Reverend Howard Nash Community Leadership Award

Two women in leadership roles to receive awards




NEW HAVEN — The president of Gateway Community College and a Yale University political scientist will receive the 2008 Reverend Howard Nash Community Leadership Award at a breakfast at 8 a.m. May 7 at the New Haven Lawn Club, 193 Whitney Ave., officials from Community Mediation, Inc. said.
CM Executive Director Charles Pillsbury said in a prepared statement that Gateway President Dr. Dorsey L. Kendrick, above right, and research scholar Cynthia Farrar, above left, will receive the award “for their leadership roles in promoting civic engagement through dialogue and deliberation in the New Haven area, most recently last October by organizing and hosting the By the People deliberative forum on immigration at Gateway Community College.”
Kendrick became president of Gateway in August 1999. Farrar is a research scholar and director of the program on deliberative democracy and local governance at Yale University’s Institution for Social and Policy Studies, and a lecturer in political science and in ethics, politics and economics, the statement said.
The Reverend Howard Nash Community Leadership Award was established in 2002 to honor community leadership in the area of dialogue and to support The Dialogue Project. The award is named in memory of the late Rev. Howard Nash, formerly of St. Bernadette’s Roman Catholic Church, New Haven, who helped found the Dialogue Project, the statement said. Nash also was known throughout the community for “his tireless work for justice and reconciliation,” the statement said.
Community Mediation began the Dialogue Project 11 years ago in response to severe racial tensions in greater New Haven, in partnership with Interfaith Cooperative Ministries, Inc. The Dialogue Project continues to focus on creating constructive community dialogue around issues of faith, race, gender and other potentially divisive issues, such as immigration, its current focus, the statement said. The Dialogue Project is funded by The NewAlliance Foundation, United Church on the Green, Trinity Episcopal Church and Center Church on the Green. In 2006 and 2007, the Father Nash Award Breakfast was sponsored by the Archdiocese of Hartford, the Knights of Columbus , United Illuminating Co., Yale-New Haven Hospital and Yale University.

Community support groups

Greater New Haven has plenty of places where residents can obtain support and give support. Here are a couple of those groups. To list yours or one that you think might help others, let us know.


New Haven Yale Cancer Center and Yale-New Haven Hospital are co-sponsoring a bi-weekly support group for lung cancer patients, survivors, families and caregivers in the Yale Medical Oncology offices at One Long Wharf Drive in New Haven. Call 688-3218.


Branford MS Support Group meets at James Blackstone Memorial Library, 758 Main St., Branford, at 5:30 p.m. on the first Wednesday of each month. Call Maura Jean at 214-9615.
West Haven MS Support Group meets at noon Thursdays, West Haven Veterans Administration Hospital, Building 2, 950 Campbell Ave. Call Mary Lou at 932-5711, ext. 2276.
New Haven MS Support Group meets at 3 p.m. the first Wednesday of each month at Hospital of Saint Raphael, 1450 Chapel St., New Haven. Call Marilyn at 777-2050.
Derby MS Support Group meets at Griffin Hospital, Dining Room 2, 130 Division St., Derby, at 3:30 p.m. on the fourth Thursday of each month. Call Dawn Barrett at 732-7584.
Madison MS Support Group meets at Memorial Town Hall, 8 Meetinghouse Lane, 11:45 a.m. the third Wednesday of each month. Call Karen at 245-4691.
West Haven MS Support Group meets at the West Haven Veterans administration hospital, Building 2, 950 Campbell Ave., every Thursday at noon. Call Mary Lou at 932-5711, ext. 2276.


Read to Grow, Inc is looking for volunteers!
Volunteer are needed for the Books for Babies program in the Bridgeport and New Haven region. For information, call Priscilla Russo (203) 488-6800.

Youth at Work

The following is a press release issued by New Haven City Hall

NEW HAVEN - Last August, Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. celebrated the accomplishments of 1,250 New Haven teens who were employed through the city's Youth at Work Program. The program, a component of the Mayor's Youth Initiative, partners with 110 public and private employers to offer employment opportunities to city youth. The city's Youth Department is running the program again in 2008 and is now ready to accept applications for summer job placements. Through this program, students have been matched with employment at City Hall, summer camps, the Board of Education, law firms, retail stores and a number of other agencies where they received hands-on training to succeed in the workplace.

The 2008 application period begins on Monday, Feb.11. In order to participate, teens must be:
- between the ages of 14 -19
- enrolled in grade 9 or higher
- enrolled in New Haven Schools or demonstrate proof of residency in the city of New Haven

Applications are available at all New Haven Public high schools and middle schools, City Hall, at 165 Church St., 2nd Floor, and on-line at cityofnewhaven.com. Interested students are encouraged to call 946-7582 for additional information. The application period ends on May 2.

"Our young people need access to positive choices, mentors, jobs and training," said DeStefano, "Through Youth at Work we can provide them with all of this. Our city's youth are given the opportunity to explore careers, learn about what they need to do to succeed in the workforce and develop their own leadership abilities. We're expanding this program every year to include more teens over the summer and to be able to place them in jobs throughout the school-year as well."

Prior to their first day on the job, all participating youth attend training sessions where they learn about professionalism, appropriate attire, communication skills and work ethics. The program is intended to serve as a work-based learning experience designed to provide students with new skills, teach workplace responsibility and provide safe and coordinated employment opportunities for the city's youth.

Violence sparks idea for youth centers

By Elizabeth Benton
Register Staff
NEW HAVEN — Thirteen-year-old Jajuana Cole. Thirteen-year-old Justus Suggs. Sixteen-year-old Terrance Boyd. Seventeen-year-old Julian Ellis. Eighteen-year-old Tyler Coward.
All shot to death since 2006. In each case where a suspect has been identified, the shooter has been another teen.
While overall crime dropped last year, gun violence continues to plague the city. Last year, gun violence reached the highest level in at least a decade. Suspects in shootings have been getting younger.
Of 25 suspects identified in homicides and nonfatal shootings in 2007, over half were 18 or younger.
The city has released a $9.6 million initiative to establish 10 youth centers in neighborhoods across the city, citing a dearth of safe places for teens to congregate, and a “lack of things to do” as reasons given by a significant number of city teens for negative behavior among their peers.
The plan, dubbed the New Haven Beacon Youth Center Initiative, would rely on $8.4 million from the state, $1 million in private aid and $200,000 from the city.
At this point, the city has only begun to discuss its request, and none of the money has been secured.
“The idea about the Beacon Youth Centers is providing a physical space for the older youth to go in the evenings and on weekends, a safe space to congregate. Not as structured as some of the programs that already exist. What we recognize is the need for young people to have a place just to socialize,” New Haven’s Director of Youth Services Che Dawson said.
This isn’t a new need.
The city was jolted into immediate action following a rash of youth violence in the summer of 2006, which included the shooting deaths of 13-year-olds Cole and Suggs, at the hands of other teens.
Aldermen at the time wrestled with an unpopular proposal for a youth curfew. During hearings for the failed plan, they were confronted by dozens of city teens claiming they have no place beyond the streets to hang out.
Teens lamented the closure of the Dixwell Community “Q” House, which had been a popular youth and community center for 80 years until financial troubles forced its closure in 2003.
The Beacon initiative aims to re-open the place. Dawson envisions youth centers replete with recording studios, weight rooms, computers, and swimming pools, as well as health information to combat teen pregnancy and obesity.
While the city has not yet begun to explore specific partnerships, Dawson suggested youth centers could be located in spaces like the Howe Street YMCA, which already has a swimming pool. The city’s initiative could expand existing facility hours and offerings, he said.
Centers would be located in “10 strategic neighborhoods in the city,” Dawson said, including the lower Dixwell Avenue area, Newhallville, Fair Haven, north and south areas of the Hill, near Quinnipiac Terrace, Dwight/Kensington and West Rock.
While Dawson acknowledged “turf wars do exist,” he said neighborhood rivalry was not a motivating factor for the number and location of the centers. “Historically, New Haven has been a very neighborhood- driven city,” he said.
Elizabeth Benton can be reached at 789-5714 or ebenton@nhregister.com.

May the road rise to meet you...

The following is a news release from the St. Patrick's Day Parade Committee.


We Need Your Help!

The Greater New Haven St. Patrick’s Day Parade has earned a reputation as one of the best parades in New England! Many may not realize that it is the nation’s 6th oldest parade and Connecticut’s largest single-day spectator event! In 1999, the Greater New Haven St. Patrick’s Day Parade was recognized by Congress as a “Local Legacy” and is so noted in the Library of Congress as an outstanding example of American folk life.

The St. Patrick’s Day Parade annually attracts over 250,000-300,000 people from a variety of ethnic backgrounds throughout New England who come to celebrate this annual rite of spring. The parade, which first stepped off in 1842 in downtown New Haven with 60 marchers and a single band, now boasts of approximately 4,000 marchers including national and international political figures and bands and units from across the globe.

Our challenge is to keep the tradition going…and that is where we need your help! The parade is organized by an all-volunteer committee, known as the Associated Irish Societies, that works tirelessly year round to raise the approximately $80,000 it costs to make the parade happen.

You can help by making a donation to the Associated Irish Societies. All donations are tax deductible (to the extent allowed by the law) as the Associated Irish Societies, is a 501(c)3 organization.

You may make your donation by either mailing a check to Associated Irish Societies, P.O. Box 2, New Haven, CT 06510; or through the parade’s website www.stpatricksdayparade.org. Once there, click on the “Make a Donation” button and it will lead you to a very safe and secure link to make a contribution via PayPal. PayPal is free to consumers and works seamlessly with existing credit cards and checking accounts. It is a recognized safe and secure way to ensure the continuation of this “Local Legacy.”

Your support is sincerely appreciated and we look forward to seeing you at the Parade on Sunday, March 9, 2008 at 1:00 p.m.!

Greater New Haven St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee

Spirit of Mary Wade

Lauren Franchi, l, admires co-worker Carmela Borrelli's "Spirit of Mary Wade" award during a recent special breakfast for employees of the facility. Franchi also received an award for 25 years of service and 6 months of perfect attendance. Franchi is Director of Dietary. Borrelli works in the kitchen.

Photo by Melanie Stengel