INNER-CITY NEWS

Up-&-Coming Fashion Designer Cuts Ribbon On Audubon Shop

by LISA REISMAN

The jacket, a faded denim with a shaggy grey fur collar and cuffs, was understated, and one of a kind.

It proclaimed, in its singular style, the essence of MINIPNG, which officially opened Wednesday at 77 Audubon St. with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

“This is a woman-owned, minorityowned, independent clothing and acces sories retailer that is owned and operated by New Haven resident and local entrepre neur Eiress Hammond,” said Lauren Zuck er, Yale University Associate Vice Presi dent for New Haven Affairs and University Properties, who was clad in the jacket.

“Eiress,” Zucker said, “prides herself on creating pieces tailored to customers’ individuality, and this jacket is just one ex ample.”

“Starting a new business is so challeng ing because you’re always having to put out fires,” he said, as Hammond, stand ing alongside him, allowed herself a quiet smile.

In the crowd stood Hammond’s grand mother Christine Sherwood who, along with her grandfather, raised her in Middle town. While her granddaughter started her brand from doodling faces on a tank top

in 2019, “Eiress has always been creative, from the time she was 2, and she has al ways loved fashion.”

She has also “overcome adversity to get here,” Sherwood said most recently, the online retail service AliExpress stealing her signature design of hand-painted faces in her “In the City” tank tops and massproducing them. After decrying their ac tions on Instagram, Hammond has secured a lawyer to represent her pro bono in her efforts to remove the knockoffs from the site.

After praising the range of Hammond’s artistic creations, Ward 7 Alder Eli Sabin threw down the gauntlet.

“Watch out, Brooklyn: We’re getting pretty creative around here,” he said.

“This is a dream come true,” said Ham mond, who was clad unobtrusively in shorts, black hoodie, baseball cap, and Doc Martens, her only concession to fashion a pair of jaunty rainbow-colored legwarm ers. “I’ve been dreaming about this since I was a kid.”

With that, Zucker handed Hammond a pair of scissors. With Handsome Dan looking on, Hammond cut the ribbon. “Let’s shop,” someone called out.

Inside, Mercedes Alicea introduced her self to Hammond.

“My daughters and I, we get jazzed about clothes, making bell bottoms, that sort of thing,” she said, as sunlight streamed into the airy space. “Fashion is art. This is art.”

Stephanie Felix and Tara von Schmidt, from the Town Green Special Services District, were admiring Hammond’s signa ture hand-painted T shirts.

“It’s cool, it’s independent, it’s POC,” said Felix of MINIPNG. “Also on Audu bon. Not a lot of retail here. Only other is Koffee? with its thrift popup. But that’s just on Saturdays.”

“These are really unique pieces that you can’t find online or anywhere,” she said. “Plus they’re not just clothes but inten tional artwork.”

In the center of the space, Hammond was exchanging fist bumps with friends. “I’m just excited to bring something new to New Haven,” she said. “I’m grateful to find a retail space for my store that feels right and that fits my budget, thanks to the help from everyone, especially the people at Yale.”

Her grandmother, who was standing nearby, piped in.

“People have been so gracious,” she said. “Eiress is a good person and people see her honesty and humility and they want to help. That’s a big part of her success.”

Ribbon Cut On Health College’s New Home

by NORA GRACE-FLOOD

Hundreds of alumni, students and com munity members gathered on Southern Connecticut State University’s (SCSU) campus to tour a brand new building de voted to healthcare and human services studies and designed to strengthen a suffering sector of the state’s workforce.

While SCSU’s College of Health and Human Services first opened in July, the broader community, including local lead ers and state representatives, joined the public university for the first time on Fri day to cut a blue ribbon celebrating the glossy four-story, 94,750 square feet of classroom space and research labs.

They also came together to consider how the $17.4 million, state-funded building designed by New Haven-based firm Svi gals + Partners may help produce local experts to replenish pandemic-exacerbat ed staff shortages in critical fields such as nursing.

“Our state right now needs more mental health professionals than ever,” Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz told the audience. With nurses exiting the profession en masse and a “silver tsunami” on the way, Bysiewicz said that “what students are gonna learn in this place is more impor tant than ever.”

Sandra Bulmer, the dean of SCSU’s col lege of health and human services, said that the institute’s upgraded home will of fer students an interdisciplinary education

that will mirror the university’s own or ganizational partnerships with “over 300 Connecticut agencies to create workforce solutions.” She said the university is col laborating with Cornell Scott Hill Health Center, Clifford Beers, the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America Southern Connecticut, and Yale New Haven Health

among other institutions to train future professionals, create jobs and lead new pathways for health research.

Melody Lehrman, whose 12-year-old daughter, Amber, has received communi cations training from Southern students, attested to the impact of programming currently taking place in the university.

Lehrman said that when she first found out her daughter had down syndrome and, later, ADHD and clinical anxiety she was told her health insurance wouldn’t cover speech therapy because of a techni cality: Her daughter had been born with a developmental disorder rather than hav ing acquired communication challenges

through an injury or other means.

When the Stratford mother discovered SCSU’s speech pathology center, she said she had determined there was “no other way to get my child the speech services that she needed.” It was thanks to the uni versity’s speech language clinicians, she posited, that her daughter was able to walk into her first acting class this month and read all of her lines without a problem. “Everybody understood her perfectly,” Lehrman stated proudly.

Currently, SCSU’s Communications Disorders clinic serves an average of 150 clients from the Greater New Haven area each week.

That number has the potential to grow thanks to the construction of several spa cious clinic rooms, one-way-mirror obser vation areas, two language and learning research laboratories, and space for playbased interventions like “lego therapy.”

A host of tour guides showed wide eyed visitors those changes and a number of other snazzy upgrades following the con gratulatory speeches.

The new building including everything from a renovated fitness room outfit ted with stationary bikes and the equip ment needed to perform pre-employment screenings (which help assess whether workers applying for athletic jobs are strong enough to endure them) to a bio mechanical laboratory exploring prod

LISA REISMAN PHOTO Eiress Hammond cuts the ribbon.

Proud grandmother Christine Sherwood.

NORA GRACE-FLOOD PHOTOS Celebrating SCSU's new College of Health & Human Services building.

New Haven Independent

Gala Celebrates 202 Years Of Dixwell UCC

by LAURA GLESBY

Jana Russo-Priestly arrived at the Omni ballroom remembering the role that Dix well Avenue Congregational United Church of Christ (UCC) has played in three generations of her family’s history as well as in two centuries of New Haven’s.

Russo-Priestly was one of several hun dred congregants, politicians, and citywide partners to attend the 202nd anniver sary gala for one of the city’s oldest Black churches on Saturday morning at the Omni hotel on Temple Street.

The gala was initially planned in honor of the Dixwell UCC’s 200th anniversary, but it had been delayed for two years due to pandemic health precautions.

Guests found their seats beneath crystal chandeliers for the long-delayed gathering, celebrating the church’s legacy of fighting for justice, from the abolition movement to the AIDS epidemic.

Russo-Priestly’s family has attended UCC since the 1940s. Congregants still tell sto ries about the wedding cakes her grand mother would bake, she said. Her parents got married in the church. She had her Con firmation there.

Now, Russo-Priestly is a minister herself. Dixwell “always encouraged me to stand up, speak out” on issues like LGBTQ+ rights and reproductive justice, she said. The church’s centuries-long history of pro gressive action lives inside of her.

Seated a few tables away, Kelli Ray said that she first encountered UCC when the church’s senior pastor, Rev. Freder ick Streets, taught her at the Yale Divin

ity School. “I am a nervous person,” Ray said. “Rev. Streets helped me step out of that nervousness.”

Since joining the church community as a member, Ray challenged herself to act in plays and take on leadership roles in home less rights’ organizations. “Dixwell is so good at capturing what it means to be com mitted to social justice,” she said. She’s learned that “God is so much bigger.”

At the gala, the church honored five lo cal organizations devoted to racial and educational justice with historic ties to the church: the Amistad Committee, an orga

nization that memorializes the Amistad rebellion; the George W. Crawford Black Bar Association, named after a UCC mem ber; the Greater New Haven NAACP and the Greater New Haven African-American Historical Society, both of which were founded in part by UCC members; and the Q House.

Dixwell Church began in 1820 as a group of 24 congregants, nearly all of whom were Black and unwelcome at established white churches. In 1829, it became the first Black faith organization to be recognized within the historically white Congregation

al Church denomination. Since then, the church continued to strive, as Rev. Streets described on Saturday, for “resistance, re newal, and reform.”

The Dixwell UCC served as a stop on the Underground Railroad for enslaved African Americans seeking refuge. Its early con gregants included survivors of the Amistad slave ship, upon which enslaved Africans from Sierra Leone revolted and eventually sued for their freedom.

The church donated land for the first incar nation of the Dixwell Q House community center, which has since revived next to the

church’s latest home at 217 Dixwell Ave. According to State Rep. Toni Walker, dur ing the AIDS epidemic, the church became a makeshift classroom for children who tested positive for the highly stigmatized disease. The church has invested in local housing, substance use rehabilitation, and after-school programming.

The event’s keynote speaker, interna tional journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault, addressed the value of turning to past re silience in an era when schools across the country are escalating restrictions on teach ing Black history. “In so many schools, our history is not being taught at all,” she said.

Hunter-Gault was one of the first two Black students to integrate the University of Georgia. She fought to go to college in court with the help of her attorney at the time, Constance Baker Motley, who grew up in New Haven and who later became the first Black woman to be appointed as a fed eral judge. When she arrived on campus af ter the hard-won legal battle, Hunter-Gault faced racist riots. White protestors threw rocks at her window, she recalled, and po lice were slow to protect her.

Hunter-Gault said she drew strength from a past she had inherited: from her grand mother, who taught her a Bible verse each day; from her parents, who taught her to revere language and who didn’t doubt her future as a journalist; from her idols, like journalist and activist Ida B. Wells.

“We keep digging up the past in order to polish our armor,” said Hunter-Gault, in or der to “make a way of no way.”

LAURA GLESBY PHOTO Jana Russo-Priestley, center, with wife Anne and father Arius.

A Panther Passes On

by PAUL BASS

The state tried to frame George Edwards and lock him up for life. His fellow revolutionaries tortured him and tried to kill him. They didn’t know whom they were messing with.

He survived — and kept at his Black Panther mission for another half century, long after generations of fellow fighters left the theater.

It was kidney cancer that finally claimed the life of George Edwards. He died late last Friday in Connecticut Hospice at the age of 85.

Until his final months, he remained one of New Haven’s most visible and engaging voices, challenging power and supporting grassroots social justice crusades. Perhaps the most spied-on and messed-with political activist in New Haven history, he combined theatrical training with an unshatterable suspicion of government power to speak out wherever people gathered: on city buses, at library gatherings, at outdoor protests. You may or may not have agreed with his assertions about imperial power, CIA connections to Yale, black helicopters or the moon landing. It was impossible not to listen. Or to appreciate the man speaking.

Edwards also possessed a gentleness and kindness that endeared him to people whether or not they shared his intense convictions.

“He lived a full life,” said his daughter, Elizabeth Dickerson, who had a standing Sunday pancake breakfast date with her dad at the Hamden IHOP in his later years. They always sat at the same booth.

Edwards grew up in Goldsboro, N.C., where he engaged in his first protests with fellow high school students demanding that officials comply with the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board desegregation ruling.

He worked on B-52 bombers as an engineer for the U.S Air Force from 1955 through 1961, when he was unceremoniously removed for his role in antimilitarism protests. He later said a recording of a speech by Malcolm X had made him question his service to the United States: “I had a serious confrontation with history, politics, racism. I was becoming conscious of the world. This man had shown a light to the darkness of my brain.”

Yale School of Drama brought Edwards to New Haven, where he became a stalwart performer in the local Black Arts Movement.

When the national Black Panthers opened a chapter here in 1968, Edwards was one of its first members. Local cops and the FBI under its deadly COINTELPRO spying-and-disruption initiaive were already keeping tabs on him. He appeared on the FBI “Agitator Index’ and “Rabble Rouser Index.” His FBI file #124 – 310G would expand to 1,000 pages. It revealed how, if Edwards went to the store for a quart

of milk, an agent made sure to follow. If a friend called about a broken stereo needing fixing, cops listened in on the call and took notes. COINTELPRO aimed in part to convince Panthers like Edwards that unseen people were out to harm them, that they couldn’t trust anyone.

That ruse became fact in 1969, when a New York Panther named Alex Rackley was brought to New Haven for a show trial in the basement of an apartment at the old Ethan Gardens Coop on Orchard Street. The apartment served as New Haven Panther headquarters. The Panthers accused Rackley of being a government informant involved in disrupting the New York chapter; it would later turn out that government informants indeed infiltrated that chapter (as well as New Haven’s), but Rackley

wasn’t among them.

The Panthers tied Rackley to a chair and beat him and poured pots of boiling water over his body until he could come up with a story about serving as an informant. Edwards refused to participate in the torture. So they tied up Edwards too. With a .45 pointed at his head, he was ordered to “confess.”

Edwards was able to flee the apartment. He went into hiding. The Panthers secured Rackley for days to an upstairs bed, where he lay in his own waste.

On the evening of May 20, an order came to drive Rackley to a spot out of town, where he would be murdered. Another Panther, Warren Kimbro, who had participated in the torture, was told to contact Edwards in order to take him on the mur-

derous ride, too. Kimbro said he couldn’t reach Edwards.

New Haven police, aware of the Panthers’ every move thanks to informants and what was believed to be the nation’s largest per-capita illegal government wiretapping operation of dissidents, followed the car as it pulled out of the block. Rackley was inside. The other “discipline” target, Edwards, was not. The police chief was made aware of every move in real time. At some point police claimed they lost sight of the car as it traveled north on I-91. Rackley was taken to the banks of the Coginchaug River in Middlefield, where he was shot dead.

The cops raided the Orchard Street headquarters the next night. They arrested a group of Panthers and charged them with Rackley’s murder. They went looking for Edwards, too. They found him. And they charged Edwards in the murder, as well — the murder in which he refused to participate, the murder in which he was supposed to be one of the victims.

The case became a national cause as well as the spark for a Mayday 1970 protest that brought radicals from around the country to New Haven for a protest rally that shut down Yale and the city.

Eventually, the charges were dropped against Edwards. Battered but as determined as ever to fight the power, Edwards returned to a life of activism in New Haven.

He also had scores to settle. Like: Who truly held up the banner of revolution when it counted, and who continued to do so. He kept his beret on his head and proudly declared himself a Black Panther decades after the original party collapsed, during new iterations that sporadically popped up.

Another score concerned file #124 – 310G and others like it. In 1983, New Haven agreed to pay 1,238 citizens a total of $1.75 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over its massive illegal wiretapping operation. Victims were each awarded between $1,000 and $6,000 depending on how often they were illegally surveilled. Edwards, of course, got the full $6,000.

The money helped. Edwards never made a lot of it. He had day jobs working as a technician for Southern New England Telephone, as a staffer for New Haven government’s pioneering needle-exchange program during the AIDS crisis.

He was mostly known as an omnipresence on New Haven streets, in settings formal and informal, with stories to tell and points to make. When activists built a shantytown to push Yale to divest from apartheid South Africa, Edwards was there to help build the structures. When activists joined politicians to elect the city’s first Black mayor in 1989, Edwards was in the trenches.

“He said his job was the community,” daughter Dickerson recalled.

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The Inner-City Newspaper is published weekly by Penfield Communications, Inc. from offices located at 50 Fitch Street, 2nd Floor, New Haven, CT 06515. 203-387-0354 phone; 203-3872684 fax. Subscriptions:$260 per year (does not include sales tax for the in State subscriptions). Send name, address, zip code with payment. Postmaster, send address changes to 50 Fitch Street, New Haven, CT 06515. Display ad deadline Friday prior to insertion date at 5:00pm Advertisers are responsible for checking ads for error in publication. Penfield Communications, Inc d.b.a., “The Inner-City Newspaper” , shall not be liable for failure to publish an ad or for typographical errors or errors in publication, except to the extent of the cost of the space in which actual error appeared in the first insertion. The Publisher reserves the right to refuse advertising for any reason and to alter advertising copy or graphics deemed unacceptable for publication. The entire contents of The Inner-City Newspaper are copyright 2012, Penfield Communications, Inc. and no portion may be reproduced by any means without the written permission of the publisher.

With the first city needle-exchange van in 1991, founders Edwin Cadman, Elaine O’Keefe, Kaplan, George Edwards, Dominick Maldonado, Robert Heimer, Chris Brewer, Sonia Lugo, Kaveh Khoshnood, and Al Novick.

DAVID YAFFE-BELLANY

PHOTO George Edwards at a 2016 hip-hop conference.

As The Elements, Three Mothers Grow Community

by Lucy Gellman, Editor, The Arts Paper www.newhavenarts.org

It wasn’t clear who had murmured a joke, but laughter rose across the park, light and melodious, and drifted toward the playground. By a picnic table, blankets spread out with tupperwares of salad and pre-packed sandwiches. A pitcher of lav ender lemonade materialized from a cool er. Nearby, kids tried out hula hoops on their waists, ankles, elbows and arms. A few ran giggling towards the playground, where two slides glinted in the afternoon sun.

Welcome to “Breaking Bread In The Park,” a series from The Elements of Abundance—a.k.a. Shayla Streater, Hafeeza Turé, and Arden Santana—that builds intentional community through shared food, conversation, and both kidand adult-friendly activities. As New Haven and Connecticut morph from late summer into fall, the three are growing their footprint in the community, includ ing a fashion show in Hartford on Sept. 10 and wellness retreat for women on Sept. 24. Details for both are on their website.

“Our vision is ‘connect and build,’” Streater said on a recent episode of “Arts Respond” on WNHH Community Radio.

“We are creating a network of community, of individuals, so we can build our village outside of The Elements, where we’re communicating with other families.”

“We’re taking families and individuals out of that isolation and bringing them together,” she added. “That’s the true es sence of breaking bread.”

On a recent Saturday, that looked like an afternoon spent in community, nestled on a grassy patch between Miller Memo rial Library and Hamden’s Town Center Park. But The Elements—so named after Earth (Streater), Wind (Turé), and Fire (Santana)—have been almost a decade in the making.

Eight years ago, Streater met Santana when she was pregnant with her second daughter. “I just witnessed and watched her prepare food” while also mothering and educating her eldest child, Streater remembered. A fellow mom, she knew firsthand how big and heavy those respon sibilities could feel. She proposed that the two break bread together once a week, on Wednesday evenings that later became long, laughter-filled Friday nights.

Meals were always homemade, using pantry and fridge staples in a New Haven kitchen that became a second home. While they cooked and ate together, their kids were able to play with each other. It was a system that helped the two feel that much more grounded, said Santana, who now leads SĀHGE Academy. The two also dis covered that they shared values as moms and women, including an investment in their kids’ cultural education and intergen erational relationship building.

Then six years ago, Turé entered the mix, and immediately “fit within the piece,” Streater said. Her three children

loved hanging out with the other kids in the group. For Turé, who helms the pod cast “Labors Of Love” and moved back to Connecticut after a divorce, “it was therapy.”

“The conversation was so easy,” she said on the same episode of “Arts Respond.”

“It was always uplifting and empowering, and we had similarities, and we were mov ing through different challenges in similar ways. It was a safe space for our children, who may have been oblivious to all the stress that we were under. When we came together, it alleviated so much of that.”

The friendship also gave birth to the trio’s name, a throwback to the beloved music group Earth, Wind & Fire that makes space for their distinct personali ties. In addition to breaking bread togeth er, the three began traveling across the East Coast to learn Kizomba, a form of dance that began in Angola in the 1980s. Coming home from a class, they passed

someone on the street who looked at them, and declared “Earth, Wind, and Fire!”

“We knew immediately who we were,” Santana recalled. “And you could feel the level of respect and admiration and rev erence that he was bestowing on us when he said it. That’s the night we became the elements.”

As they’ve grown and deepened their friendship, the three have thought about how to share their work with the wider New Haven and Connecticut communi ty—particularly the women and mothers in their orbit.

On a recent Saturday, families gathered across a section of grass nestled beside Josh’s Jungle, a playground where lifesized giraffe sculptures and a sun-warmed climbing structure greet hundreds of small feet every weekend. On the sloping lawn, artist and Hood Hula founder Dia mond Tree taught kids to hula hoop one move at a time. Giggles floated over the

space. Conversation hummed and buzzed between parents and friends, all of them keeping watch on each other’s children.

On a picnic blanket, mom and daughter Sunasha and Jaylin Nixon soaked in the warmth of late August, that kind of New England heat that had just a slight edge to it. Looking around her as she spoke, Su nasha praised the event as an intentional, intergenerational community pulled to gether by three powerhouse women.

Born and raised in New Haven, she was grateful to have another layer of family in the making. A fifth grader at Elm City Montessori, Jaylin said she was also grate ful for the chance to share space with not just her mom, but with other kids in the group.

“The title speaks to it,” Sunasha said. “It’s definitely a village. I love how inten tional they are about the multigenerational community they have created.”

“It’s like another home,” chimed in Jay

lin. “It feels like a type of family, even though you’re meeting for the first time. There’s a bond.”

Just feet away, Avnah Erskine and her mom Sonia Harper smiled as conversa tion wrapped around them. Erskine, who lived with Streater when she relocated from New York, said she was excited for an event where her kids could meet other young people their age. Earlier in the af ternoon, she had delighted in watching them do a scavenger hunt together in the park. Now, she kept one eye on her 7-yearold daughter Tierney as she learned new tricks with the hula hoop.

“Breaking bread has a larger meaning,” she said. “Our children get to play, get to know each other. A lot of our children, some of them don’t get to experience things like this.”

Her words came to life everywhere a person looked. Across the grass, Diamond Tree rotated her arm carefully, the hoop moving from close to her wrist to the el bow and shoulder. On the playground, 10-year-old Amayah Erskine followed 4-year-old Silas Phillips as he clambered up a set of stairs, counted the playground’s dinosaur cutouts, and squealed in delight on his way down a slide.

Even Driss Mellouk and his young son Salah, who had come to enjoy the park after time at the nearby library, joined in.

“He was curious,” Driss said. “just hav ing fun with other kids. It’s good. When ever kids can have things to do together, it can be great.”

It’s also a release for parents. Feeding her infant daughter Amina, Alana Phillips recalled meeting Santana seven years ago, in 2015. Since then, Santana has become a mentor as Phillips has navigated mother hood twice over. Saturday, she drove from her home in Enfield to join the event.

“It’s a village,” she said. “You have people learning from other people, friends making friends. That’s always a blessing.”

In the same spirit, The Elements are planning events into the fall. On Sept. 24, they will offer “Restoration,” a hybrid af ternoon of acupuncture and acupressure, reflexology, massages, a visit from author Anita Kopacz and a sensual, pleasurefocused and movement-based practice called Chama Life. It is open to women, who often dedicate time and energy to ev eryone but themselves.

“The idea of Restoration is really pretty much for us to take a pause and a reset,” Streater said. “To pause, and to restore that energy or love back into ourselves. If we’re depleted, how do we give to oth ers?”

“We always pour into others, and we wanted to be able to pour from a full cup,” Turé added. “As divine feminine, as the mothers, as the wives, we really set the energy of those around us. So when we are coming from a healed, whole space— we really can change the vibration of the planet. We truly are building a village around taking care of ourselves.”

Freddy Fixer Focuses On Its Future

Lucy Gellman |

Arnold Hunter can remember when the Elm City Freddy Fixer Parade still rolled by his childhood home on Goffe Street, and his family gathered outside to watch.

Tayvon Berryman thinks about his first Drill-O-Rama, and wants to bring that magic back for a new generation. Hayden Worrell and Michael Gittens are just try ing to get back to parade day, because they’ve missed it so much for the past two years.

Now, all of them are part of a commu nity effort to rehabilitate the Elm City Freddy Fixer Parade, scheduled for a full weekend of events in early June of next year. Last week, two dozen attendees and members of the Elm City Freddy Fixer Pa rade Committee (ECFFPC) gathered for a community meeting on the second floor of the Stetson Branch Library at 197 Dixwell Ave., to figure out next steps for the pa rade’s future.

As it stands, the parade will return to its roots as a three-day affair, timed to coin cide with the Dixwell neighborhood festi val. The festival is currently scheduled for June 3 of next year; the parade will fol low on the 4th. The last parade took place in summer 2019, during the 55th year of ECFFPC celebrations.

“It feels great,” said Chanelle Goldson, a longtime organizer with the parade com mittee who was named president earlier this year. “It is always a huge undertaking, but I feel that everything that I’ve learned up to this point has prepared me for this position. I feel like there’s a lot of youth excitement in the community.”

Born out of a neighborhood clean-up in 1962, the Freddy has been in transition since February of this year, when board members Diane Brown, Petisia Adger, and Jacqueline Glover announced that there would be no 2022 parade due to a new ordinance from the New Haven Board of Alders. In particular, they said, the ordi nance meant that the cost of the parade, particularly paying for police overtime, could total over $100,000.

It was a number that felt prohibitive for this year, Goldson said. While the city offered to help negotiate costs, as first reported in the New Haven Independent, the ECFFPC took the year to rebuild. The committee is now actively trying to raise funds and build excitement around a comeback. After launching a GoFundMe campaign and holding its annual gala last month, it has turned its focus to next June, and to the long-term future of a parade that is now a New Haven institution.

“It’s culturally and historically signifi cant and it’s up to us to keep it going,” Goldson said. “We want to be self-sustain able. Back in the day, all the businesses, all the churches, they made it happen. We need that buy-in from the community.”

Wednesday, attendees listened quietly as Goldson listed upcoming events, then opened the floor to suggestions. In addi

tion to a growing membership program, new merch campaign and monthly meet ings at Stetson Library, the parade is roll ing out a schedule of activities this fall, in cluding a “Day of Dialogue” with students at Amity Regional High School and fund raising drive with Savers, through which the store will buy second hand items di rectly from the committee.

It has also secured its first round of sponsors and was able to score a $12,000 resiliency grant from the Arts Council of Greater New Haven. For the sake of full transparency, the Arts Paper is a program of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven but is editorially independent from it. And yet, that fundraising goal can seem far away, Goldson said last Wednesday. Earlier this year—and despite the fact that the Freddy is very much an arts event— the parade committee was turned down for grants from the Connecticut Office of the Arts, the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven and the Arts Council. It has raised only $500 of a $50,000 Go FundMe goal. Even as she sources neigh borhood input, Goldson said, she isn’t seeing the same level of support that the parade had before the Covid-19 pandemic hit New Haven.

“These funds, we have to be the first ones to support it,” she said. “The art is significant, especially for us. It’s a yearlong grassroots effort.”

That’s where the community piece comes in, she said last Wednesday. In ad dition to building support in New Haven’s

historically Black neighborhoods, she wants to collect ideas that will not just help the parade come back, but help it thrive for years to come. From the back row of chairs, 31-year-old Berryman piped up. After listening quietly, he jumped in with a new-old fundraising idea.

The founder and coach of New Haven’s Village Drill Team, he wants to see the re turn of the Drill-O-Rama competition that was long a hallmark of parade weekend— and believes it can also bring in vital fund ing for the event. For years, the Drill-ORama gathered teams from across the city to compete against each other, drawing hundreds of attendees. The parade could charge admission for competing and for attending, he said. In return, organizers could have a rule: teams in the competi tion also march in the parade. The week end becomes a celebration of their craft and of community.

“I grew up in New Haven, and the parade was everything,” he said. “Everything!”

What made it such an event was the chance to see drill teams from across the city, he added. As a young New Havener, Berryman entered the parade as a drum mer, and then switched to drill and dance around 2004. For six years, “I drilled with every team,” he said, rattling off names that included Mob Squad, Nation, Fuson, and others. After graduating from Cooper ative Arts & Humanities High School and bouncing around as a coach, he founded Village three years ago as a way to pass that tradition on.

With a Drill-O-Rama, there’s also the potential for reaching new audiences, he said. Most of his team members use Tik Tok as their primary mode of communi cation and information collection. Many of them also have community service re quirements in their schools—meaning that the Freddy could enlist their help as social media interns.

When a few attendees worried that stu dents might post inappropriate content, Berryman shook head. “Jesus is at the top of all we do,” he said with a sweet, cer tain smile. When he isn’t coaching, he’s a minister.

Around the room, attendees agreed that the competition could build interest in the weekend.

“That’s how you win over the youth,” nodded Iman Hameen, a filmmaker, mul timedia artist and community organizer who has served as president of and orga nizer with the ECFFPC. Last month, the committee honored her and her daughter, dancer Hanan Hameen, for their work with the Official Juneteenth Coalition of Greater New Haven (JCGNH).

Other attendees said they are excited for the parade to return, and plan to do their part in drumming up community inter est. Hunter, who retired from his job as a guard at the Yale University Art Gallery during the Covid-19 pandemic, remem bered growing up in the St. Martins Town houses when the route still moved past his house on Goffe Street. His father was the building superintendent, which meant that parade day “was a big day for us.”

“It was a fun thing for us to do in the city,” he said. When he became a father himself 26 years ago, he would lift his daughter Dominique on his shoulders, so that she could see the action from the best seat in the house. He remembered bring ing her several years in a row, and delight ing in the parade as he watched it through her eyes.

Over the years, it seemed that the pa rade “got smaller and smaller,” he said. He’s missed it for the past two years. So when he heard that the parade was asking for community members to come out, he connected with Brown over social media. Their exchange got him to Stetson.

“It means everything,” he said of the 2023 return of the parade. Hunter now has three grandchildren all under the age of five, and he’s excited to introduce them to the parade for the first time.

Seated in the same row, friends Worrell and Gittens said they are excited to march once more as members of the Trinbago American Connection of Southern Con necticut, which has held a place in the pa rade since 2018. For Worrell, it’s a chance not only to spread knowledge around Trin idad and Tabago and the Caribbean dias pora in Connecticut, but also to “exchange culture” in New Haven’s oldest and most historic Black neighborhoods.

“It’s part of a rich history,” Gittens said.

A Panther Passes

Another score to settle was with fellow Panther Warren Kimbro. One night in 2006 Kimbro spoke at the Yale Bookstore about a book detailing the Panther period and his subsequent life in prison for mur dering Rackley, as well as his post-prison life developing the model reentry agency Project MORE.

Edwards listened to Kimbro speak. (He lis tened to me, too; I co-wrote the book.) He listened as attendees asked Kimbro ques tions.

Then Edwards stood up. And the bookstore became his stage.

“After 37 years, five months tomorrow,” he told Kimbro, “I want a public apology for having been tied up in that basement at gunpoint, under orders of [out-of-town Panther] George Sams, a .45 to my head.” You can watch his full statement in the below video. (Apologies for the qual ity this was the dawn of online local me dia video, with rudimentary tools.)

Kimbro began with an explanation, claiming he had saved Edwards’ life. Then he gave the apology for which Edwards had waited all those years. You can watch Kimbro’s response in the videos above and below.

Daughter Dickerson, a nurse by train ing, noticed how much difficulty Edwards had getting up the stairs one Sunday earlier this year when she picked him up for their weekly IHOP pancake breafkast. His con dition had been declining for a while.

“I said, ‘Dad, it’s time.’ And he turned around and looked at me: ‘No it isn’t. Be cause I’m not finished.’

“I had to wait until he was weaker. While he was still a little ambulatory I knew he wasn’t going to hospice. I had to wait until he couldn’t walk anymore.”

“If ever I met a man in my life other than my father that helped me and groomed me to have character, strength, wisdom and pride for myself and for my people, it would have been George Edwards,” said former West River Alder Yusuf Ibn Shah, a close friend who had a regularly week day breakfast routine with Edwards in his final years.

“His consciousness, his leadership in the Black Panthers, is only a pinprick of who he was as a human being and as a man in this community. He has done so much more in this community to be honored and expressed.”

Edwards was predeceased by two sons, Che Farmer and George Browne. He is survived by daughter Angela Brown, daughter Elizabeth Dickerson and her wife Susan Baim, and former partner Elise Browne, mother of two of their children; by siblings Hilda Pate and Hazel White; and grandchildren Taivarr Divine-Brown and Jenaya Browne. He was predeceased by siblings Gloria Raibon, James Edwards, and Eddie Foxworth.

Shah and Dickerson are organizing a memorial gathering to express that honor and celebrate Edwards’ life, to take place at the Stetson Branch Library at an as-yetundetermined date. A clothing drive for the needy is also planned in his memory.

Culture & Community | Dixwell Arts & Culture | New Haven Free Public Library | Arts & Anti-racism | Elm City Freddy Fixer Parade | Dixwell Community Q House

Local teachers’ union

$75,000 grant to

for

A local teachers’ union will hire a professional organizer to advocate for the increased state funding they hope can address teacher shortages.

The New Haven Federation of Teachers received $75,000 from its nationwide parent organization, part of a total $1.5 million granted to 27 chapters around the country.

The new grant program aims to support teachers’ unions and community engagement in grassroots work. In New Haven, the funding will primarily be used to boost advocacy surrounding progressive rev-

enue, equitable school funding and expanded resources for community schools at the state level.

“Our students’ learning conditions are our working conditions, and our students’ living conditions are their learning conditions,” said NHFT President Leslie Blatteau, who traveled to Washington, D.C. to accept the award. “Everybody — teachers, students, family members — is feeling the impact of decades of underfunding in urban districts like New Haven.”

The grants are part of the American Federation of Teacher’s Powerful Partnership

Initiative, which provides direct assistance to AFT affiliates, community organizations and parent groups looking to engage in education-based advocacy.

Public schools in New Haven currently face chronic underfunding and teacher shortages in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. At last week’s NHPS board meeting, Superintendent Iline Tracy announced a district-wide shortage of 81 teachers. The district currently employs approximately 1900 teachers across its 44 schools.

Megan Thee Stallion Launches Mental Health Resources Website

by Jasmine Smith, BlackDoctor.org

Megan Thee Stallion is no stranger to giving back to her fans (or the Hotties as she calls them). This time she’s doing so through her new website, which provides mental health resources.

“Hotties! You know how much men tal wellness means to me, so I created a hub with resources that can help when you might need a hand,” the 27-year-old rapper shared in a message alongside the website.

This isn’t the first time she has shown just how much she values mental health. She also started a charity in honor of her late parents called the Pete & Thomas Foundation, which provides mental health aid in addition to education, hous ing and health services.

“My family raised me to help others and give back, so I’m incredibly proud to be in a position to accomplish that goal,” she said at the time. “I have a responsibility to use my platform to make a meaning ful impact in the lives of those who may not have access to resources and support services.”

Last October, the ‘Sweetest Pie” rapper appeared on Taraji P. Henson’s Facebook Watch series “Peace of Mind” to discuss undergoing therapy to manage her own mental health struggles.

“I’ve lost both of my parents. Now I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, who do I talk to? What do I do?’ I just started learning that it’s okay to ask for help. It’s okay to want to go get therapy,” she shared.

She also weighed in on mental health in the Black community.

“As a Black person, and when you think of therapy you think of ‘Oh my gosh, I’m weak,’ you think of medication, and you just think the worst. ‘That’s kind of what you see on TV too; like, therapy wasn’t even presented in the media as something

that was good. Now it’s becoming safe to say, ‘Alright now, there’s a little too much going on. Somebody help me,” she added. “That’s kind of what you see on TV too; like, therapy wasn’t even presented in the media as something that was good. Now it’s becoming safe to say, ‘Alright now, there’s a little too much going on. Some body help me.’

The inspiration behind the name of the new website, fittingly called “Bad Bi***es Have Bad Days Too”, directly comes from her song “Anxiety”, which is featured on her latest album “Trauma zine”. In the song, she addresses the real ity of dealing with anxiety and having bad days. She also mentions her mom, who passed away from brain cancer in 2019.

She raps:

If I could write a letter to Heaven I would tell my mama that I shoulda been listenin’ And I would tell her sorry that I really been wildin’ And ask her to forgive me, ’cause I really been tryin’ And I would ask please, show me who been real And get ’em from around me if they all been fake

It’s crazy how I say the same prayers to the Lord And always get surprised about who he take, man

I’m really thinkin’ ’bout dialin’ 911 Megan has always kept her mother close to her heart. In addition to therapy, she prays and tries to think about what her mom would do.

“When I’m feeling down, I’m like, ‘Girl, what would your mama tell you right now?’ Because if my mom was here, she’d be in my ear like, ‘What you doin’? You can do better than that.’ … I always have to keep her words in the back of my head to keep me going,” Megan said.

Work has also become an outlet for Me gan, who likes to keep busy when she’s going through something.

“I work through my emotions too. When

New Haven Proud!

Livingstone College’s Board of Trustees chooses the Rev. Dr. Anthony Davis as 13th President

In a meeting on Thursday, September 22, 2022, the Board of Trustees of Living stone College elected Rev. Dr. Anthony Davis as the historic institution’s 13th president.

Davis is the 1st alumnus to be named president in over 30 years. A 2001 mag num cum laude graduate of Livingstone, Dr. Davis’ appointment represents the res toration of a culture that has served both school and church very well in time past. As an alumnus and Presiding Elder in the A.M.E. Zion Church, Davis comes with a unique vested interest in the College’s success.

Since 2019 Dr. Davis has served as Chief Operating Officer and Vice-President of Institutional Advancement at Livingstone and prior to that he Davis served the col lege as a consultant for philanthropy and development, and led the college’s Tom Joyner Foundation School of the Month

campaign in February. As a result, the col lege raised $3.3 million in philanthropic support with $200,000 earmarked for scholarships.

He has spent the past 11 years employed as vice president for development with The Consortium for Graduate Study in Management, the nation’s oldest diversity pipeline organization. The Consortium secures and provides scholarship support for qualified underrepresented minorities (African Americans, Hispanic Americans and Native Americans) to attend 20 of the nation’s top graduate business schools.

While with The Consortium, he effec tively managed the organization’s com prehensive development program, where he provided leadership and strategic di rection for the following focus areas: cor porate philanthropy, foundation relations, individual giving and student and alumni relations, which supported and sustained Rev. Dr. Anthony Davis

the organization’s $42 million economic model.

Davis also secured the largest gift from an individual donor in the organization’s 54-year history – a $1 million philanthrop ic contribution.

He played an integral role in the growth and upward trajectory of The Consor tium’s overall development program. His collective body of work resulted in more than 120 new corporate and non-profit partnerships, securing more than $240 million in support of student scholarships. Some of those partnerships included Google, Facebook, Apple, Bain, McKin sey, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Citi and General Mills, to name a few.

A member of the Livingstone College Class of 2001, Davis graduated magna cum laude. He earned his Master of Arts degree in philanthropy and development from St. Mary’s University in Minnesota,

one of the only advanced degrees offered in this field. He attended The Fundraising School of Indiana University – Bloom ington’s Center of Philanthropy (Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapo lis) and completed his doctoral work at The United Theological Seminary, Day ton, Ohio, where he earned a Doctor of Ministry degree.

His doctoral project, “Beyond The Plate: Economic Sufficiency for an Aging Con gregation,” was a qualitative research project designed to determine if an aging congregation can be equipped, educated and empowered to realize economic suffi ciency by leveraging asset based steward ship models.

One of his favorite quotes is from John Maxwell, “There are many things we can accomplish together, and very few we can accomplish alone.”

Winfield: “Black The Vote” Higher

by THOMAS BREEN

Gary Winfield upped the ante at a “Black the Vote” campaign rally for the statewide Democratic slate by urging the party to think beyond 2022 to envision a Black governor.

Winfield, a New Haven state senator, put forward that call for the importance of diverse representation at the top of the Connecticut Democratic ticket Wednes day during an event hosted by the Con necticut Democratic Black Caucus on the second floor of the Canal Dock Boathouse on Long Wharf.

The goal of the event was to work to ward bringing Black voters to the polls on Nov. 8 to support Democratic candidates on a slate led by Gov. Ned Lamont.

“You know what I feel when I think about this?” Winfield told the room of over 100 elected officials, campaign workers, polit icos, and supporters from across the state who had gathered to support mobilizing Black voters to vote for Democrats during the upcoming Nov. 8 general election.

“I feel hungry,” said Winfield, who had initially pursued the lieutenant governor nomination in 2018 before shifting to run for reelection as state senator. “Because I haven’t been fed. And I haven’t been fed because I don’t see people like me in posi tions that I want to see people like me in. And so I’m hungry, and I’m waiting to get fed, and I need the Black Caucus to help me get fed.”

Winfield’s speech marked quite the de parture in content and in tone from those given earlier in the night by Democratic statewide constitutional office candidates Gov. Ned Lamont, Lt. Gov. Susan Bysie wicz, state treasurer hopeful Erick Rus sell, secretary of the state hopeful Stepha nie Thomas, and state comptroller hopeful Sean Scanlon, as well as Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers and May or Justin Elicker.

As Black Caucus Co-Chair, former Hart ford state legislator, and current Lamont reelection campaign staffer Brandon McGee put it as he emceed Wednesday night’s outing, the goal of the event was to “Black the vote” this November by inspiring Black Democrats from across Connecticut to make sure their peers, their friends, their family members, and their communities hit the polls to defeat various Republican challengers.

Many of Wednesday night’s speeches, therefore, focused on Democrats touting their accomplishments while in elected office, and warning of attacks on a host of issues that Black Democrats care about if Republicans win statewide office.

“It is because of these people that are on the ballot with us that got us to this very productive place,” Bysiewiecz said while standing in front of a dozen Black Democratic state lawmakers and detailing recently approved bills boosting gun con trol, children’s mental health, women’s

this year.

“We are at the precipice of a lot of things that would send us backwards,” she said.

“And I don’t need to hell anyone in this room, I’m not going back.”

“A Black Governor?” “Facts!”

When Winfield got the mic to close out the night’s speaking lineup, he encour aged those in the room to think further out than just Nov. 8 and to focus their attention and criticism on not just the op posing party.

He didn’t mention his own race for re election, against Republican challenger John Carlson. In fact, he didn’t mention any Republicans at all. Instead, as he has done so many times during his decadeplus in state elected office, Winfield spoke candidly and from the heart about how the personal and the political intersect in his own life and how, whether he likes it or not, he is so often defined by the color of his skin.

reproductive freedom, minimum wage hikes, voting access, and anti-discrimina tion.

“We are here to ask you to tell your friends, to tell everyone in your network. … We need to bring a message that this is the strength and the diversity and the power of Connecticut to make govern ment work for the people of Connecticut.”

Lamont agreed. “You set an example for what the state is all about,” he told the crowd.

“There are young people looking up at each and every one of you saying, ‘I can do this too.’ ” That’s why, he said, he wants to have the most diverse administra tion in the history of Connecticut. That’s why he wants to see more Black teachers in Connecticut schools, more Black judg es on Connecticut benches.

“When we started this caucus a couple of years ago during the middle of the pan demic, it was all about bringing people together, creating spaces for people to net work, and for us to build the party within our community and to have difficult con versations around issues impacting our community that would further legisla tion,” Russell said. It was also about set ting up a path for people to run for office, get skills to become campaign managers, “build a bench.”

“The vision was this, tonight,” he said. Thus the importance of “making sure that we are getting our community engaged and out to vote,” and making sure that “our community turns out in huge num bers” in November.

“It is time for us to Black the vote,” Thomas said, holding out the microphone to the crowd and receiving a resounding “Facts!” in response. That means voting for Democrats for office, she said. That means voting “yes” on the early voting constitutional amendment ballot question

“Tip O’Neill once said all politics is lo cal,” Winfield told the room. “I’m gonna tell you this. I’ve lived in New York City. I’ve lived in upstate New York. I’ve lived in Virginia. I’ve lived in Florida. I can keep going. And everywhere I went, you know what mattered more than where I was? Who I was. All politics is about what my identity is, and my identity starts with being Black.”

“That’s right!” members of the audience shouted back in response.

“What I’m saying to you all is, we need to get fed,” Winfield continued. “And we need to have this caucus function and do what it needs to do. And sometimes that means, yes, getting a snack on Nov. 8, be cause that’s what I call that.”

But the Democratic ticket up for election on Nov. 8 isn’t his “ultimate goal,” the New Haven state senator said. Nov. 8 is just a “stop on the road.” “This is about much more than that.” He then pointed his mic out at the audi ence.

“Do you want a Black speaker” of the state House of Representatives? he asked. “Facts!” the crowd replied.

“Do you want a Black president of the senate?”“ Facts!”

“Do you want a number two” that is, a lieutenant governor, who is Black? “Facts!”

“Do you want a Black governor? “Facts!”

“The way we get it is by supporting this,” Winfield concluded about the Black Caucus. “By putting money into it, by put ting energy into it. And even when it goes wrong, understanding that that’s right this minute. That’s not forever. Thank you for coming to my city tonight.”

THOMAS BREEN PHOTO Winfield at Canal Dock campaign event: "Hungry" for representation.

Gov. Lamont.

Black Caucus event attendees and New Haven Public Schools teachers Sean Hardy and Dee Mar shall …

Sisters’ Journey September Survivor of the Month – Jane Ellen Miller

I began 2013 planning my 60th birthday bash. It was an absolute blast with family, friends, food and plenty of fun. I was truly blessed to have so many people I’m close to travel from various states to help me celebrate this milestone.

Oh, what a difference a few months can make! I noticed something unusual one morning but could not allow myself to believe something was amiss. After all, I had already been through quite a bit – multiple kidney surgeries and eventual kidney removal, brain surgery to remove a tumor, major foot surgery that resulted in a permanent plate with six screws. Surely, there was not something else. However, the next morning when I got up, again I noticed something was not right. Less than a month had passed since I had a mammogram come back negative. Nonetheless, I woke up with a bloodstain on the front of my nightgown. My mind couldn’t process what I was seeing. It took two nights of the same thing happening before I realized I needed to call my primary care doctor.

After listening to me describe my symptoms, my doctor referred me to an oncology breast surgeon who ordered a biopsy. It came back negative. However, my

Ribbon Cut On Health

ucts like carbon fiber insoles to protect “diabetic feet” against ulcerations that can require amputations. Each element of the building was deliberately designed to better academic possibilities while serving members of the surrounding community, such as New Haven and Hamden, tour guides explained.

The college’s nursing division even showcased a simulated apartment constructed to give aspiring caretakers the chance to practice in-home care before getting into a client’s house.

“We’ve got a full working bathroom,” Dr. Rodriguez Keyes informed onlookers.

“We’ve got food in here,” she continued, rummaging through a stretch of kitchen cabinets.

Even the building’s staircase, which many might think was installed to allow people to travel between floors, as stairs do, was described as “specifically designed to get people moving,” by one tour guide.

“We train the workforce for the state of Connecticut, and we take that responsibility very seriously,” College Dean Sandra Bulmer stated.

Transitioning his focus from investors and visitors, SCSU President Joe Bertolino turned to the university’s students with a plea: “Stay, work, and pay taxes in Connecticut.”

surgeon did a second biopsy because of how the tissue looked which came back positive in October 2013. I was diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). God made sure my youngest brother John was with me when I got this news. As we left the doctor’s office, John’s strength (he fought his own cancer battle) and God’s presence kept me unusually calm and at peace with this devastating diagnosis.

There were many more doctor visits as I made decisions about choosing a treatment plan, a radiologist, a medical oncologist and a plastic surgeon. I also met with the Tumor Board which consisted of six doctors specializing in various aspects of breast cancer. My surgeon (with my permission) brought my case to them to review, study and offer insights on the best methods to treat my type of cancer for the best possible outcome. (The things you learn on this journey.) I discussed the pros and cons of various procedures and medications including Tamoxifen, which I opted not to take. While this is a good option for many, it was not for me.

After weighing all the information, I decided on a mastectomy with recon-

struction because of the potential lower risk factors than radiation and chemotherapy. This was another jarring process that included three additional surgeries throughout the month of December. It also included adjusting expanders and placing an implant in the non-cancerous breast for symmetry.

My first post-op was on December 23. During my hospital stay, it was discovered that I have a sleep disorder. The detection saved my life and I have gotten some of my best sleep in years. A daily pill for six years was added to my treatment. After a few months of debilitating side effects including acute bone pain, I consulted my oncologist. She didn’t think my situation was severe enough to warrant a change.

I continued my daily routine, enduring more bone pain, until it began to impact my quality of life. I began to research alternatives. I also spoke with other women who had endured breast cancer and had experience with various medications.

As I did more research on my medication, I worried about potential side effects, including back fractures. I armed with the information I had accumulated. But before I could share my findings, my oncologist informed me that we should try Exemestane, an estrogen blocker which might slow or reverse the growth of my type of breast cancer. I was extremely pleased with this recommendation, as it was the same one for which I had planned to ask. I had little to no side effects. Along this journey, I’ve learned many lessons. One

that was reinforced for me, is that you have to be an advocate for yourself and seek the expertise of others.

Through highs and lows, faith and family have been my strength. My cousin Joan, my medical go-to person most of my life, has always been a reassuring and loving personal and professional voice that I trust. My church family at Bethany Baptist Church supported me throughout this journey and the support has not stopped. Time and again, my pastor declared I would be healed, and he was right! My son James-Brian (JB) is my rock. My parents instilled strength and resilience in me, but JB is the reason I continue to be strong and filled with hope. The child shall lead them – Isaiah 11:6. While I was in the hospital recuperating, JB encouraged me to eat a more healthy and organic diet, including more fruits and vegetables and less red meats. He is influencing me on a more vegan way of eating. Routine exams continue to come back negative and I’ve never felt better. Through it all, I am grateful to God for sustaining me through many trials and tribulations. My pastor often says, “You don’t look like what you’ve been through.” I’m nine years thriving.

Pols Pump Heating Aid Budget Boost

by THOMAS BREEN |

Low-income Connecticut residents like Marc Criscio who need help covering their heating bills this winter can now tap into a state energy assistance program newly infused with an extra $20 million.

State and federal pols gathered at the Community Action Agency of New Haven (CAANH) headquarters at 419 Whalley Ave. Monday morning to celebrate that funding boost, and to get the word out about the Connecticut Energy Assistance Program (CEAP) as the season changes and cooler temperatures kick in.

“People are turning on their heat. It’s fall in New England,” U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said while standing alongside U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, Gov. Ned Lamont, state Department of Social Services (DSS) Commissioner Deidre Gifford, and CAANH CEO Amos Smith.

And as the thermostat readings drop, he said, too many Connecticut residents face an “unacceptable choice: Heat or eat.”

The reason for the presser, DeLauro emphasized during her time at the mic, is that Connecticut will be receiving a roughly $20 million increase from the federal government to help low-income residents pay for their heating and electricity bills this winter.

That’s because, under DeLauro’s leadership as the chair of the powerful Appropriations Committee, Congress included

an additional $1 billion for the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) in the continuing budget resolution that that federal legislators approved last week.

“As long as I have the gavel and the pen,” DeLauro promised, “we’re going to increase funding in this area.”

What exactly does this funding boost mean for income-eligible Connecticut residents?

It means Connecticut residents earning up to 60 percent of the area median income (AMI) can apply to the state’s low-income energy assistance program to receive between $250 and $600 to help cover household heating costs.

The state makes these heating payments directly to utility companies on behalf of eligible individuals, Gifford said. Community action agencies across Connecticut then work with fuel delivery companies to

make those deliveries to eligible recipients of state aid.

Gifford said that the $20 million federal boost will bring funding for Connecticut’s low income energy assistance program from around $80 million to $100 million for the current federal fiscal year.

“It means that we will be able to provide more heating help to the families who qualify for the program,” Gifford said.

“If you make as a family of four less than $76,000 or as an individual less than about $40,000, you’re eligible for this program,” Blumenthal said. “You should apply. Heat or eat should not be your choice.”

Lamont agreed, urging eligible recipients to apply now — especially given how volatile energy prices likely will remain this winter.

“Take advantage of this program right now,” Lamont urged. “If you’re home, fill up your heating tanks. I can’t promise you what supply is going to look like in January and February. We’re in a very turbulent time. Now is the time to plan ahead.”

Smith thanked the state and federal politicians for the funding boost, and for coming by the Whalley Avenue social services hub to make sure that people apply for that aid while it’s available.

“This particular piece of help will save some families from being dislodged from their housing,” Smith said. “They’re having to deal with the escalating costs of the price of rent, and they’re having to deal with the escalating costs of the price of fuel

CAANH staffer Sybil Cooke: Most frequent calls are for heating help.

New Haven Independent

CDC Addresses Health Inequities Among Pregnant & Postpartum People with ‘Hear Her’ Campaign

By Wanda Barfield, MD, MPH, Director, Division of Reproductive Health

The Centers for Disease Control and Pre vention (CDC)’s Hear Her campaign raises awareness of potentially life-threatening warning signs during and after pregnancy and encourages the people supporting pregnant and postpartum people to really listen when they express concerns.

Valencia, one of the women featured in the campaign, talked about her experi ence with a pregnancy-related complica tion. During her first pregnancy, Valencia struggled with headaches and dizziness. When she reported worsening symptoms, she felt like no one took her seriously. I didn’t know who to talk to and wasn’t sure how to speak up for myself,” she recalled. It was her primary care provider who fi nally helped her get the care she needed. Valencia is among the many people who face serious health complications during and after pregnancy. CDC launched Hear

Her to raise awareness of the potentially life-threatening warning signs during and in the year after pregnancy.

Too many people die from pregnancy-re lated complications each year. Tragically, 80% of these deaths could be prevented. There are considerable racial disparities when it comes to pregnancy-related deaths. Black and American Indian/Alaska Native women are two to three times more likely to die of pregnancy-related causes than white women.

A number of factors contribute to the maternal mortality rate among Black and American Indian/Alaska Native women. Structural racism and implicit bias can play a role in the disparity. For example, delayed prenatal care initiation is associ ated with personal experiences of bias and racism. Protective factors also do not seem to convey the same risk reduction for some minority populations. For example, we see persistent disparities in maternal mortal ity, regardless of educational attainment.

In addition, access to quality care can be an issue. For example, it has been found that hospitals that disproportionately cared for Black women at delivery had increased poor outcomes for both Black and white women in those hospitals.

To address racial and ethnic disparities in maternal mortality, CDC supports the work of Maternal Mortality Review Com mittees around the country to get quality data about the circumstances surrounding a pregnancy-related death, including the documentation of bias, discrimination, and racism. These data are used by committees to make recommendations to prevent fu ture pregnancy-related deaths and are also used by CDC to better understand maternal mortality across the nation.

A better understanding of pregnancyrelated deaths can lead to identifying the initiatives that will have the most impact.

Standardized quality care can ensure the right care in the right places at the right time for women. And high-quality care

doesn’t end at delivery. It should extend into the postpartum period up to a year af ter delivery when about a third of pregnan cy-related deaths occur.

Many pregnant and postpartum people may feel ignored or dismissed when shar ing their concerns, which may make them hesitant to ask questions or speak up. Not fully listening may cause healthcare pro viders to miss warning signs that require urgent care. Hear Her encourages partners, friends, family, and healthcare profes sionals to really listen when a person says something that doesn’t feel right. Acting quickly could save their life.

For more information, visit cdc.gov/Hear Her

Wanda Barfield, MD, MPH, FAAP, is the Director of the Division of Reproductive Health (DRH) within the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Breast Cancer Doesn’t Discriminate… But Treatment Does?

by Dominique Lambright, BlackDoctor.org

Physicians typically use additional tests to detect or diagnose breast cancer if a patient is concerned that a previously dis covered lump may be malignant. Women may be sent to a breast surgeon or spe cialist. She does not have cancer or need surgery at this time. Breast issues are com mon, and these specialists are skilled at di agnosing them.

Whether breast cancer is detected, more tests are performed to determine if the disease has progressed beyond the breast. Staging describes this process. Your breast cancer’s stage is based on whether it has simply spread inside the breast, to the lymph nodes beneath your arm, or be yond the breast. In order to choose the best course of therapy, physicians need to know the breast cancer’s subtype and stage.

Black Women & Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is an equal opportunity disease in terms of getting it, but Black women have a 41% higher mortality rate than white women. We must understand the demographics of breast cancer, the factors that predispose women to de velop the disease, the different subtypes of breast cancer, and the preventative measures that can be taken to lessen the likelihood that women, particularly Black women, will suffer from the disease and ultimately succumb to it. The ability to anticipate problems and head them off may save and even extend lives.

One of the few ways this can be done is by greatly encouraging and elevating the importance of really changing the game

on Black women participating in clinical trials, improving outcomes, and changing the statistics around the 40% difference in survival rate for Black women vs. white women.

The mortality rate from breast cancer is 2.6 times higher among women of color under the age of 30 than it is among white women. Under 35-year-old Black women are twice as likely as white women to be diagnosed with breast cancer. That’s a long time before the advised age of 40 when women should get their first mam mogram.

Size-Fits-All

Cancer treatments aren’t a one-sizefits-all kind of thing, particularly when it comes to African American women. To highlight the need to increase minority enrollment in clinical trials, the California Black Health Network (CBHN) recently hosted a virtual panel discussion with medical experts and survivors.

Breast Health: Women, Wisdom, and Warriors was the most recent entry in the Health4Life Series from the CBHN. The WISDOM study, or Women Informed to Screen Depending On Measures of risk,

was a major topic of conversation because of its emphasis on the significance of reg ular breast screenings for Black women and the need for more Black women to participate in research.

Many Black women see the doctor and go out knowing nothing more than when they walked in. Your doctor may not know much about your disease, but that shouldn’t stop you from researching it or seeking a second opinion.

A doctor’s ignorance should not decide the future. We just don’t have the scien tific knowledge to make it happen at the moment. The per centage of African Americans who take

part in clinical trials is 3%.

In addition, socioeconomic determinants of health, including poverty, lack of access to treatment, and racism in medicine, are often held responsible for the unequal re sults of breast cancer.

Treatment Efficiency

After completing therapy, Black women still have a 39% greater recurrence risk than white women. Black female survi vors had a relative risk of mortality 71% greater than white female survivors.

Standard-of-care medications have been shown to be effective in clinical studies, and here’s the kicker: Instead of testing them on Black people, they were used on white women. So, it couldn’t be more ob vious, that we don’t respond to the medi cations how they expect. Drugs aren’t be ing appropriately tested if only given to white women since our bodies aren’t used as controls.

When a medicine finally comes out that says, “This drug is particularly for Black breast cancer, for Black women,” that will be a beautiful day. Improving scientific knowledge is the only path to making it a reality, and it’s one that must be priori tized. Despite the fact that not everyone requires the same kind of screening, what goes on throughout the screening process is also overlooked.

Increasingly, we hear, “We’re getting better.” In fact, death rates are indeed de creasing. Treatment for breast cancer is improving, but it is worrying that Black women are not benefiting from these advancements at the same pace as other women.

Wanda Barfield

Study Finds Community College System Fails to Produce Equitable Outcomes for Black Students

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

More than one in three Black community college students are in poverty, and widespread inequality in community colleges deepened throughout the pandemic for Black students facing basic needs insecurity.

According to a new report from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies on the state of Black students at community colleges, an alarming 70 percent of Black students experienced food or housing insecurity or homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The report highlighted that while Black students remain disproportionately represented in community colleges, policy barriers prevent the system from producing equitable outcomes.

“Black workers are struggling to make ends meet during this health and economic crisis. Community colleges provide a path forward to ensure workforce readiness for all, but there are barriers holding back Black students from reaching their full potential,” Dr. Alex Camardelle, the director of workforce policy at the Joint Center, said in a news release.

“On average, Black students at community colleges experience lower graduation rates and earn tens of thousands of dollars less after graduation while having to take on more debt than their peers to pay for

school,” Camardelle stated.

He noted that things should be different.

“With targeted basic needs support, child care, improved transfer pathway policies, and better evaluations of community college outcomes by race, our policymakers can do right by Black community college students,” Camardelle added.

“And the biggest takeaway of all — making community colleges tuition-free will benefit Black students the most.”

Joint Center researchers said basic needs insecurity is also closely associated with enrollment declines.

“While COVID-19 emergency funds authorized by Congress pushed community colleges to introduce more support for meeting students’ basic needs, barriers to accessing those supports remain,” study authors found.

For example, 68 percent of Black male students at community colleges experience basic needs insecurity.

Still, only 31 percent of those with need accessed on campus resources meant to connect students with aid because too few knew they were available or do not know how to apply, the researchers discovered.

Meanwhile, the authors concluded that Black student enrollment at community colleges has steadily declined over time and has dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Among the chief findings:

From fall 2019 to fall 2021, enrollment fell 18 percent for all Black students and 23.5 percent and 15 percent for Black men and Black women, respectively.

Black community college students experience the lowest graduation rates when compared to their peers of other races and ethnicities.

The gap between Black and white graduation rates more than doubled from a fourpercentage point gap in 2007 to an 11-percentage point divide in 2020.

The typical Black community college graduate earns $20,000 less per year than their classmates.

White households with workers who hold a high school diploma earn $2,000 more than Black community college graduates.

Over two-thirds (67 percent) of Black students borrowed money to pay for community college compared to 51, 36, and 30 percent of white, Hispanic, and Asian students, respectively.

Further, researchers found that Black community college graduates owe 123 percent of the original amount they borrowed 12 years after beginning their community college journey.

Full report https://jointcenter.org/wpcontent/uploads/2022/09/The-State-ofBlack-Students-at-Community-Colleges. pdf

Morgan State University students win Zillow’s HBCU Hackathon with app that measures financial credibility outside of credit scoring

SEATTLE – Zillow’s second HBCU Housing Hackathon, which drew more than 200 students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), awarded top prizes to teams that devel oped innovations to help renters and firsttime buyers find their dream homes.

The top three finishers in the hackathon, in collaboration with the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) and Amplify 4 Good, won over the judges with projects that offer impactful tech solutions that align with Zillow’s mission to help con sumers overcome obstacles in their jour ney to find a home.

ZillowBears, a team of four Morgan State University students, won first place and $20,000 for its “Z-Save” application, which estimates monthly mortgage costs and lets users deposit that amount into a virtual wallet that tracks their payment trends. The app also shows lenders data points to help determine whether potential homeowners qualify for a mortgage and offer them a way to prove creditworthi ness outside the traditional credit scoring system. Zillow® also will donate $25,000 to Morgan State’s computer science pro gram as part of the first-place prize.

“I wanted to participate in the hackathon to learn more about the real estate industry and explore on a deeper level how tech nology can help solve the most promi nent issues people face every day when trying to secure a home,” said Nanfwang Dawurang, a member of ZillowBears and a senior computer science student at Morgan State University. “Seeing how different people look at the same issue in completely different ways and the various innovative and exciting ideas presented in tackling housing issues showed me that progress can always be made when people come together and are intentional about solving a problem.”

The HBCU Hackathon brought together 65 teams. Six teams advanced to the final round and had five minutes to present their ideas virtually, using live demonstrations and presentation decks, to a panel of judg

es made up of Zillow and tech industry leaders.

“We are very impressed with the caliber of the work, the quality of the presenta tions, and the outstanding, innovative ideas the students displayed at Zillow’s second HBCU Housing Hackathon,” said Aldona Clottey, Zillow vice president of Corporate Social Responsibility and one of the judges. “With 20 schools repre sented, this hackathon not only helps Zil low continue to foster engagement among HBCUs, but it allows us to tap our next generation of technology leaders to help ensure we are continuously evolving as a company and positively impacting the technology industry as a whole.”

Joining Dawurang on the first-place team were Oluwadara Dina, Saad Nadeem and Godsheritage Adeoye. Their winning “ZSave” application was designed to address disproportionate mortgage denial rates for Black and Latinx borrowers due to low credit scores by providing an alternative way for lenders to assess financial cred ibility. Users can build a positive payment history and receive a “Z-score,” which can be used as an indicator of creditwor thiness.

Zillow HBCU Hackathon Runners-Up

The other hackathon prize winners were teams Straw Hat Crew of Fisk University and First Move of Howard University.

Team Straw Hat Crew won second place and $12,000 for its “Hey Roomie” concept, a Zillow rental hub integration that uses machine learning to pair renters with potential compatible roommates or cosigners based on housing and lifestyle preferences.

Straw Hat Crew included Collins Ikpeyi, Sopuruchi Ndubuisi and Elijah Okoroh.

Team First Move won third place and a $6,000 prize for “VibeZ”, an application geared toward millennial and Gen Z home shoppers that lets users search for homes

based on community preferences, such as access to nightlife, greenspaces, the pres ence of an art scene and more.

First Move team members included Bryce Gordon-Pinkston, Ife Martin, Ayo tunde Ogunroku and Joshua Veasy.

The semifinalist teams were:

Team Atom of Alabama State University, with team members Arnold Bhebhe, Best Olunusi, Robert Mukuchura and Lucky Chitundu

Broker Bears of Morgan State Univer sity, with Efosa Isujeh, Subomi Popoola, Martin Adu-Boahene and Dimitri Watat

Rocket of Howard University, with Jer emy White Jr., Karis Lewis, Morayo Ad eyemi and Tyler Williams

Judges of the semifinal round included Lakshmi Dixit, Zillow vice president of Tech Engineering and Operations; Kevin Regensberg, Zillow senior technical prod uct manager; Damien Peters, founder, Wealth Noir; Richard Clay, investment partner, Door Room Fund; and Chad Womack, Ph.D., vice president of Nation al STEM Programs and Tech Initiatives at UNCF.

All students from the top three teams also will receive new laptops and textbook gift cards, and all eligible hackathon par ticipants interested in a role at Zillow will have an opportunity to interview for an internship.

The hackathon’s final pitch round was judged by Zillow and tech industry leaders that included Eric Bailey, vice president of Experience Design at Zillow; Aldona Clottey, vice president of Corporate So cial Responsibility at Zillow; April Daley, software engineer at Etsy; Jonathan Rabb, founder and CEO of Watch The Yard; and Chad Womack, Ph.D., vice president of National STEM Programs and Tech Initia tives at UNCF.

Ghana and Other African Nations Who Enslaved and Sold Blacks to Europeans to Formally Apologize

By BlackNews.com

Delegates from Ghana, Kenya, and other African countries will meet in Kansas City to have a long overdue conversation about the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. A cultural assemblage is set to converge on Kansas City, as the vision of The United Nations Decade of People of Af rican Descent realizes a significant event, Wednesday, September 28th, 2022. “It’s time to say what needs to be said to all African Diaspora and we must have the conversation and resolve our actions and inactions as rulers of our Kingdoms dur ing the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade which is deeply regretted,” as expressed by Nana Obokese Ampah I, Apagyehen of Asebu

Kingdom, Ghana, Founder and President of Obokese University of Excellence.

Supported by the only UNESCO Cre ative City of Music in the United StatesKC, a solemn ceremony will include a pilgrimage to the site of the Quindaro Underground Railroad site in Kansas City, Kansas where dignitaries and 100 del egates from Ghana will gather along with local and national leaders. “It isn’t enough to ask others for an apology. We must first forgive ourselves,” said Obokese.

The slave trade regularly used the trian gular trade route and its Middle Passage and existed from the 16th to the 19th centuries. Some were enslaved and trans ported in the transatlantic slave trade were people from Central and West Africa that

had been sold by other West Africans to Western European slave traders, while others had been captured directly by the slave traders in coastal raids.

The highly anticipated ceremony will set the tone for the week as the assembly of over 100 Ghanaians is set to promote unity while bridging an international UNESCO Ghana-UNESCO- Kansas City initiative for a long-lasting fruitful exchange and to foster ongoing trade, tourism, and cultural enrichment.

For more information on the Quindaro Underground Railroad site, visit https:// davids.house.gov/media/in-the-news/ quindaro-once-stop-underground-rail road-gets-new-life-federal-designation

Second-annual competition challenged participants to develop new technologies to help consumers during their journey to find a home.

Team First Move from Howard University won third place at Zillow’s HBCU Housing Hackathon: (L-R) Bryce Gordon-Pinkston, Ife Martin, Ayotunde Ogunroku and Joshua Veasy.

Team ZillowBears from Morgan State University won first place at Zillow’s HBCU Housing Hackathon: (L-R) Nanfwang Dawurang, Godsheritage Adeoye, Oluwadara Dina and Saad Nadeem.

Team Straw Hat Crew from Fisk University won second place at Zillow’s HBCU Housing Hackathon: (L-R) Collins Ikpeyi, Sopuruchi Ndubuisi and Elijah Okoroh.

GOVERNOR LAMONT

IS WORKING FOR US BY:

Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour

Passing paid family leave so workers can care for sick loved ones

Suspending the 25-cent gas tax

Expanding healthcare to 40,000 people

Making historic investments in public education, including new funding for early childhood education

Biden Student Debt Forgiveness Plan Begins, Not Ends States Must Increase Funding, Hold More Bad Actors Accountable

By Charlene Crowell

President Joe Biden’s recent student debt cancellation announcement elicited a diverse range of reactions– some congratulatory, others critical, and still others that seem unsure what to make of the unprecedented multi-billion-dollar effort.

Predictably, long-time education and civil rights advocates spoke to the need for additional reforms, while others wondered about cancellation’s impact on an already troubled economy. Families struggling with the rising cost of living and deepening student debt –have only a few months to make household budget adjustments before loan payments resume in January.

The good news is that of the 43 million people affected by the executive action, 20 million borrowers will have all of their debt cancelled. Many of these borrowers incurred student loans but dropped out of school, left with thousands in debt and lower earnings due to the lack of a degree.

Another 27 million people from working class backgrounds who received Pell grants are assured of up to $20,000 in debt relief.

But these actions do not resolve the structural mismatch between the still-rising costs of college, limited family financial means to contribute to that cost, and the availability of financial aid other than interest-bearing loans.

“We’ve all heard of those schools luring students with a promise of big paychecks when they graduate only to watch these students be ripped off and left with mountains of debt,” stated President Biden on August 24. “Well, last week, the Department of Education fired a college accreditor that allowed colleges like ITT and Corinthian to defraud borrowers…Our goal is to shine a light on the worst actors so students can avoid these debt traps.”

It seems like a perfect time for the Department of Education to clean house of all the bad higher education actors — especially costly for-profit institutions that promise a lot but deliver little, and accreditors that fail to do their jobs.

On August 30, following President Biden’s announcement, the Department of Education took action against another defunct for-profit: Westwood College. This trade school lured unsuspecting students into costly debt from January 1, 2002 through November 17, 2015 when it stopped enrolling new borrowers in advance of its 2016 closure. The Department found widespread misrepresentations about the value of its credentials for attendees’ and graduates’ employment prospects.

“Westwood College’s exploitation of students and abuse of federal financial aid place it in the same circle of infamy occupied by Corinthian Colleges and ITT Technical Institute,” said Under Secretary James Kvaal. “Westwood operated on a culture of false promises, lies, and manipulation in order to profit off student debt

that burdened borrowers long after Westwood closed.”

Now, 79,000 Westwood borrowers will benefit from $1.5 billion in debt cancellation, thanks to the Department.

Changes to Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program rules will allow borrowers that would not otherwise qualify, to receive credit for past periods of repayment. Interested borrowers and their families can get more information on the program’s information page, but they must act by October 31. Details on the time-limited offer are available at:https://

studentaid.gov/announcements-events/ pslf-limited-waiver.

But individual states must do their part as well. Across the nation, state revenues are flush with surpluses.

“I don’t think there’s been a time in history where states are better equipped to ride out a potential recession,” said Timothy Vermeer, senior state tax policy analyst at the Tax Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. “A majority, if not all, of the rainy-day funds are in a really healthy position.”

Additionally, and according to the 2021

edition of the annual State Higher Education Finance (SHEF) report, short-changing higher education funding at the state level will likely lead to worse, not better results. The report tracks enrollment trends, funding levels and distributions of state institutions.

“Generous federal stimulus funding protected state revenues and directly supported higher education, reducing states’ need to cut funding during the pandemic and short economic recession,” states the report’s news release. “However, sharp declines in student enrollment and net tuition and fee revenue signal continued upheaval for public higher education revenues.”

Federal stimulus funding during the pandemic boosted state education appropriations, but only 8.9 percent of state aid to public institutions in 2021 went toward providing student financial aid, according to SHEF. And without federal stimulus funds, state education appropriations would have declined by one percent in 2021 if full-time enrollment had held constant, according to the report.

“States vary in their relative allocations to higher education,” states the report.

“Public institutions in some states remain primarily publicly funded, but a growing proportion have become primarily reliant on student tuition and fee revenue over the last two decades.”

The report notes that while federal stimulus and relief funds are helpful, they cannot be a replacement for long-term state investments, because stimulus funds are time-limited and often restricted in their use.

If we want to end the student debt trap, now is the time for citizens to challenge states to use their tax revenue to do more for their own constituents.

Charlene Crowell is a senior fellow with the Center for Responsible Lending. She can be reached at Charlene.crowell@responsiblelending.org.

Megan Thee Stallion Launches

people start to see me a lot or when my schedule gets really full, I’m probably going through something because I wanna keep my mind busy,” she shared.

Upon entering the site, you will find a list of free therapy organizations, a national crisis text line, a suicide & crisis lifeline, substance abuse, and mental health administration national helpline among other resources. The site also offers resource directories for projects benefitting the Black community including therapy for Black women and men, LGBTQ Psychotherapist of Color Directory, and Black mental wellness, to name a few.

When to seek help

According to the Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, Black adults in the U.S. are more likely than white adults to report persistent symptoms of emotional distress, such as sadness and feeling like everything is an effort.

If you are experiencing any of the following, it may be time to seek help:

• Excessive worrying or fear

• Feeling excessively sad or low

• Confused thinking or problems concentrating and learning

• Extreme mood changes, including uncontrollable “highs” or feelings of euphoria

• Prolonged or strong feelings of irritability or anger

• Avoiding friends and social activities

• Difficulties understanding or relating to other people

• Changes in sleeping habits or feeling tired and low energy

• Changes in eating habits such as increased hunger or lack of appetite

• Changes in sex drive

• Difficulty perceiving reality (delusions or hallucinations, in which a person experiences and senses things that don’t exist in objective reality)

• Inability to perceive changes in one’s own feelings, behavior or personality (”lack of insight” or anosognosia)

• Overuse of substances like alcohol or drugs

• Multiple physical ailments without obvious causes (such as headaches, stomach aches, vague and ongoing “aches and pains”)

• Thinking about suicide

• Inability to carry out daily activities or handle daily problems and stress

• An intense fear of weight gain or concern with appearance

Fortunately, Megan has made finding help even easier. All the tools you need are in one place.

To visit her website www.badbitcheshavebaddaystoo.com

Developers Make History, Sell Out Black-Owned Micro Home Community in Less Than 2 Months

BlackBusiness.com

The group of African American real estate developers who are building a Black-owned micro home community called South Park Cottages in College Park, Georgia, were able to sell out all of their award-winning-designed, technologicallyadvanced micro homes in just 50 days.

The community, which was built to allow residents to live more abundantly by utilizing advanced energy-efficient tech nology, is the 7th largest micro home community in the coun try and the largest in the state of Georgia. Even more, it is located just 15 minutes away from the city of Atlanta and 5 minutes away from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport.

Booker T. Washington, Founder and CEO of the project, says that his goal was to develop an innovative and affordable com munity that drives his primary mission to increase value while maintaining the integrity of the community. Over the past 5 years, as an investor and real estate developer, he has individu ally developed more than $5 million in real estate assets.

Rashad Jones-Jennings, Co-Founder & COO of South Park Cottages, is a retired NBA player who once played for the Philadelphia 76ers. He too says that he is focused on devel oping and redeveloping the same disadvantaged communities that he grew up in.

Others involved include Pauline Harris, who provides supe rior service and personal expert guidance throughout the home financing process; Quiana Watson, who offers full-service real estate brokerage services; and Cristyl Kimbrough, who is a real estate lawyer that helps buyers with the pre-closing and post-closing process.

For more details about the project, visit SouthParkCottages. com or follow the project on Instagram at @TechieHomes

California Cities are Pilot Testing Guaranteed Basic Income Programs

Manny Otiko | California Black Media

Guaranteed basic income isn’t a new idea.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr talked about the idea of low-income people receiving regular checks from the government in the 1960s. It was brought up again during the 2020 presidential campaign when Demo cratic candidate Andrew Yang, a technol ogy entrepreneur, made it a major part of his platform.

However, Yang was advocating for Uni versal Basic Income (UBI), which guaran tees payments to everyone.

Guaranteed basic income only targets low-income people.

According to Yang, some kind of guaran teed basic income program is going to be necessary for the future when technology makes many jobs obsolete. A 2020 World Economic Forum study predicted that technologies such as artificial intelligence and robotics would eliminate 85 million jobs by 2025. However, guaranteed basic income programs are gaining steam across California as poverty alleviation. Several cities are carrying out pilot programs.

Los Angeles County is conducting a guar anteed basic income pilot program called Breathe. The program provides $1,000 to 1,000 LA County residents over a threeyear period. The program will be evaluated by researchers at the University of Penn sylvania’s Center for Guaranteed Income Research.

Breathe is overseen by the county’s Pov erty Alleviation Initiative. 180,000 resi dents applied to take part in the program.

On a single day during the process, 95,000 people submitted applications, according to a county press release.

To qualify for Breathe funds, the appli cants had to be at least 18 years old, have a single-person household income under $56,000 or $96,000 for a family of four, and have experienced negative impacts due to COVID-19.

One motivation behind the Breathe pro gram was the COVID-19 pandemic, which laid bare the problems of poverty and in come inequality.

“The course of this pandemic has revealed the large number of County residents who are living on the brink of the financial cri sis, with insufficient savings to weather a job loss, a medical emergency, or a major car repair. This guaranteed income pro gram will help give residents the breathing room they need to better weather those cri ses,” said Supervisor Sheila Kuehl. Other guaranteed basic income programs are being pilot-tested in California.

Miracle Messages, an outreach program for the unhoused in San Francisco, start ed to pilot test a program called Miracle Money last year. Miracle Money provided $500 to homeless people. And the initial program seemed to be a success. Accord ing to Miracle Messages, about 50% of the people in the test group were able to find housing after they received the cash pay ments. Miracle Money was funded by a

GoFundMe campaign.

Oakland Resilient Families is a Bay Area program that provides a $500 grant to families for 18 months. The program stresses it is different from universal basic income. “Guaranteed income is meant to provide an income floor but not meant to be a replacement for wages. Guaranteed income can also be targeted to those who need it most,” according to the organiza tion’s website. Oakland Resilient Families is funded by donations.

Mountain View, another Bay Area city is setting up a new guaranteed basic income pilot program called Elevate MV. The pilot program promises to give, for two years,

$500 a month to 166 low-income families with at least one child or who are currently pregnant. Elevate MV is operated through the Community Services Agency, a nonprofit organization.

In San Diego County a guaranteed in come pilot program was launched in March 2020. One hundred and fifty house holds with young children residing in one of the four priority ZIP codes in the county — Encanto, Paradise Hills, National City and San Ysidro — are receiving $500 a month for two years. The $2.9 million program is run by Jewish Family Service of San Diego with funding from Alliance Healthcare Foundation and from the state’s

budget surplus.

These programs, including LA County’s Breathe program, are modeled after a universal basic income program that was tested in the city of Stockton. The Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (SEED) provided $500 to 125 low-income residents for 24 months.

The research showed that the SEED pro gram worked, according to a National Pub lic Radio (NPR) article.

“Among the key findings outlined in a 25-page white paper are that the uncon ditional cash reduced the month-to-month income fluctuations that households face, increased recipients’ full-time employment by 12 percentage points, and decreased their measurable feelings of anxiety and depression, compared with their controlgroup counterparts,” said NPR.

Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs launched the SEED program in 2019. Following the promising results of the pilot program, in 2020 Tubbs launched Mayors for Guaran teed Income, a coalition of 60 mayors who are advocating for a guaranteed income program to ensure that all Americans have an income floor.

Tubbs lost his bid for re-election in 2020 and is now an adviser to Gov. Gavin New som who is a proponent of guaranteed in come.

The post California Cities are Pilot Test ing Guaranteed Basic Income Programs first appeared on Post News Group. This article originally appeared in Post News Group.

Largest-Ever HBCU Week Coming to Walt Disney World Resort Next Month October

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – High school students from across the Southeast and beyond will descend on Walt Disney World Resort next month for the largestever HBCU Week featuring a huge college fair, a parade of high-stepping marching bands, a fierce battle of the bands and a live ESPN broadcast.

A record number of high school students (more than 5,000) and Historically Black Colleges and University representatives (nearly 50) will take part in the weekend event, October 7-9, 2022, when more than $10 million in scholarships are expected to be awarded, which would be another event record. Since 2017, more than 3,500 on-the-spot admissions have been offered, along with more than $23 million in schol arships.

This is the first time in its five-year his tory that the HBCU Week Foundation is hosting its annual event at Walt Disney World Resort, which is expanding the foundation’s ability to stage new and more high-profile activities for its attendees.

As a result, this year there will be a pa rade of HBCU bands down Main Street, U.S.A. at Magic Kingdom Park; a battle of the bands at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex along with the college fair; a live broadcast of ESPN’s First Take show fea turing HBCU Week ambassador Stephen A. Smith and show host Molly Qerim; and several Lunch and Learn seminars for students to gain educational and career insights.

Delaware State, Bethune Cookman, North Carolina A&T, Winston-Salem State and Alcorn University will partici pate in the parade at Magic Kingdom and compete in the Battle of the Bands.

“We are pleased to share in the mission to highlight the rich history and cultural significance of HBCUs, creating educa tional and, ultimately, career opportunities for students,” said HBCU Week Founder and CEO Ashley Christopher. “Host ing this national event at Walt Disney World Resort helps amplify the mission of HBCU Week, attracting more parents and students throughout the country to our events and helps make an even greater impact in fostering opportunities for thou sands of students.”

Disney’s involvement in HBCU Week is part of a relationship between HBCU Week Foundation and Disney on the Yard, an initiative focused on deepening Disney’s engagement with HBCUs. By working more closely with HBCUs, Dis ney aims to continue building a long-term pipeline of Black employee talent through the development of student internships, mentorship opportunities, career and em ployee spotlights, scholarships and more.

“This event is an ideal collaboration in that it highlights Disney’s commitment to supporting HBCUs and the mission of HBCU Week,” said Avis Lewis, Vice President Human Resources, Walt Disney Imagineering and Disney Parks Interna tional. “We are pleased with the immense momentum we are seeing already, with

unprecedented attendance at the college fair and a host of exciting events planned.

We look forward to seeing students and parents from all over the Southeast enjoy ing this event and all the magic of Disney while they are here.”

Disney theme park admission and res ervations are required for entry to Magic Kingdom Park for the HBCU Week band parade. Tickets are also required for the Battle of the Bands at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. There is no admission charge for all other HBCU events.

For more information about HBCU Week and for students to register for the College Fair, visit http://www.HBCU Week.org. Follow HBCU Week at Face book, Instagram and Twitter.

About HBCU Week

HBCU Week was founded by Ashley Christopher, Esq. in 2017. It is managed by the HBCU Week Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. HBCU Week consists of multi-day events held throughout the nation each year, designed to encourage high school-aged youth to enroll in HBCUs, provide scholarship dol lars for matriculation and sustain a pipe line for employment from undergraduate school to corporate America. A highlight of our events is the College Fair, which offers on-the-spot college acceptance and scholarships to qualified high school seniors. http://www.HBCUWeek.org. Fol low HBCU Week at Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

About ESPN Wide World of Sports

Complex

ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, located at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, is a premier site for amateur sports in the nation. The complex has hosted more than 100 entertainment and sporting events each year and has accommodated 70 different sports featuring athletes from 70 different countries. Designed to pro vide professional, amateur and youth ath letes with experiences synonymous with the names Disney and ESPN, the 220-acre facility features multiple competition ven ues, including 16 baseball/softball fields, a 9,500-seat ballpark, 18 multi-purpose outdoor fields for soccer, football, and field hockey, three indoor venues for bas ketball, volleyball, cheerleading, dance and other indoor sports, a track and field

facility and a cross country course. For more information, visit disneysportsnews. com for news releases, photos and videos, follow on Twitter at @ESPNWWOS and at Facebook at ESPNWWOS.

About Disney on the Yard Inclusion is at the heart of everything we do at The Walt Disney Company. Disney on the Yard was established to deepen engagement and relationships to Histori cally Black Colleges and Universities. We are energized and committed to creating meaningful connections through student internships, networking, mentorship op portunities, career showcases, and more. We will continue to make a difference and move in a more inclusive direction where everyone can be their authentic selves.

HBCU College Fair, Parade of Bands, Battle of the Bands and ESPN First Take live broadcast among event’s key components; Record number of HBCU college scholarships expected to be awarded on the spot

Delaware State, Bethune Cookman, North Carolina A&T, Winston-Salem State and Alcorn University

Director of Regional Planning and Municipal Services

NOTICE

Town of Bloomfield

CLERK TYPIST

Director of Building and Land Use

VALENTINA MACRI RENTAL HOUSING PRE- APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE

The South Central Regional Council of Governments (SCRCOG) is seeking to fill the Director of Regional Planning and Municipal Services position. Visit www.scrcog.org for the full position description, qualifications, and application requirements. Applications are to be submitted by 4:00 PM local time on Wednesday, October 26, 2022. Questions may be emailed to jobs@scrcog.org.

SCRCOG is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.

ELM CITY

HOME INC, on behalf of Columbus House and the New Haven Housing Authority, is accepting pre-applications for studio and one-bedroom apartments at this development located at 108 Frank Street, New Haven. Maximum income limitations apply. Pre-applications will be available from 9AM TO 5PM beginning Monday Ju;y 25, 2016 and ending when sufficient pre-applications (approximately 100) have been received at the offices of HOME INC. Applications will be mailied upon request by calling HOME INC at 203-562-4663 during those hours. Completed preapplications must be returned to HOME INC’s offices at 171 Orange Street, Third Floor, New Haven, CT 06510.

$101,455 to $156,599 (expected starting pay maximum is mid-range) Pre-employment drug testing. For more details, visit our website – www.bloomfieldct.org

Deadline: Applications will be accepted until sufficient applications are received

Performs a wide variety of routine clerical duties requiring excellent computer and interpersonal skills. This position requires 1 year of office work experience of a responsible nature and a H.S., GED, or business diploma. Wages: $21.83 to $26.43 hourly plus an excellent fringe benefit package. Apply: Department of Human Resources, Town of Wallingford 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492. Forms will be mailed upon request form the Department of Human Resources or may be downloaded from the Department of Human Resources Web Page. Phone: (203) 294-2080 Fax: (203) 2942084. The closing date will be that date the 50th application form/resume is received or September 30, 2022 whichever occurs first. EOE

HEALTH DIRECTOR

NOTICIA

Invitation for Bids

Temporary Emergency Relocation

VALENTINA MACRI VIVIENDAS DE ALQUILER PRE-SOLICITUDES DISPONIBLES

City

APPLY NOW!

HOME INC, en nombre de la Columbus House y de la New Haven Housing Authority, está aceptando pre-solicitudes para estudios y apartamentos de un dormitorio en este desarrollo ubicado en la calle 109 Frank Street, New Haven. Se aplican limitaciones de ingresos máximos. Las pre-solicitudes estarán disponibles 09 a.m.-5 p.m. comenzando Martes 25 julio, 2016 hasta cuando se han recibido suficientes pre-solicitudes (aproximadamente 100) en las oficinas de HOME INC. Las pre-solicitudes serán enviadas por correo a petición llamando a HOME INC al 203-562-4663 durante esas horas.Pre-solicitudes deberán remitirse a las oficinas de HOME INC en 171 Orange Street, tercer piso, New Haven , CT 06510

The Town of Wallingford is seeking a highly qualified individual to direct and manage the Town’s public health programs and services. Applicants must meet the educational requirements of CGS § 19a-200, plus have 5 years of responsible local public health program experience, including 5 years in public health code enforcement. Must possess and maintain a Registered Sanitarian license, CT DPH Phase II Subsurface Sewage Certification, and a valid CT Drivers’ license. Salary: $111,179 to $142,255 annually plus an excellent fringe benefits package. A complete job announcement and application may be downloaded from the Department of Human Resources Web Page and can be mailed to the Department of Human Resources, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492, or emailed to: wlfdhr@wallingfordct.gov by the closing date of October 3, 2022. Phone: (203) 294-2080; Fax: (203) 294-2084. EOE

September 21, 2022 at 3:00PM.

State of Connecticut Office of Policy and Management

NEW HAVEN

The State of Connecticut, Office of Policy and Management is recruiting for a GIS Analyst (Research Analyst) and a Planning Analyst

Fairmont Ave

DRIVER CDL CLASS A

Information Technology

2BR Townhouse, 1.5 BA, 3BR, 1 level , 1BA

All new apartments, new appliances, new carpet, close to I-91 & I-95 highways, near bus stop & shopping center Pet under 40lb allowed. Interested parties contact Maria @ 860-985-8258

Further information regarding the duties, eligibility requirements and application instructions are available at: https://www.jobapscloud.com/CT/sup/ bulpreview.asp?R1=220908&R2=6855AR&R3=002 and https://www.jobapscloud.com/CT/sup/ bulpreview.asp?R1=220908&R2=6297AR&R3=001

The State of Connecticut is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and strongly encourages the applications of women, minorities, and persons with disabilities.

SAYEBROOKE VILLAGE

Administrative Application Technologist. The Town of Wallingford Public Schools is seeking a highly skilled individual to provide technical assistance in managing its organizational data system needs. The position requires 4 years information technology experience in a K-12 school environment which includes 2 years’ experience with Microsoft Office, PowerSchool, Crystal Reports, or similar reporting software. Must have own transportation to travel between schools in the district. Wages: $32.86 hourly plus an excellent fringe benefit package. Apply to: Department of Human Resources, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492. Forms will be mailed upon request from the Department of Human Resources or may be downloaded from the Department of Human Resources Web Page. Phone # (203) 294-2080, Fax #: (203) 294-2084. Closing date will be September 30, 2022 EOE

PUBLIC WORKS

Town of Bloomfield

SEYMOUR HOUSING AUTHORITY

Sealed bids are invited by the Housing Authority of the Town of Seymour until 3:00 pm on Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at its office at

Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 for

Smithfield Gardens

and

Smith Street

Coventry Housing Authority is accepting applications for both its HUD and State Elderly/Disabled affordable housing. Annual income limit for HUD is $23,700 (one person) & $27,050 (two people), and for the State Elderly/Disabled is $62,600 (one person) & $71,550 (two people). Interested parties may pick up an application at the Coventry Housing Authority, 1630 Main St., Coventry, CT, download one at coventryct.org, or have one mailed. Completed applications must be postmarked, emailed or hand delivered no later than December 12, 2022.

A pre-bid conference will be held at the Housing Authority Office 28 Smith Street Seymour, CT at 10:00 am, on Wednesday, July 20, 2016.

For more information

Bidding documents are available from the Seymour Housing Authority Office, 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 (203) 888-4579.

The Housing Authority reserves the

to

or

Assistant Building Official $39.80 hourly

MAINTAINER II - Performs a variety of semi-skilled tasks in road and grounds maintenance. Must possess 2 years’ experience as laborer in construction work involving operation and care of trucks and other mechanical equipment used in construction OR two (2) years training in one of the skilled trades and one (1) year of experience in construction operations OR an equivalent combination of experience and training. Must possess and maintain a valid commercial driver’s license (CDL) Class B to operate equipment. (Provide a copy of your CDL license with your application) $23.73 - $27.82 Hourly. Applications may be obtained at the Department of Human Resources, 45 S. Main Street, Room 301, Wallingford CT 06492. Forms will be mailed upon request from the Department of Human Resources or may be downloaded from the Department of Human Resources Web Page. Fax (203)-294-2084 Phone: (203)-294-2080. The closing date will be the date the 50th application or resume is received or September 30, 2022, whichever occurs first. EOE

POLICE OFFICER

of Bristol

Construction

Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/V Drug Free Workforce

to

Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming, Inc seeks:

Construction

NOTICE

operate. Location: Bloomfield CT

Construction Equipment Mechanic preferably experienced in Reclaiming and Road Milling Equipment. We offer factory training on equipment

offer excellent hourly rate & excellent

Contact: Tom Dunay Phone: 860- 243-2300

VALENTINA MACRI RENTAL HOUSING PRE- APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE

Seeking to employ experienced individuals in the labor, foreman, operator and teamster trades for a heavy outside work statewide. Reliable personal transportation and a valid drivers license required. To apply please call (860) 6211720 or send resume to: Personnel Department, P.O. Box 368, Cheshire, CT06410.

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING FOR THE ELM CITY COMMUNITIES/HOUSING AUTHORITY OF NEWHAVEN (ECC/HANH) PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO THE HCV ADMINISTRATIVE PLAN (ADMIN PLAN)

Email: tom.dunay@garrityasphalt.com

& Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply Affirmative Action/ Equal

Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming, Inc seeks:

Reclaimer Operators and Milling Operators with current licensing and clean driving record, be willing to travel throughout the Northeast & NY. We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits

HOME INC, on behalf of Columbus House and the New Haven Housing Authority, is accepting pre-applications for studio and one-bedroom apartments at this development located at 108 Frank Street, New Haven. Maximum income limitations apply. Pre-applications will be available from 9AM TO 5PM beginning Monday Ju;y 25, 2016 and ending when sufficient pre-applications (approximately 100) have been received at the offices of HOME INC. Applications will be mailied upon request by calling HOME INC at 203-562-4663 during those hours. Completed preapplications must be returned to HOME INC’s offices at 171 Orange Street, Third Floor, New Haven, CT 06510.

Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/V Drug Free Workforce

PVC FENCE PRODUCTION

Elm City Communities, the Housing Authority of the City of New Haven (ECC/HANH) is proposing to amend sections of its Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Administrative Plan (Admin Plan).

The thirty (30) days comment period begins on Monday, September 12, 2022, and ends on Tuesday, October 11, 2022.

Copies of the amendment to the HCV Administrative Plan will be made available on Monday, September 12, 2022 on the agency website www.elmcitycommunities.org or via Twitter, www.twitter.com/ECCommunities or via Facebook www.facebook.com/ ElmCityCommunities

NOTICIA

Contact: Rick Tousignant Phone: 860- 243-2300

Email: rick.tousignant@garrityasphalt.com

VALENTINA MACRI VIVIENDAS DE ALQUILER PRE-SOLICITUDES DISPONIBLES

Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer

Large CT Fence Company looking for an individual for our PVC Fence Production Shop. Experience preferred but will train the right person. Must be familiar with carpentry hand & power tools and be able to read a CAD drawing and tape measure. Use of CNC Router machine a plus but not required, will train the right person. This is an in-shop production position. Duties include building fence panels, posts, gates and more. Must have a valid CT driver’s license & be able to obtain a Drivers Medical Card. Must be able to pass a physical and drug test. Please email resume to pboucher@atlasoutdoor.com. AA/EOE-MF

You are invited to provide written comments addressed to: ECC/HANH, Admin Plan Revisions; Attn: Evelise Ribeiro, 360 Orange Street, New Haven, CT 06511 or via email to: eribeiro@elmcitycommunities.org.

A public hearing where public comments will be accepted and recorded is scheduled for Tuesday, October 11, 2022 at 4:00pm via RingCentral: https://v.ringcentral.com/jo in/975943490?pw=2e34ff6769797e68e96a95bb953d0d81

Union Company seeks:

Tractor Trailer Driver for Heavy & Highway Construction Equipment. Must have a CDL License, clean driving record, capable of operating heavy equipment; be willing to travel throughout the Northeast & NY. We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits

HOME INC, en nombre de la Columbus House y de la New Haven Housing Authority, está aceptando pre-solicitudes para estudios y apartamentos de un dormitorio en este desarrollo ubicado en la calle 109 Frank Street, New Haven. Se aplican limitaciones de ingresos máximos. Las pre-solicitudes estarán disponibles 09 a.m.-5 p.m. comenzando Martes 25 julio, 2016 hasta cuando se han recibido suficientes pre-solicitudes (aproximadamente 100) en las oficinas de HOME INC. Las pre-solicitudes serán enviadas por correo a petición llamando a HOME INC al 203-562-4663 durante esas horas.Pre-solicitudes deberán remitirse a las oficinas de HOME INC en 171 Orange Street, tercer piso, New Haven , CT 06510

Contact Dana at 860-243-2300

Email: dana.briere@garrityasphalt.com

Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer

HAVEN

Construction

Seeking to employ experienced individuals in the labor, foreman, operator and teamster trades for a heavy outside work statewide. Reliable personal transportation and a valid drivers license required. To apply please call (860) 621-1720 or send resume to: Personnel Department, P.O. Box 368, Cheshire, CT06410.

Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/V Drug Free Workforce

State of Connecticut Office of Policy and Management

ID: 975943490

yozWY5m3ib

Or Phone: +12679304000 United States (Philadelphia, PA) Access Code / Meeting ID: 975943490

password: 9699956342

Any individual requiring a Reasonable Accommodation to participate in the hearing may call the Reasonable Accommodation Manager (203) 498-8800, ext. 1507 or at the TDD Number (203) 497-8434.

SAYEBROOKE VILLAGE

The Guilford Housing Authority is currently accepting applications for single person and two person households for apartment waitlist at Guilford Court and Boston Terrace in Guilford, CT. Applicants must be age 62 and over or on 100% social security or federal disability and over the age of 18. Applications may be obtained by call the application line at 203-453-6262 EXT 107. Applications will be accepted until November 23, 2022 at 4PM. Credit, police, landlord checks are procured by the Authority. Smoking is prohibited in the units.

The State of Connecticut, Office of Policy and Management is recruiting for a Labor Relations Specialist.

Equal Opportunity Housing

Wood Framed, Housing, Selective Demolition, Site-work, Castin-place Concrete, Asphalt Shingles, Vinyl Siding,

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

Snow Plowing and Snow Removal Services at Various

Division

Further information regarding the duties, eligibility requirements and application instructions for this position are available at: https://www.jobapscloud.com/ CT/sup/bulpreview.asp?R1= 220815&R2=5256MP&R3=001

Bid

Appliances, Residential Casework,

Electrical, Plumbing and Fire

Haven Parking Authority Facilities

Haven, Connecticut

Project #23-022

Proposals due October 28, 2022 at 3:00 PM.

Anticipated

The State of Connecticut is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and strongly encourages the applications of women, minorities, and persons with disabilities.

Documents will be available beginning October 4, 2022 at no cost by

John Zdru, Director of Maintenance at jzdru@nhparking.com .

Tour of the Sites will be held on October 18, 2022 at 11:00 AM.

DRIVER CDL CLASS A

Fax

Full Time – All Shifts Top Pay-Full Benefits

EOE Please apply in person: 1425 Honeyspot Rd. Ext. Stratford, CT 06615

Haven Parking Authority is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

Director of Regional Planning and Municipal Services

The South Central Regional Council of Governments (SCRCOG) is seeking to fill the Director of Regional Planning and Municipal Services position. Visit www.scrcog.org for the full position description, qualifications, and application requirements. Applications are to be submitted by 4:00 PM local time on Wednesday, October 26, 2022. Questions may be emailed to jobs@scrcog.org. SCRCOG is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.

NOTICE

VISO DE AUDIENCIA PÚBLICA PARA LAS COMUNIDADES DE LA CIUDAD DE ELM/AUTORIDAD DE VIVIENDA DE NEWHAVEN (ECC/HANH) ENMIENDA PROPUESTA AL PLAN ADMINISTRATIVO DE AVC (PLAN ADMIN)

VALENTINA MACRI RENTAL HOUSING PRE- APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE

Elm City Communities, la Autoridad de Vivienda de la Ciudad de New Haven (ECC/HANH) propone modificar secciones de su Plan Administrativo de Vales de Elección de Vivienda (HCV) (Plan Admin).

Plant Maintenance Mechanic

Highly skilled mechanic needed in the repair and maintenance of all plant equipment

El período de comentarios de treinta (30) días comienza el lunes 12 de septiembre de 2022 y finaliza el martes 11 de octubre de 2022.

Las copias de la enmienda al Plan Administrativo de HCV estarán disponibles el lunes 12 de septiembre de 2022 en el sitio web de la agencia www.elmcitycommunities.org o a través de Twitter, www.twitter.com/ECCommunities o a través de Facebook www. facebook.com/ElmCityCommunities

HOME INC, on behalf of Columbus House and the New Haven Housing Authority, is accepting pre-applications for studio and one-bedroom apartments at this development located at 108 Frank Street, New Haven. Maximum income limitations apply. Pre-applications will be available from 9AM TO 5PM beginning Monday Ju;y 25, 2016 and ending when sufficient pre-applications (approximately 100) have been received at the offices of HOME INC. Applications will be mailied upon request by calling HOME INC at 203-562-4663 during those hours. Completed preapplications must be returned to HOME INC’s offices at 171 Orange Street, Third Floor, New Haven, CT 06510.

State of Connecticut Office of Policy and Management

include pumping station equipment and motor vehicles for the Town of Wallingford Sewer Division. Requires graduation from a high school/trade school and 4 years experience in the repair and maintenance of mechanical equipment. Must obtain a CDL Class B motor vehicle operator license within 6 months of employment. $30.85 to $36.18 per hour plus an excellent fringe benefit package. Application forms may be obtained at the Department of Human Resources, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492. Forms will be mailed upon request from the Department of Human Resources or may be downloaded from Town of Wallingford Department of Human Resources Web Page. Phone: (203)-294-2080. Fax (203)-294-2084. The closing date will be September 27, 2022 or the date the 50th application is received, whichever occurs first. EOE

SENIOR MANAGER, LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

NOTICIA

Se le invita a proporcionar comentarios por escrito dirigidos a: ECC/HANH, Revisiones del plan de administración; Atención: Evelise Ribeiro, 360 Orange Street, New Haven, CT 06511 o por correo electrónico a: eribeiro@elmcitycommunities.org.

VALENTINA MACRI VIVIENDAS DE ALQUILER PRE-SOLICITUDES DISPONIBLES

Una audiencia pública donde se aceptarán y grabarán los comentarios públicos está programada para el martes 11 de octubre de 2022 a las 4:00 p. m. a través de RingCentral: https://v.ringcentral.com/join/975943490?pw=2e34ff6769797e68e96a95bb953d0d81

Identificación de la reunión: 975943490 Contraseña: yozWY5m3ib

O teléfono: +12679304000 Estados Unidos (Filadelfia, PA) Código de acceso / ID de reunión: 975943490 Contraseña de marcación: 9699956342

HOME INC, en nombre de la Columbus House y de la New Haven Housing Authority, está aceptando pre-solicitudes para estudios y apartamentos de un dormitorio en este desarrollo ubicado en la calle 109 Frank Street, New Haven. Se aplican limitaciones de ingresos máximos. Las pre-solicitudes estarán disponibles 09 a.m.-5 p.m. comenzando Martes 25 julio, 2016 hasta cuando se han recibido suficientes pre-solicitudes (aproximadamente 100) en las oficinas de HOME INC. Las pre-solicitudes serán enviadas por correo a petición llamando a HOME INC al 203-562-4663 durante esas horas.Pre-solicitudes deberán remitirse a las oficinas de HOME INC en 171 Orange Street, tercer piso, New Haven , CT 06510

Cualquier persona que requiera una Adaptación Razonable para participar en la audiencia puede llamar al Gerente de

(203) 498-8800, ext. 1507 o al Número

(203) 497-8434.

THE HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF NORWALK, CT

NEW HAVEN

The State of Connecticut, Office of Policy and Management is recruiting for a Fiscal/Administrative Officer. Further information regarding the duties, eligibility requirements and application instructions for this position are available at: https://www.jobapscloud.com/ CT/sup/bulpreview.asp?R1= 220831&R2=1308AR&R3=001

The State of Connecticut is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and strongly encourages the applications of women, minorities, and persons with disabilities.

FHI Studio is actively seeking an innovative and self-motivated full-time Senior Manager Landscape Architect to join our team. As a manager in the landscape architect team, you are vital to partnering with the firm’s leadership team in the development of a roadmap and implementation of blending our planning and design services. You manage projects and oversee project team members and lead business development efforts and proposal activities that includes guiding preparation of proposal and presentation materials. Strong candidates have strong organizational and planning skills and have experience in landscape architecture and urban design and planning. Candidates must be proficient in AutoCAD and be proficient with MS Office. Experience with 3d modeling is a plus.

Minimum Degree: Bachelor’s Degree in landscape architecture, urban design, or related field with 10+ years of experience. Salary ranges from $120,000 to $145,000 yearly, commensurate with level of experience. Please apply at https://fhistudio.isolvedhire. com/jobs/ or send cover letter and resume to Bonnie Torres, 416 Asylum Street, Hartford, CT 06103. FHI Studio is an EEO/AA /VEV/Disabled employer.

Fairmont

Townhouse,

REQUESTING PROPOSALS FROM QUALIFIED FIRMS FOR A SIEDLE INTERCOM REPLACEMENT OF ONE FEDERAL FINANCED HOUSING PROPERTY. TO OBTAIN A COMPLETE COPY OF THE REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL DOCUMENTS, CONTACT GUILLERMO BENDANA, PROCUREMENT SPECIALIST AT GBENDA@NORWALKHA.ORG PROPOSALS ARE DUE AT 2:00 P.M. ON 10/04/2022NORWALK HOUSING IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER. ADAM BOVILSKY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR.

SEYMOUR HOUSING AUTHORITY

Sealed bids are invited by the Housing Authority of the Town of Seymour until 3:00 pm on Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at its office at

Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 for Concrete

Splicer / Electrician – Telecommunications Company looking for low voltage cable installer with a C or T license, specializing in fusion/splicing, testing and termination. Also must be familiar with all aspects of indoor & outdoor cable installation, aerial bucket work, pole work, messenger, lashing, manhole & underground installation. $70,000 - $90,000 salary with full benefits.

SAYEBROOKE VILLAGE

Fax resume to 860-282-0424 or mail to Fibre Optic Plus, LLC 585 Nutmeg Road North, South Windsor, CT 06074

Attn: Don Ballsieper - Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer

Town of Bloomfield

Assistant Building Official

$39.80 hourly

POLICE OFFICER

Request for Proposal – Legal Services –Tenant Related Services dealing with Summary Process

The Housing Authority of the City of Bristol (BHA) invites proposals from qualified attorneys, legal team(s) or law firms to provide tenant related services dealing with Summary Process to BHA.

All interested firms are directed to obtain a copy of the specifications for Request for Proposal ("RFP") from Carl Johnson, Director of Capital Funds, (860) 585-2028 or cjohnson@bristolhousing.org from Monday, September 19, 2022 through Mon., Sept. 26, 2022.

the Smithfield Gardens

and Replacement

Street

All proposals should be submitted to Mitzy Rowe, CEO, Housing Authority of the City of Bristol, 164 Jerome Avenue, Bristol, CT 06010 no later than 2:00 p.m., Fri., Sept. 30, 2022. Proposal must be submitted with one original and 3 copies in a sealed envelope, clearly identified as Proposal for Summary Process.

A pre-bid conference will be held

the

Authority Office

Smith Street Seymour, CT at

Bidding documents are available from the Seymour Housing Authority Office, 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 (203) 888-4579.

BHA reserves the right, at its sole and exclusive discretion, to reject any and all proposals received, to negotiate changes to submitted proposals based on the needs and available funding, and to award the contract based on the best interest of BHA. Proposals received after the deadline will not be accepted.

Minority and women-owned businesses are encouraged to submit proposals. The Housing Authority of the City of Bristol is An Equal Opportunity Employer

The Housing Authority

the

to

or

to reduce the scope of the project to reflect

if such actions are in the

and to

The St. Augustine Movement (1963–1964)

By Tamara Shiloh, The Oakland Post

It was the spring of 1964. Dr. Martin Lu ther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference were preparing to launch a campaign to end racial discrimi nation in St. Augustine, Fla. King hoped that the “demonstrations there would lead to local desegregation and that media at tention would garner national support for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was then stalled in a congressional filibuster,” according to Stanford University’s King Encyclopedia.

A sit-in protest at a local Woolworth’s lunch counter that ended in the arrest and imprisonment of 16 Black protestors and seven juveniles sparked the pickets. Four of the arrested, JoeAnn Anderson, Audrey Nell Edwards, Willie Carl Singleton, and Samuel White were sent to reform school for six months. No effort was made to re lease them until their case was publicized by Jackie Robinson, the NAACP, and the Pittsburgh Courier. They were later dubbed “the St. Augustine Four.”

It was Robert B. Hayling, advisor to the Youth Council of the city’s branch of the NAACP, who led these demonstrations.

Protesters were met with violence as the

Ku Klux Klan responded to their presence. Hayling and three other NAACP members were severely beaten at a 1963 Klan rally. They were arrested and convicted of as saulting their attackers.

The NAACP asked for Hayling’s resig nation, but not before reaching out to the SCLC for support.

Hundreds of students from northern col

leges recruited by the SCLC participated in demonstrations and sit-ins during Eas ter week of 1964. Most were jailed. “Some were made to stand in a cramped outdoor overflow pen in the late spring heat, while others were put into a concrete sweatbox overnight.”

When King visited St. Augustine that May, the house the SCLC rented for him

was “sprayed by gunfire.” The day after the Senate voted to end the filibuster of the Civil Rights Act, King, Ralph Aberna thy, and several others were arrested when they requested service at a segregated res taurant. Meanwhile, despite the violence, the SCLC continued to lead marches.

On June 18, a Grand Jury pressured King and the SCLC to leave St. Augustine for

one month. The so-called goal was to “dif fuse the situation, claiming that they had disrupted racial harmony in the city.” King responded that the request was “an immoral one, as it asked the Negro com munity to give all, and the white com munity to give nothing . . . St. Augustine never had peaceful race relations.”

As the Senate debated the Civil Rights Act, SCLC lawyers began to win court victories in St. Augustine. The SCLC was encouraged to bring cases against the Klan. On July 2, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, into law.

Blacks in St. Augustine continued to face violence, intimidation, and threats, as healing took its time.

Help young readers understand the strug gle for equality and a time when Ameri can laws were unfair to Blacks. Share with them Shadae Mallory’s “The His tory of the Civil Rights Movement: A His tory Book for New Readers.” Purchase at https://www.multiculturalbookstore.com

The post The St. Augustine Movement (1963–1964) first appeared on Post News Group. This article originally appeared in Post News Group.

Fighting an Unjust System, The Bail Project Helps People Get Out of Jail and Reunites Families

Hundreds of thousands of individuals locked up in jails almost daily — many find it challenging to pay bail

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

As public support for criminal justice reform continues to build — and as the pandemic raises the stakes higher — ad vocates remain adamant that it’s more im portant than ever that the facts are straight, and everyone understands the bigger pic ture.

“The U.S. doesn’t have one ‘criminal jus tice system;’ instead, we have thousands of federal, state, local, and tribal systems,” Wendy Sawyer and Peter Wagner found in a study released by the nonprofit Prison Policy Initiative.

“Together, these systems hold almost 2 million people in 1,566 state prisons, 102 federal prisons, 2,850 local jails, 1,510 juvenile correctional facilities, 186 im migration detention facilities, and 82 In dian country jails, as well as in military prisons, civil commitment centers, state psychiatric hospitals, and prisons in the U.S. territories,” the study authors said in a press release.

With hundreds of thousands of individu als locked up in jails almost daily, many find it challenging to pay bail.

Recognizing America’s ongoing mass incarceration problem and the difficulties families have in bailing out their loved ones, a new organization began in 2018 to offer some relief.

The Bail Project, a nationwide charitable

fund for pretrial defendants, started with a vision of combating mass incarceration by disrupting the money bail system.

Adrienne Johnson, the regional director for The Bail Project, told NNPA’s Let It Be Known that the organization seeks to accomplish its mission one person at a time.

“We have a mission of doing exactly what we hope our criminal system would do: protect the presumption of innocence, reunite families, and challenge a system that we know can criminalize poverty,” Johnson stated.

“Our mission is to end cash bail and cre ate a more just, equitable, and humane pretrial system,” she insisted.

Johnson said The Bronx Freedom Fund, at the time a new revolving bail fund that launched in New York, planted the seed for The Bail Project more than a decade ago.

“Because bail is returned at the end of a case, we can build a sustainable revolving fund where philanthropic dollars can be used several times per year, maximizing the impact of every contribution,” John son stated.

In addition to posting bail at no cost to the person or their family, The Bail Proj ect works to connect its clients to social services and community resources based on an individual’s identified needs, includ ing substance use treatment, mental health support, stable housing and employment.

Johnson noted that officials created cash bail to incentivize people to return to court.

Instead, she said, judges routinely set cash bail well beyond most people’s abil ity to afford it, resulting in thousands of legally innocent people incarcerated while they await court dates.

According to The Bail Project, Black Americans are disproportionately impact

ed by cash bail, and of all Black Ameri cans in jail in the U.S., nearly half are from southern prisons.

“There is no way to do the work of ad vancing pretrial reform without address ing the harmful effects of cash bail in the South,” said Robin Steinberg, Founder, and CEO of The Bail Project.

“Cash bail fuels racial and economic dis parities in our legal system, and we look

forward to supporting the community in Greenville as we work to eliminate cash bail and put ourselves out of business.”

Since its launch, The Bail Project has stationed teams in more than 25 cities, posting bail for more than 18,000 people nationwide.

Johnson said the organization uses its national revolving bail fund, powered by individual donations, to pay bail.

The Bail Project has spent over $47 mil lion on bail.

“When we post bail for a person, we post the full cash amount at court,” John son stated.

“Upon resolution of the case, the money returns to whoever posted. So, if I posted $5,000 to bail someone out, we then help the person get back to court and resolve the case,” she continued.

“The money then comes back to us, and we can use that money to help someone else. So, we recycle that.”

Johnson said eliminating cash bail and the need for bail funds remains the goal.

“It’s the just thing to do. It restores the presumption of innocence, and it restores families,” Johnson asserted.

The post Fighting an Unjust System, The Bail Project Helps People Get Out of Jail and Reunites Families first appeared on Post News Group. This article originally appeared in Post News Group.

COMMENTARY: Emmett Till Lives

By David Johnson, Contributing Writer Los Angeles Sentienel

Classism, racism, war, and corporate greed are malicious outliers, which in their ways, plague the United States and global civilization abroad. Recollect back to 1955, Post World War, Two United States and these same outliers were a virus dividing and corrupting the United States and most of the world. In that year 1955, a 14-year-old Black male teenager from Chicago was sent by his mother to visit his family in Money, Mississippi. This innocent teenager was named Em mett Louis Till. Actually, Emmett was having a great time visiting his southern family, receiving all the love and atten tion and having care-free fun for three days into his visit before the horrid curse of violent, racist injustice struck Emmett Till, his family and the United States of America!

Emmett Till was born on July 25, 1941, and was murdered August 28, 1955. Emmett,as most Americans know, was violently tortured and murdered in Mon ey, Mississippi for allegedly whistling at a married, White woman named Carolyn Bryant. This rule was a long held racial taboo in the Southern States. Black males were not allowed to even look at White women in their eyes in public let alone whistle at them or around them. Such racist, classist unjust social rules were a result of the terrible slavery system and were passed down as the Jim Crow rac ist injustice system of the South. Being born and raised in Chicago, Till wasn’t accustomed to such public social rules. Although racist outliers existed against Blacks in Chicago, they were not as rigid and as violently enforced as in the South ern States.

This case was indicative of the racial hatred perpetuated against Blacks or Af rican Americans throughout all of the United States almost one hundred years after slavery supposedly, ended. This case was terrible and exposed how the entire society of Mississippi and the South was a prison and or torture chamber for Blacks. Contradicting these facts, the Whites of the South claimed to be the most civilized humans on Earth at the time. This clear permanence of racial hatred and system atic genocidal programming against one group, the Black Americans also contra dicted the United States Declaration of Independence and the Constitution rati fied Articles 13 and 14, developed after the end of the Civil War.

Young Emmett was tracked down the day after the so-called whistling inci dent. The White husband of the woman and his White male friends along with a Black man, came to the home where Till was staying. They barged in the home and

grabbed Emmet, along with Emmett’s cousin, Simeon Wright. Simeon was with Emmett at the time of the whistling inci dent. After figuring out which of the boys was the one who supposedly whistled, the abductors bust the teeth out of Simeons mouth by throwing him off their truck then taking off with Emmett. Witnesses said in trial, they saw them drive up with Emmet and took him into a barn and tor mented Emmett for hours. The witness said they heard Emmet screaming for hours and they could hear the whipping and beating blows they were hitting him so hard.

Roy Bryant, the husband of the woman who claimed she was whistled at and brother-in-law, J.W. Milam kidnapped and brutally murdered Emmett Till. They dumped his body in the Tallahatchie River. This murder shocked the nation by gaining global media coverage. In turn, this case infused a generation of Black Americans to create and join the Civil Rights movement. With nationwide me dia coverage, the funeral of Emmett Till was held in Chicago with an open casket where anyone could see the terrible swell ing and mutilation from the beating put on Emmett by the murderers.

Outrage ensued throughout the nation and even world-wide for such racist bru tality being allowed in the United States. Black media outlets and organizations

went in with all resources exposing the tragedy by even putting Emmett Till’s fu neral casket picture on their front pages. Jet Magazine even put the picture on the front of their magazine. Black politicians, the NAAACP and Black celebrities ex pressed their heart break and outrage at this ongoing continuing murder and rape of Blacks throughout the United States.

Then came the trial and attempt to get justice for Emmett’s family and for the Black community held in Sumner, Mis sissippi in September 1955. Emmett’s great-uncle testifying against the murder ers marked the first time a Black human testified against a White human in the state of Mississippi. The problem was the defense was up against long held prac tices of allowing White people to murder, rape and torture Blacks in Mississippi. It was clear what the outcome would be when the judge threw out all the testimo nies given by all witnesses to the kidnap ping and murder of Emmett Till, even af ter they testified in court. The murderers were acquitted of all charges including the murder charges. With all the media coverage, it was clear to the entire world the U.S. government was continuing the oppression of Black Americans although the U.S. was proclaiming itself to be the beacon of justice and freedom.

This case galvanized generations of Blacks and some non-Blacks to take up

the cause of human rights and justice throughout the United States. With the likes of Paul Robeson and those genera tions of devotees who worked and lived for justice and freedom, African Ameri cans as myself could get our education and I am free to write this article and you are free to read it. In 2007, a Federal Bill named ‘The Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Right Crime Act” was created due to continual effort of noble citizenry. All of the Civil Rights work and successes make it clear that we have the ability and right to challenge laws and practices no matter how old and how cherished by the rich and or the government. With all this revealed, Misses Carolyn Bryant in her later age of 82, recanted her claim about Emmett Till whistling at her in an inter view stating it wasn’t true and it did not happen.

Justice cannot only become a thing of the past, a memory of the noble genera tions who sacrificed for current genera tions liberties and rights. Justice has to be openly taught as a pillar of the African American Legacy! Does nobility matter any longer and to who? What are the cur rent injustices being ignored and which type and class are perpetuating the injus tices and which groups are the victims?

The United States and world should be careful that the mirror of the past does not continue to reflect ugly faces.

Over the last decade, Blacks were being murdered on camera continually by po lice officers of the law even though White males continue to be the super majority of people who murder cops. Also, the allWhite male police officers did this while there was an African American President of the United States. Clearly, this is an agenda. This is evidence that the agenda to torment and murder Blacks has and will continue in the United States if Afri can Americans and immigrants and other underrepresented ethnic groups do not or ganize together and concentrate resources and effort on stopping the killings … not to mention the world’s biggest privatelyowned prison system, holding the highest number of humans on Earth. This clearly is systematic strategy and not random.

Many, such as Dr. Cornell West, say that we live in a more Autocratic Authori tarian state in the U.S. than ever before. Thus, I ponder, was slavery transformed? Was Jim Crow and Apartheid implement ed throughout the United States in covert methods to this day? Ku Klux Klan lead er, Neo Nazi representative David Duke once said, and I paraphrase, “We, the Ku Klux Klan took off our hoods and put on suits and ties and filled the politician seats and board rooms and senator’s seats.” How about that?

Mourners at Emmett Till’s funeral. (Photo: David Mann, Smithsonian Libraries and Archives)

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