with over 85 data graphics that describe the communities and neighborhoods that make up the Greater New Haven region, and uncover the opportunities and issues facing our area. 

The Greater New Haven Community Index 2019 is available for the public to download and read at http://ctdatahaven.org/reports/greater-new-haven-community-index.  It serves as an update and expansion of the Greater New Haven Community Index 2013 and 2016 reports. In 2019, DataHaven has also made similar reports available for other parts of the state. Read full press release here.

Successful Outcomes for Parents and Children

In the early 1990s, a group of Yale Law students doing legal outreach at New Haven homeless shelters were routinely meeting teenage mothers who had dropped out of high school in order to care for their babies. The young future lawyers brainstormed solutions and approached New Haven Public Schools with a proposal – help the moms stay in school by offering childcare on a school campus. 

The law students enlisted the support of early childhood education experts and formed the nonprofit Student Parenting and Family Services. The school district offered the organization the use of the old metal shop at Wilbur Cross High School and The Yale School of Architecture redesigned the space pro-bono.

The result was the Elizabeth Celotto Child Care Center, a high-quality early education program for children aged 6 months to three years old.  Since it opened in 1994, the center has cared for and educated hundreds infants and toddlers while supporting the parents with access to health services and academic counseling. Continue reading

Lynchings formed the bloody backdrop of Southern life for a century after the Civil War. Between the 1860s and 1960s, thousands of black Americans were killed in public acts of racial terror. Millions more fled to cities in the North and West in an effort to escape this environment. Many soon discovered that, in many ways, the rest of American society was no less racist...

https://www.citylab.com/equity/2017/01/a-comprehensive-map-of-american-lynchings/513293/

We need more stories about the labor that sustains society, a group of scholars say.

New technologies and their inventors are often celebrated as society’s heroes. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Larry Page: These are all contemporary “innovators” whose “visionary ideas” and “creative leaps” led to “disruptive realities”—that is, if you buy the rhetoric of certain books and novelty-oriented publications (including, sometimes, your very own CityLab)...

There’s a quote that’s stuck with me for some time from Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom: "You know why people don't like liberals? Because they lose. If liberals are so f***ing smart, how come they lose so goddamn always?"

American urbanists and bike advocates are smart, or at least well informed. We know how important cycling is. We are educated about cycling cities in other parts of the world and how they are so much better for health, well-being, economics, traffic, pollution, climate, equity, personal freedom, and on and on...

https://www.citylab.com/perspective/2019/10/micromobility-urban-design-car-free-infrastruture-futurama/600163/

It’s well known that biases often creep into the hiring process, from preferring a candidate who went to a certain university to guessing someone’s interest in a role based solely on their looks. Now there’s a study that suggests job candidates are judged on their socioeconomic status within seconds after they start to speak...

https://qz.com/work/1732327/yale-study-class-bias-against-job-candidates-forms-in-seconds/

Boston Globe PERSPECTIVE | MAGAZINE

“Is she adopted?” That was the first question my brother’s math teacher asked my mom as we awaited seating at his ninth-grade graduation ceremony. I was only in fifth grade and I didn’t know what adopted meant. But I did see my mom’s frown. Her mouth twitched and I knew what was about to come wouldn’t be nice...

https://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2019/10/26/black-siblings-aren-what-people-need-know-about-latinos-and-diversity/Nm2culxJCvWNtgo2wkP2AL/story.html

Navigating Main Streets as Places: A People-First Transportation Toolkit provides guid­ance to Main Street leaders, community advocates, local officials, transportation professionals, and everyone else in between on how to: 1) Evaluate streets and transportation through the lens of placemaking, 2) Balance the needs of mobility and other street activities, and 3) Build stronger relationships with other decision-makers and the community...

https://www.mainstreet.org/howwecanhelp/navigatingmainstreets

America’s growing geographic divide is causing experts and policy-makers to revisit one of the most fundamental policy questions:  When it comes to healing distressed places, should we favor people-based policies that essentially help residents relocate to more vibrant areas, or should we favor place-based policies that focus on rebuilding the economies of distressed places and creating new and better jobs for people where they already live?

Economists have long come down on the side of people-oriented policies that essentially bring people to jobs...

https://www.citylab.com/life/2019/09/distressed-cities-place-based-policy-jobs-economic-growth/597919/?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=citylab&utm_source=twitter&utm_term=2019-10-18T19%3A58%3A15&utm_content=edit-promo

New Haven boasts more than 90 tennis courts, ten swimming pools, three outdoor competition tracks, miles of trails, an extensive park system, a beach, gymnasiums, auditoriums, multiple professional stages and more. For more than two decades, Pequeñas Ligas Hispanas de New Haven has made the city’s extensive athletic and cultural resources accessible to Latino children and youth from low-income families. 

Pequeñas Ligas was started in 1992 when a group of parents and concerned neighbors in Fair Haven saw a need to organize and provide constructive activities for their kids. Recognizing the abundant facilities already existing in the city, the youth and family development organization developed the concept of a “youth and family center without walls.” Continue.