News & Events
Hartford’s crisis response team responded to over 900 call in a year. Here’s how it works
Hartford Courant - The HEARTeam, a coalition of Capital Region Mental Health Center, Wheeler Clinic, and Community Renewal Team, is marking the program’s first year in the city, is composed of dozens of highly trained clinicians, social workers, community health workers, and peer responders. They are deployed to situations where non-law enforcement intervention can be most effective, including mental health crises and substance use. Upon receiving a call to 911, emergency dispatchers assess the situation and send HEARTeam responders to assist...
Community Renewal Team’s Center for Healthy Families ribbon cutting
The promise of CT’s community action agencies
CT Mirror - “Community Action changes people’s lives, embodies the spirit of hope, improves communities, and makes America a better place to live. We care about the entire community, and we are dedicated to helping people help themselves and each other.” This is the Promise of Community Action. This pledge is posted at community action agencies (CAAs) across the country (over 1,000 in number!) and recited at convenings, trainings, and more. Why? To keep fresh in our minds the holistic...
Debt, mortgages and taxes: Why teaching all children financial wellness is critical to equity
Connecticut Public - Recently on NPR’s Where We Live, host Catherine Shen spoke with our very own Dr. Monette Ferguson about financial literacy in our community. “Specifically debt, mortgages and taxes: Why teaching all children financial wellness is critical to equity.” Connecticut residents have the highest average credit card in the nation. Although personal finance courses are offered in high schools, they aren’t mandated to graduate. And often, these courses don’t address the complex financial challenges of their students. Today, on...
Opinion: Now is the time to end homelessness in CT
CT Post - I think we can all agree that no one should be homeless, forced to live in a tent or wander the streets. Yet far too many people face that reality every day in northeast Connecticut and throughout our state. That must stop. And HB 6554, being considered by the state Legislature, will go a long way toward making it stop. Access Community Action Agency and many other organizations that comprise the Homelessness Response System in eastern Connecticut continue...
Access Community Action Agency to receive new Mobile Market Truck
Hartford Courant - Folks at the Access Community Action Agency are very excited about a grant recently received that will enable the purchase of a “Mobile Market Truck” that will enable the agency to bring fresh food to the communities it serves. The $141,000 grant is expected to bring the new van to the agency in the fall of 2023.
Health Leaders Back Black Breastfeeding
New Haven Independent - More rooms for moms to lactate at work and more Black mothers breastfeeding their babies. A crew of local organizations concerned with Black maternal health gathered inside Whalley Avenue’s Community Action Agency Monday afternoon to push those two goals — and to announce their formal collaboration to decrease disparities in health outcomes of Black and white mothers and infants across the Greater New Haven area.
Budget Crunch Forces Meals on Wheels to Grind to a Halt
Citizens' News - A budget crunch has forced the area’s Meals on Wheels program to temporarily suspend all Wednesday deliveries to homebound seniors, reducing the number of meals provided from five days a week to four. A budget shortfall for Greater Waterbury’s Meals on Wheels program has resulted in less meals meal deliveries for homebound seniors, and a drop in hours for employees, including delivery truck driver Latisha Gonzalez. And the fear is the situation could get worse before it...
Access Community Action Agency Adding Food Truck
The Chronicle - Thanks to a $141,000 grant from Connecticut Foodshare, Access Community Action Agency will be purchasing a food truck to deliver more food to low-income residents in the area.
Bysiewicz Highlights Local Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program, Proposed Earned Income Tax Credit Expansion
Bristol Press - Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz visited HRA in Bristol Monday to outline the Lamont Administration's plan to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit and highlight the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program.