100 at Newhallville school plan future without methadone clinic
Neighbors were joined by Mayor Justin Elicker, state Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, state Rep. Robyn Porter, D-New Haven and several aldermen, among others.
They also were joined by two representatives of the Clifford W. Beers Guidance Clinic, which has proposed and received state bond funds for an alternative use for the former Achievement First Elm City College Preparatory at 794 Dixwell Ave. in Newhallville.
Organizers used the second half of a meeting Thursday night at Lincoln-Bassett Community School to hold a focus group to brainstorm what they would like their neighborhood to become.
“We have to have a plan for ourselves and it has to be on paper,” said Jeanette Sykes, chairwoman of the Steering Committee and one of the organizers of the meeting. If not, “We’re going to be separated, and we don’t want to be separated.”
Another steering committee member, Katurah Bryant, said that Newhallville lags behind other neighborhoods both in people at or below poverty levels and in percentage of homeowners.
Bryant, a nurse, told the politicians in the room that they need to perform “triage” and “treat us like we need emergent care — because we do.”
Elicker told the group that officials “run for office because you want to do the right thing. I want to do the right thing,” and “we all can agree that Dixwell Avenue and that location is not appropriate.
“We have been having … very productive negotiations” with APT, which owns the property, “about other possible locations.”
It’s taking time because “we want to make sure that APT doesn’t do it in another location the way they did it here,” where the organization bought the property without talking to people in the neighborhood first, he said.
Elicker said he wants to make sure that “the next location is an appropriate location.” I said “the exciting thing here” is that there are so many people in the room who want more for their neighborhood.
Clifford Beers Community Care Center Executive Director Melanie Rossacci and Vice President of Community Support Services Tirzah Kemp both attended the meeting. The State Bonding Commission has approved $2 million to buy the property for a Clifford Beers-operated “trauma-inspired” community wellness and education center focused on youth and families.
Rossacci said Clifford Beers “has been around for 100 years” and is already doing work in Newhallville.
“We’ve been going around knocking on doors” to get a better sense for people’s needs as the agency shapes what it might do in a facility in Newhallville.
“It’s not about what we want” but about what the community needs, she said.
Kemp acknowledged that there are problems in Newhallville but said, “There’s so many strengths.”
Among the uses being discussed are a community resource center, a multi-generational approach, “a place for males to talk about trauma” and mental health services for young men, she said.
But “this is not our center. This is your center,” Kemp said.
Alder Devin Avshalom-Smith, D-20, said what residents were doing Thursday, and every time “we show up” is “something that’s powerful.
“This neighborhood used to be thriving,” but now is considered “underserved,” he said. Adding a methadone clinic “is something that would take us back 25 years … We are NOT moving backward.”
Winfield said officials “want to be visible in giving you support … This is a community that doesn’t get listened to and this (APT) is a group that wanted to come in without listening, and from my perspective, when that happens , the answer is no.”
Porter, paraphrasing the late Shirley Chisholm, said that when people don’t want you at the table, “you bring your own chairs” or “you build your own table.”
“We need to rattle the cage and make some noise…” she said. “This is not” an example of “not in my back yard,” Porter said. “This is our front yard.”