Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison: “When you dream, this is what happens.”
Dakri and Taya Cox look forward to exploring the new programs at First Haven in Dixwell.
State Treasurer Erick Russell: “In order for our communities to thrive…we need to build power as a community.”
Hundreds cheered and clapped on Dixwell Avenue Friday afternoon to celebrate the grand opening of First Haven in Dixwell, welcoming a new daycare, health clinic, and workforce training center into one of the city’s most historic Black neighborhoods.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony — which took place on the Juneteenth holiday — drew dozens of elected officials and Dixwell residents to the site of the former Dixwell Plaza, a part of the city once known as “New Haven’s Black Wall Street.”
Thanks to the Connecticut Community Outreach and Revitalization Program (ConnCORP) and local leaders like Erik Clemons, 150 Dixwell Ave. is now home to a brand-new, 65,000-square-foot building.
Inside, the Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center will offer medical services, Friends Center for Children will operate its fourth daycare location, and ConnCAT, ConnCORP’s job-training nonprofit affiliate, will teach vocational programs in fields like phlebotomy, biotech, and culinary arts.
“For me, this moment is about what becomes possible when a community chooses to believe in itself,” Clemons is quoted as saying in a Saturday morning press release. “This building is a declaration that hope belongs here, opportunity belongs here, and the people of this community deserve spaces that reflect their limitless potential.”
“Guess what? We coming back,” Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers said on Friday. She celebrated “taking Dixwell back, block by block.” The crowd cheered and applauded.
The new building represents only the first phase of ConnCORP’s $200 million-plus redevelopment project on the western side of Dixwell Avenue between Webster Street and Charles Street. In the next phase, the developers will build a 184-unit apartment complex, grocery store, performing arts center, and more, all with the goal of rebuilding the heart of Dixwell.
“In order for our communities to thrive…we need to build power as a community,” said State Treasurer Erick Russell. “And that power comes from building wealth over time.”
Russell, who grew up in New Haven, saw firsthand how ConnCAT created “pathways to opportunity.” The new headquarters “is going to make it easy” for even more people to access job training, tutoring, and other support, he said.
As New Haven State Sen. and President Pro Tempore Martin Looney approached the stage, musicians played him walk-up music: an instrumental mix of electric guitar, drums, and piano.
According to Looney, the project was one of the first recipients of a Community Investment Fund (CIF) grant. Through the CIF program, in 2022, ConnCORP was awarded $10 million from the state. “We saw what this day would be like when it came,” said Looney. First Haven represents “a revival in the Dixwell community” and “a belief in all the people in that community, and that’s something that I think the state of Connecticut will continue to be aware of [and] continue to invest in.”
“We are incredibly proud to see this milestone come to fruition for ConnCAT, ConnCORP, and most importantly for the New Haven community,” local developer Yves-Georges Joseph II of RJ Development + Advisors said in an email press release Friday. “Dixwell Avenue deserves this.”
After the ribbon-cutting ceremony, hundreds of people filed into the building’s glass doors to tour a phlebotomy lab, professional kitchen, and digital art studio. A dozen dancers performed in a mirror-lined studio, and aspiring biotechnicians challenged guests to create pipette art. Appetizers from Orchid Café, which is part of ConnCAT’s culinary program, circled the lobby on platters.
Four-year-old Dakri Cox and his mom, Taya, raced inside the building. “I wanted to see what all of this is about,” Taya told the Independent. One of her sisters just graduated from high school, and Taya plans to tell her about ConnCAT’s vocational programs. “She is open to trying anything,” said Taya.
Taya was especially excited to hear about the building’s daycare. She said her other sister would enroll in a vocational program if she could find convenient childcare for her two kids.
“These are all programs that we will use,” she told the Independent. Dakri nodded enthusiastically, saying he was very interested in the “food” parts. Taya smiled. “He’s just hungry,” she said.
Jorge Cuatlatoa, Michelle Flores, and Charisse McCotter all graduated from ConnCAT’s phlebotomy program. They spent Friday evening in the new lab, talking to visitors about how ConnCAT changed their lives.
After completing the phlebotomy program, McCotter enrolled in ConnCAT’s entrepreneurship classes. Now, she runs a mobile phlebotomy company, a business that she started after seeing how many people struggle to get to labs. Many patients lack reliable transportation, she explained, and others underestimate the importance of bloodwork. Through a contract with Yale New Haven Hospital, she spends her days making home visits to patients across Connecticut.
Cuatlatoa and Flores, a married couple, graduated from ConnCAT’s phlebotomy program in 2017. Flores recalled pushing her husband to enroll when she was pregnant. “I knew he had more potential,” she told the Independent. Now, both of them are certified nurses; Cuatlatoa is at Yale New Haven Hospital, while Flores works for Fair Haven Community Health Care.
Ashlyn Savannah, a 21-year-old student at Georgia State University (GSU), is another ConnCAT success story. Starting in fifth grade, she participated in ConnCAT’s enrichment programs. ConnCAT helped her discover her love for film and video, she said.
“ConnCAT put me into so many different rooms,” said Savannah. When she networks, she leans on the education she received through ConnCAT. “I can hold conversations with creatives for longer” by talking about the Harlem Renaissance or software, she said.
ConnCAT taught Savannah how to be “ambitious” and “persistent,” she said. “It’s home. It’s family.”
A dozen girls performed for a packed audience inside First Haven’s dance studio.
A digital art lab, stocked with brand-new Mac computers.
Just off the entrance of the building is a set of exhibits about the history of Dixwell.
Now open, at 150 Dixwell Ave.