Earth Day Rally Connects Coronavirus To Climate Change

Emily Hays, New Haven Independent, Apr 23, 2020

Pollution can lead to respiratory illness, which leads to a higher chance of dying from COVID-19. Earth Day turned 50 in New Haven on Wednesday with that connection in mind.

Sunrise New Haven held an Earth Day rally as a livestream to comply with local and state orders to avoid spreading COVID-19. The crisis was on the organizers’ minds; each of the dozen speakers described the parallels between the virus shutting down workplaces throughout the region and the discriminatory effects of climate change.

“I would like to recognize that we are currently living through two crises,” said emcee Adrian Huq.
Huq is a senior at Metropolitan Business Academy and a leader in youth-led New Haven Climate Movement.

Yale graduate union member and East Rock Alder Charles Decker walked the roughly 150 attendees through a series of similar maps of New Haven. The first was a redlining map of neighborhoods where banks restricted homeownership opportunities. He then cycled through neighborhood rates of unemployment and asthma. The last image was of the neighborhoods COVID-19 has hit hardest.

“What you’re seeing is that these maps time and time again look the same,” Decker said.
“The map of areas devastated by climate change is going to look exactly the same unless we act now,” said Hill Alder and New Haven Rising organizer Ron Hurt.

For more on this story visit: https://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/COVID_earth_day_rally

Contact Sunrise New Haven, [email protected]

Grants Available for Not-for-Profit Organizations

The Yale Community for New Haven Fund will support the delivery of healthcare, assistance to local businesses, community educational needs, and area not-for-profits focused on such pressing issues as the well-being of children and families, homelessness, and food insecurity.  The fund will focus initially on agencies providing healthcare and basic-needs services to those most affected by COVID-19.

onha.yale.edu/yale-community-new-haven-fund

Reach Out New Haven: Call if You Need Help

In these anxious, isolating and uncertain times, many people don’t know where to turn for resources and someone to talk with. The Clifford Beers Center has launched a warmline to help connect you with various programs for your needs. Also, if you want someone to talk with, have questions on how to get information about COVID-19, or need help, we are here with compassionate listeners who are trained in providing mental health guidance. Please call us for help! The number is (203) 287-2460.
Visit our website for more information and a listing of links for useful information at www.cliffordbeers.org/COVID-19-resources.

CT US Senators and Reps on Healthcare

by Protect Our Care Connecticut

U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy and Rep. John Larson, Joe Courtney, Rosa DeLauro and Jahana Hayes took action to protect Medicaid and help people gain access to health insurance.

In April, Sens. Blumenthal and Murphy joined 35 of their Senate colleagues in signing a letter to Congressional leadership urging them to include “strong measures to secure continuity in health care coverage” for people who are currently uninsured or underinsured in the next relief package. The letter specifically highlighted the need to strengthen Medicaid, re-open ACA marketplace enrollment, and provide COBRA assistance to those who have lost their employer-sponsored health insurance.

Reps. Larson, Courtney, DeLauro and Hayes joined more than 150 members of the House in urging Congressional leadership to continue to require that states which accept higher Medicaid reimbursements from the federal government during the coronavirus crisis maintain their current Medicaid program without cuts to eligibility, known as “maintenance of effort” requirements.

Can you take a moment to thank and encourage them?

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (860) 258-6940
Sen. Chris Murphy (860) 549-8463
Rep. John Larson (1st District, CT) (860) 278-8888
Rep. Joe Courtney (2nd District, CT) (860) 886-0139
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (3rd District, CT) (203) 562-3718
Rep. Jim Himes (4th District, CT) (203) 333-6600
Rep. Jahana Hayes (5th District, CT) (860) 223-8412

Protect Our Care CT: [email protected]
Protect Our Care CT, 290 Pratt Street, Meriden, CT 06490

Lots of Fish launches “50 Fish” in honor the 50th year of Earth Day

Runoff Art starts with 50 Fish!

Lots of Fish launches “50 Fish” in honor the 50th year of Earth Day

In confluence with the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, Lots of Fish (LOF) launches 50 Fish! The Runoff Art pilot program is working with a team of artists, scientists, and educators (Team Fish) to produce a multi-faceted Art & Environmental Education program, engaging citizens to reduce pollutants entering our waterways through stormwater runoff. May: Adapted to COVID-19 protocol, the education program will begin in New Haven Schools. July – Oct: fish art painting on 50 storm drains by youth & community groups.

50 Fish! kicks-off LOF’s Runoff Art pilot in New Haven. In coordination with the New Haven Dept. of Engineering, we are painting art on 50 storm drains throughout the city with local artists, schools, and Youth@Work. Runoff Art is a “Public Outreach & Education” campaign that helps the City of New Haven meet the EPA MS4 permit requirements by engaging citizens of all ages in activities that support the health of our local waterways. Sustainable CT is matching dollar-for-dollar all contributions to the 50 Fish! project and COVID-19 adaptation until May 1st.

The adapted program starts with school and online presentations and musical performances.
6 main components optimize community engagement:

1. Art with QR codes installed on 50 Storm Drains and up to 20 rain barrels
2. User-friendly map (GIS) to host a variety of informative and interactive experiences
3. COVID-19 Adapted – Educational presentations and musical performances
4. COVID-19 Lessons and Citizen Science activities for New Haven teachers
5. COVID -19 Adapted Surveys to quantify educational benefits and citizen response
6. NEW – COVID adapted EarthDay 50 celebration – “Did You Know? “ social media campaign.

https://lotsoffish.info/water promoting the hashtags #EarthDay50Fish #50WaterFacts #50FishFacts

About Lots of Fish: Lots of Fish (LOF) is an Art & Environmental Education project based in New Haven, CT. Initiated in 2018, LOF is the brainchild of artist and environmental advocate JoAnn Moran. Through her dedicated effort, LOF has been engaging and exposing city youth and community members through a series of environmental art and impact projects, events, presentations, and public awareness campaigns. Lots of Fish hosts school-year and summer youth employment programs to create “Artful projects that reduce pollution.”

Lots of Fish will be swimming on a billboard near you!

Barrett Outdoor has graciously donated a colorful fish-filled billboard.

Barrett Outdoor is happy to support Lots of Fish projects and the celebration of the 50th year of Earth Day!

For more info:
Lots of Fish (LOF)
LotsofFish.info
Contact JoAnn Moran – Artist /Director JoAnn Moran
(203) 298-2628
[email protected]

Volunteers Needed: Westville Mask Project Needs Your Help Building Protective Equipment

Friend and neighbor Linda Schultz is coordinating a protective mask project and is asking for our help!

“Do you sew? Do you have a sewing machine and an iron?

Westville women and men have coordinated a home sewing program to produce Yale New Haven hospital masks. These pocket masks lengthen the use of surgical masks, and the design is approved by our New Haven hospital network. Patterns and materials are available. We are asking you to provide the cutting and/or sewing skill. As a community, we will be completing and distributing at least a hundred masks each week for our frontline medical personnel. Let’s do it!”

Linda already has a great team of volunteers who have begun work, but they could use more help. Please use the Google form: https://forms.gle/XRBy8WDEEpf6p8Cv8
if you are interested in helping.

Food Assistance Resources During the Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Coordinated Food Assistance Network has put together this online guide (English and Spanish). It is updated very frequently.  https://bit.ly/nhvfoodcovid

CFAN has also developed a pantry delivery system for low-income folks who can’t get out during this crisis. It’s called Pantry to Pantry. If you know anyone in need, they can call the hotline: 888-910-2960.

The Library Is Dedicated to the New Haven Community

by Sharon Lovett-Graff, New Haven Free Public Library

Although the New Haven Free Public Library is closed during the pandemic, here are some ways we are serving the community during the COVID-19 pandemic. The library has long served as a “second responder,” stepping up for the community during times of need. It has operated as a warming center when freezing weather struck and as a cooling center during heat waves. From weather events to school closings, the library has provided shelter, computer access, and social services as well as arts entertainment and cultural activities for adults and children in these times of need.

Librarians as “Maker Movement” leaders have quickly responded to the COVID-19 crisis. Our Tinker Lab staff have been putting the library’s 3-D printers and sewing machines to use manufacturing masks for the Yale New Haven Health Centers and the Public Works Departments of the City of New Haven, as well as for staff and volunteers serving meals to the homeless at the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen and St Thomas Moore Chapel. Although closed to staff and public, the library had some of our 3-D printers and sewing machines moved temporarily to the homes of staff in order to print shields and masks. The library is donating its labor and the materials to this effort, including making sure makers and what they are making comply with specifications for the production of shields and masks.

Although library branches are currently closed, library staff are working hard to be a resource and continue to support the needs of the community. Staff have regular contact with patrons via phone and email, making sure that everyone is stocked up with things to read, watch, listen to, learn, and do. Below is a quick “top ten list” of all the services the library is providing at this time, just to give you a sample.

Top 10 Ways to Use NHFPL from Home

• Social distancing? Your electronic library card is your key to a world of online learning and entertainment for free! Questions? Need an e-library card? Call us and leave a message at (203) 946-8130 or email [email protected]. For Young Minds and Family Learning call (203) 946-8129 or email [email protected].

• Get absorbed in a great story. We’re all in need of some escapist fiction these days! Ebooks, audio books, and graphic novels for adults, children and teens are all available on OverDrive, RBdigital, Freading, Hoopla, TumbleBooks, and TeenBookCloud.

• Enjoy a family-friendly movie night. Tons of films are available for free download with your library card using Kanopy and Hoopla. All you need is the popcorn!

• Start a daily art practice with Creativebug. Learn to sketch, draft a pattern for a new dress, embroider, knit, scrapbook, and so much more.

• Seek help with job hunting. JobNow provides many valuable resources including job coaching, resume preparation and live interview practice.

• New Haven time travel by perusing historic images of our city in the Local History digital collections.

• Research an alternate career path or gain new skills. Take a free course on Lynda.com and learn to be an Excel expert, digital marketer, bookkeeper, graphic designer, screenwriter or comic illustrator. The offerings are endless!

• Exercise! Hoopla contains workout videos, including yoga and aerobics, and dance lessons. Learn to fox trot, salsa or rumba!

• Meet (virtually) with a local entrepreneur! Our Entrepreneur-in-Residence Sammi Williams and Collab partners are offering one-on-one virtual appointments to support your small business or non-profit start-up.

• Need more family fun activities? Plenty of virtual engagement to explore with Young Minds and Family Learning! View Story Times with stories, songs and fingerplays, take a tour of the San Diego Zoo or Boston Children’s Museum, and get reading recommendations and homework help for all ages!

Job Opening at CT Roundtable on Climate and Jobs

CRCJ’s Board of Directors is launching the search for a new Executive Director/Lead Organizer, and we ask that you help us spread the word to your colleagues and networks to ensure that we get a strong and diverse pool of candidates, who will be excited about this opportunity to lead the organization and carry the work forward.

The next Executive Director and Lead Organizer of CRCJ will guide a statewide organization committed to protecting the climate while creating good local jobs and working for justice. The new leader will replace the founding Executive Director who has guided the organization since 2012.

A short summary of the organization and position is located below. The complete position description and contact information for interested candidates may be found at: CTClimateandJobs.org/exec_search
We encourage you to send questions or suggestions of potential candidates or sources to John Harrity, Board Chair at [email protected]. The search will remain open and active until filled, but initial interviews are anticipated to begin in early May. Thank you.

The Connecticut Roundtable on Climate and Jobs seeks a dynamic and passionate Executive Director and Lead Organizer who will take this innovative nonprofit to its next level. The new leader will replace the founding Executive Director, who has successfully led the organization since 2012.

Overview of the Organization: The Connecticut Roundtable on Climate and Jobs (CRCJ) builds alliances among diverse constituencies to combat climate change, create jobs and promote racial, economic and environmental justice. CRCJ embraces diversity as a source of power and engages in collective action to ensure that Connecticut provides leadership in creating a clean energy future.

CRCJ believes the climate crisis presents an opportunity to build thriving local economies that are not only more sustainable but also more just and equitable.

ctclimateandjobs.org/wpcontent/uploads/2020/04/CRCJ-Position-Description-FINAL2-Apr-2020.pdf

Planting a Nonviolent Future: New Haven Mothers Honor Victims of Gun Violence

by John Besche, Yale Daily News, April 24, 2020

Nestled between West Rock and the West River, a plot of land on Valley Street is being transformed from nondescript park land into a memorial garden that will be the first of its kind in the US. The Memorial Garden for Victims of Gun Violence in New Haven, set to open late this summer, will be the first space to serve explicitly as a memorial garden for victims of gun violence, as a space to mourn, reflect and heal.

The cohort of mothers in New Haven who spearheaded this project wanted more than a cemetery to memorialize and honor their children who were taken by gun violence. They believe that this garden will be a gift not only for their children’s legacy, but to a city badly beaten by decades of bloodshed. They hope that it may even force people to lay down guns for good.

“As a mother, when you get the phone call that says your child has been shot and is on the way to the hospital, or if you make it to the hospital and they walk out and say, ‘We lost him,’ you’re hopeless,” Marlene Pratt, one of the women behind the memorial, said in an interview with the News.

To read the complete article, go to: https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2020/04/24/planting-a-nonviolent-future-new-haven-mothers-honor-victims-of-gun-violence.

Excerpts from Looking Back: Justice for Stephanie and Paul, One Year Later

by Mackenzie Hawkins, Yale Daily News, April 16, 2020

In the early hours of the morning on April 16, 2019, Hamden police officer Devon Eaton and Yale Police officer Terrance Pollock fired 13 and three shots, respectively, at Stephanie Washington and Paul Witherspoon, an unarmed black couple in their car.

The day of the shooting, life on Yale’s campus continued as normal, spare a morning email from YPD Chief Ronnell Higgins and an evening one from Vice President for Human Resources and Administration Janet Lindner. … But beyond campus borders, a movement was growing. Activist groups, including People Against Police Brutality and Black Lives Matter New Haven, organized an evening rally outside the Hamden Police Department, drawing a crowd of about 200. Later that night, organizers protested at the site of the shooting on Dixwell Avenue and Argyle Street.

“I think we all built, during this time, the foundation for a relationship rooted in solidarity,” People Against Police Brutality organizer Kerry Ellington told the News in an April 14 interview. “I think all the different communities that were involved wanted to — and still want to — see an end goal where both officers are held accountable for their reckless actions on April 16 of last year.”…

Over the past year, student and community activists have collaborated to organize around last April’s shooting and a broader set of issues — building relationships that have transcended the incident that spurred them.

“There have always been iterations of students who have come through to this city who have really understood the significance of connecting with the community,” Ellington told the News. “So I don’t want to disregard students that I’ve worked with and organized with in the past. … But [the shooting was] definitely, I would say, a significant moment for both black and brown Yale students on campus and black and brown residents in New Haven — a moment that was clear to come together, clear to make a united call.”…

“To see a group of young black Yale students sit down and learn from [local activists] was amazing,” Elm City Vineyard Lead Pastor Joshua Williams ’08 DIV ’11 said in an April 13 interview. He was involved in race-related student activism during his time at Yale and said that New Haven’s black community had played a pivotal role in movements like the one to change the name of Calhoun College.

Yale students showing up for New Haven in the wake of the shooting, he said, was a “twin moment” paired with dining hall worker Corey Menafee smashing a window in protest of Grace Hopper College’s former namesake. New Haven residents have consistently fought for Yale students of color, he said, and students followed and reciprocated in the Founders’ Room that Thursday.

“In terms of an urgent response, it was the first time I had seen black students have this incredible deference to black New Haven — [asking] black New Haven to lead [so that Yale students] could follow,” Williams told the News.

To read the full article which includes much information about the follow-up to the present, go to: http://features.yaledailynews.com/blog/2020/04/16/looking-back-justice-for-stephanie-and-paul-one-year-later

Medicare for All CT News

Stephan Ramdohr, Medicare for All CT

At this time, Medicare for All CT is considering three dedicated project groups for:

  1. A webinar, encouraging attendees to contact our U.S. Reps directly via social media etc., about the need for Medicare for All;
  2. The ongoing campaign for municipal resolutions. In February, New London city council unanimously passed a Medicare for All resolution. Now let’s have more cities and towns follow New London’s lead;
  3. Possibly putting on a (virtual?) statewide forum similar to the one last August as well as plan office visits with federal and state legislators & conduct outreach to other national, Connecticut and local stakeholder groups.

The newspaper article about New London passing a Medicare for All resolution is here: www.theday.com/article/20200207/NWS01/200209505.

At this time, our meetings are on-line. Please contact us with your ideas and suggestions by e-mail at Medicare for All CT [email protected], and by telephone at (857) 472-0694, or on Facebook at Medicare for All CT.

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