AHNA News & Views for May 2018

May, 2018

Your copy of the Asylum Hill Neighborhood Association 'News & Views' has arrived! You will find that you can easily go to any subject in the table of contents by just clicking on it or just browse through the articles as you wish. Please have a look.

AHNA News & Views

May 2018

Next Meeting

From The Chair

From The House

Hawks Eye View

Asylum Hill Then and Now

Exploring Asylum Hill

Volunteer of the Month

Partnership Sunday

Nook Farm as a New Place

AHNA Panhandling Forum

Urban League 18th Annual Expo

Arts and Music on the Hill

Hartford News Supplement

Events Calendar

Next Meeting 05/07/2018

The next meeting is Monday May 7th, 6:15 P.M. at The 224 Eco-Space, 224 Farmington Ave .

April Minutes

Agenda

From The Chair

Thoughts from the Chair

My thought this month is centered on staying focused and finishing what is started and starting what's been contemplated upon. I have found procrastination is a problem for a lot of us. I believe our intentions are to finish what we start when we start. Yet, distractions from social media, television, and unexpected life events, other projects and other constant interruptions divert our attention and before we know it days, months and even sometimes years pass by without any attention given to what was started.

From the House

Greetings to my friends and neighbors in Asylum Hill!

Tolls: Fact vs. Fiction

By: State Rep. Matt Ritter

The 2018 Legislative Session is winding down, but we have tackled some important issues. I want to highlight two issues for you today.

Early Voting

I was proud to support an amendment to the State Constitution to allow voters of Connecticut more time and flexibility in their busy schedules to cast ballots in elections and make their voices heard. In order to make our democracy work, residents should not have to choose between casting a ballot or working a second job and taking care of their families. In today's modern world, busy schedules always don't align with the 14-hour, restricted block of time that our state currently mandates as a voting period. Many other states have shown that a system of early voting works and I believe that hardworking folks following the rules should be able to exercise their most fundamental, constitutional right to vote.

Hawks Eye View

Annual Junior Achievement Day

On Friday, April 20th the students at West Middle Community School hosted employees from The Hartford for our Annual Junior Achievement (JA) Day.

JA is the nation's largest organization dedicated to giving young people the knowledge and skills they need to own their economic success, plan for their futures, and make smart academic and economic choices.

Asylum Hill Then And Now


	Now

226 Farmington Avenue

Exploring Asylum Hill


	129 Huntington Street

Exploring Asylum Hill -

the Bougonou Family on S. Marshall St

We're going to continue our focus on newer homeowners in Asylum Hill with the Bougonou family on S. Marshall St. They are among the original 16 families that purchased one of the homes that were built by Habitat for Humanity in 2012 and 2013.

Volunteer of the Month

Janet Hayes

I was told that if I were looking for an interesting volunteer to interview I should talk to Janet Hayes, who volunteers at West Middle School, as an early grades reading tutor.

I made the phone call, and she agreed to let me meet her for the third and final Thursday morning session. I got there before the children arrived, and introduced myself, explaining this column as a part of the News & Views and AHNA. Her response was "do you know of any volunteer opportunities in June?"

Partnership Sunday

Each year the Asylum Hill Congregational Church dedicates one special Sunday to calling attention to all of the partners in the community that they work with in their mission to help those in need. AHNA is one of those partners. We along with all of the others who benefit from the Church's support are truly grateful to be called Partners.

Nook Farm as a New Place

An idea that started during the Smarter Cities Smarter Communities Challenge (SC2) back in 2014 is being resurrected in 2018. Steve Raider-Ginsburg co-founder of Hartbeat Ensemble originally proposed the idea then, and while it didn't win a cash prize, it wasn't completely forgotten. So when the opportunity came along for the Liberal Arts Action Lab to do some research as a student project, Steve and Suzan Bibisi, Executive Director of Hartbeat Ensemble applied. As the website says, "The Action Lab is an educational partnership between Capital Community College and Trinity College in Hartford, the ... goals are to strengthen the city and its role in the region, spark social innovation, and support civic engagement and sustainability."

AHNA Panhandling Forum

On April 18 ^th , more than 20 gathered at the YWCA for a Panhandling forum sponsored by the AHNA Public Safety Committee. The issue of panhandling is one that has been troubling Asylum Hill for a very long time. More recently it seems to have been increasing and has been a topic at successive Public Safety Committee meetings.