Tag: Columbus House

Hundreds of Volunteers to Make Up 11th annual ‘I Heart New Haven Day’ June 6

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Bridges of Hope is a group of diverse New Haven area churches from across denominational, social, and cultural lines that have agreed to come together as one to serve the New Haven community as members of the community.

This year we are organizing the 11th annual “I Heart New Haven Day” which will take place on June 6, 2026. The goal is to serve the city through over 27 different projects with over 250 volunteers participating from Christian Tabernacle Baptist Church, Church on the Rock, Vox Church, Trinity Baptist Church, Christ Presbyterian Church, All Nations Church, St John’s Episcopal Church, CT Korean
Presbyterian Church, Elm City Vineyard, International Church at Yale and several other churches.

This is the 11th anniversary of coming together to build partnerships, serve immediate needs and give back to the city our volunteers know and love. People know these volunteers as the “blue shirts,” but they are also residents, public servants and leaders in the city. The day will begin at 9am on the New Haven Green with words of encouragement from the pastors of the churches and then the volunteers will be sent off to their projects to serve from 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

Here is a glimpse of sites we will be serving across the city. A full and comprehensive list can be supplied upon request

Examples of sites this year include:
● Organizing donations at Columbus House
● Landscaping and painting for elderly community members
● Landscaping and painting at local public schools (Hill Central, Fair Haven, Clinton Avenue and more)
● Painting at Loaves & Fishes, Christian Community Action, Amistad Catholic Worker
● Creating Gratitude cards with kids in the neighborhood…and more!

Help Bring Solar Power to Columbus House

by Matthew Moroney, New Haven Community Solar

New Haven Community Solar is a new kind of company. Our mission is to give community members an opportunity to invest directly in locally created environmental and social works projects. We present an alternative economic model using crowdfunding to form energy cooperatives that benefit nonprofits and build wealth in communities. Lack of corporate and political accountability led us to create a new form of active corporate ownership from the community. This empowers local leaders with alternative pathways to reduce inequality. We expand economic opportunities for vulnerable groups and accelerate a just clean energy transition by not waiting for corporations to act.

Our first project supplies clean, affordable energy to the formerly homeless with our community non-profit partner, Columbus House. Connecticut has the third-highest energy costs in the country (average of 17.3 cents per kilowatt hour). Installing solar panels for Columbus House steadies their electricity costs and frees up money to support their mission of providing services for homeless and at-risk individuals and families.

(The average residential electricity rate of 17.34¢/kWh in CT is 45.96% greater than the national average residential rate of 11.88¢/kWh. The approximate range of residential electricity rates in the U.S. is 8.37¢/kWh to 37.34¢/kWh. https://www.electricitylocal.com/states/connecticut.)

By investing instead of donating to renewable energy projects, funders have the potential to make a return from the sale of energy back to the grid. This return can be kept, donated to Columbus House, or invested back into building more community solar in New Haven. The investment period is almost over, so we invite the greater New Haven community to review our investment materials today to consider supporting the project at www.startengine.com/new-haven-community-solar.

Our initiative is ultimately a test to determine if crowd-sourced cooperatives can thrive as an alternative to current systems. We envision a future where community finance enables us to own our own futures. If the project succeeds, we will also be providing copies of our project and program documents to help guide other local leaders in creating their own crowdfunded community-owned projects.

For questions, contact Matthew Moroney at greenisagoodcolor@gmail.com.