Nonprofit Leaders Get Their Flowers

by Lisa Reisman The New Haven independent

At the recent 9^th annual Nonprofit Stars Align Awards Breakfast at the Omni Hotel, the superstars of the nonprofit world got to shine—at a time when their landscape seems particularly inhospitable.

That’s on top of being “the hardest working business leaders in Greater New Haven,” as the United Way of Greater New Haven’s Aly Fox, event emcee, put it, “tasked with maintaining a high-functioning business with all the same legal, human resources, and marketing issues, as well as running a charity to raise money to survive.”

Among the honorees was Marcus Harvin, winner of the Starburst Award, for “transforming the community with a fresh approach” within the past five years.

“This is a wake-up call to those who believe it necessary to situate some of God’s children as others,” Harvin told the 80 in attendance. Three years removed from his release from prison, where he served six years, he founded Newhallville Fresh Starts, which currently distributes 1,200 meals free of charge each week to those in need.

Harvin, an associate minister at Pitts Chapel Unified Free Will Baptist Church and a first-year law student at West New England School of Law, recognized those who helped him on his journey, including his professors with the Yale Prison Education Initiative, and those at the University of New Haven, where he graduated magna cum laude in 2025; as well as the directors at Yale School of Medicine’s SEICHE Center for Health & Justice, where he serves on the Community Advisory Board.

“I stand here before you as unequivocal proof—prima facie proof—that when ostracized individuals are afforded opportunity, excellence will be the end result,” he said.

Friends Center for Children took home the innovation award for their Teaching Housing Initiative. With a median wage that falls 97 percent below all other jobs, “our early childhood educators cannot afford to meet their basic needs,” program director Miriam Sutton said. The financial worry that saddles them compromises their physical and mental well-being and also their delivery of early care education, she said.

In addition to the alleviation of anxiety afforded by the dignified free housing, “the 17 New Haven residents have seen an immediate financial lift with average salaries $23,000 higher than the state average,” she said, with seven more on the way in the next three years.

“The health of the business community relies heavily on the stability of our childcare system, and that stability begins with educators that make it all possible,” she said, adding that the Friends Center model is being replicated in Boston, Michigan, and Georgia. “Without childcare, people stay at home from your businesses to care for their children, and without people coming to work, our workforce and our economy lose.”

For their collaboration in April that ensured 650 families would continue to get weekly bags of food, the Community Soup Kitchen and Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services (IRIS) were named Constellation Award winners. Ana Cárdenas, IRIS operations manager, recalled hearing that, due to cuts in federal funding, IRIS no longer had the money to operate its food pantry.

“I realized we share missions because we’re both trying to serve the community, so why not join forces?” said Cardenas, who was new to the CSK board at the time. Since then, the nonprofit, which does not depend on federal funds, is also helping IRIS families with clothing assistance, personal hygiene kits, and basic home necessities.

“Partnerships are the key to us growing stronger,” said CSK Program Director Winston Sutherland, noting the 86,000 meals across multiple locations CSK served in 2024. “This year we tripled that, and that’s due to our partnerships.”

For outstanding leadership in the New Haven community, Sister Mary Ellen Burns accepted the award on behalf of Apostle Immigrant Services, which provides legal services to immigrants, including those who have experienced abuse, neglect, and abandonment.

Burns, its executive director, thanked Apostle’s clients, whom she called “resilient, brave, talented, and willing to work hard with us so we can help them achieve the goals we’re setting.” She expressed gratitude to the staff and volunteers, people who are “smart and passionate about the work they do and not doing it for the paycheck which is a good thing.”

Acknowledging the unseasonable climate for nonprofits in general, she focused on the positive.

“We are encouraged to be in a city and a state in which both our elected leaders and many residents are committed to welcoming the stranger and to upholding the dignity of all of us who live here,” she said.

“So that just makes it very rich and very possible, and when other things are discouraging, we are encouraged by one another.”