Committees |
AHNA accomplishes most of its work through its committees. It is at these monthly meetings that those with interests in a particular aspect of the neighborhood can focus on issues and solutions with like-minded individuals. Sufficient time can be allotted to a particular topic to gain an understanding of what is involved and what can be done.
Those with a particular expertise or interest are encouraged to reach out to the chairpersons of any committee you may be interested in for more information and for ways to help. Or to form a new committee that would fill a particular need in our community, please contact: [email protected]. Current AHNA Committees include:
Legacy committees include:
Notes from the previous committee meeting are still available on this website here. |
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Economic Development
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Public Safety/Quality of Life
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Green
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Communications
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Welcoming and Culture
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Friends of Sigourney Square Park
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Arts and Culture
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Economic
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Chairperson: Wayne Benjamin
Contact info: [email protected] Committee meeting: Meets quarterly and as needed. |
About |
To revitalize the Farmington Avenue commercial corridor, transform empty buildings and brownfield sites, and support several “cornerstone” projects that will enhance the economic health of Asylum Hill’s businesses and residents.
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Public Safety/
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Chairperson: Janine McMahon
Contact info: [email protected] Committee meeting: Meets via Zoom on the 3rd Wednesday of each month at 6:00pm |
About |
Asylum Hill has one of the lowest incidences of quality of life crimes in the greater Hartford area. These quality of life crimes include public drinking, loitering, trespassing, prostitution, and aggressive panhandling. Although these crimes have a lower priority with the Hartford Police Department than more serious crimes, the neighborhood would like to eliminate the remaining quality of life problems that affect perception of public safety and neighborhood market values.
AHNA’s goal is to make Asylum Hill safe for all those who live, work, worship, shop and play in the community. AHNA plans to ensure public safety, including best efforts to:
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Green |
Chairperson: Lynn Johnson
Contact info: [email protected] Committee meeting: Meets via Zoom on the 2nd Monday of the month at 6:15pm. |
About |
The mission of the Green Committee is to enhance the greening and sustainability of the Asylum Hill neighborhood, with environmental justice for all. Please join us if you want to work on implementing our Strategic Plan: increasing our tree canopy, developing our organic and pollinator gardens, composting our food scraps, conserving our river, developing bike paths, calming traffic, energy efficiency and solarization.
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Communications |
Chairpersons: Dia Baxter & David MacDonald
Contact info: [email protected] Committee meeting: Meets via Zoom on the 3rd Thursday of the month |
About |
The Communications Committee purpose is twofold, 1) to expand the awareness of the work of AHNA among the residents and members of the AH community and 2) to allow these same people a convenient means of communicating their concerns and ideas for improving Asylum Hill to AHNA and through AHNA to one another. Since its inception, AHNA has used monthly meetings as a way to achieve this goal but clearly with limited success. In that same time period the world has embraced digital media and there are many ways to communicate today that did not exist when AHNA was founded. It is the task of this committee to make use of these means to expand the reach and amplify the efforts of AHNA.
Our first effort in this direction has been the establishment of AHNA News & Views, a monthly newsletter that summarizes the efforts and issues of AHNA and its committees for that month. This has been in publication since November 2011 and has received a warm welcome from many of its subscribers. Our second effort is the renovation of the AHNA website from static to interactive. To do this we needed to change platforms and redesign both the structure and the content. As you read this now you are experiencing the results of that effort. This website is intended to be both interactive, including opportunities for comments from readers and constantly updating the changes as they occur in the neighborhood. We anticipate that the website will grow in scope and effectiveness as AHNA continues to do the same. |
Welcoming
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Chairperson: On hiatus from 2017
Contact info: [email protected] Committee meeting: None currently scheduled |
About |
AHNA’s Welcoming Committee is the seventh and newest committee. It was born from collaboration with the Hartford Public Library through a grant from The Institute of Museum and Library Services. Recognizing that nearly 30% of Asylum Hill Residents are foreign born and many of those come to America and Hartford as refugees, special attention needed to be paid to them to assist their integration into the Neighborhood. Two large gatherings in November 2012 and May 2013, brought together members of many of the various foreign born communities and the welcoming community of long time residents to learn about one another and to begin an ongoing conversation.
From these meetings grew the Welcoming Committee which was so named by the members themselves and which quickly began to meet monthly and brainstorm ways to help the integration process. The results have been concrete and rapid;
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Friends of
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Chairperson: Maxine Nugent
Contact info: [email protected] Committee meeting: Meets via Zoom on the 1st Wednesday of the month |
About |
Sigourney Square Park is at the heart of the Asylum Hill neighborhood. It is located in between Ashley and Sargeant Streets and along Sigourney Street, and it lends its name to the Sigourney Square Historic District. The district contains one of the largest, intact collections of Victorian homes in Hartford, and the park gives an almost bucolic feeling to these homes.
The park is the last remaining open space of what was the Hartford Town Farm. In the 19th century, Hartford’s luminaries would send the poor and indigent to the Town Farm in order to make something of themselves. By the 1890s, however, this large expanse of undeveloped land proved too tempting, and the City began selling off parcels to developers. Fortunately, they had the foresight to preserve one square block as Sigourney Square Park, and this park remains one of the most attractive spots in the neighborhood. The Friends of Sigourney Square Park (FSSP) formed in 2011 to promote the park as an integral part of the neighborhood. The park was about to undergo a $700,000 capital improvement plan, and the Friends helped to guide that process and to ensure that it would preserve the park as an active recreational area for all of the residents of the neighborhood. The key goals of the FoSSP include:
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Arts and Culture Committee
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Chairperson: Jackie McKinney
Contact info: [email protected] Committee meeting: Meets via Zoom as needed. |