By Yancy Singleton
Over the past few weeks, I’ve spent my evenings and weekends knocking doors and making calls in Edgewood for my friend/sister Lindsey Eichler Tengatenga.
People might wonder why I’m going so hard for her. The answer is simple: I believe in Lindsey. I know the difference between someone who talks about community and someone who actually lives it when nobody is watching. I know that representation isn’t just about someone who looks like me; it’s also about who stands with us when nobody is watching and there are no votes to be won.
Real leadership isn’t waiting to be asked; it’s knowing where you are needed and showing up. I met Lindsey in 2016, fresh home after serving 10 years of incarceration.
As executive director of Public Allies Connecticut, she looked past a prison number and saw leadership in me that most people didn’t care to know existed. When an organizational issue kept me from joining the cohort that first year, Lindsey was battling serious health problems of her own. Yet, barely knowing me, she checked in and encouraged me for an entire year until I could join the next cohort.
Whether it was showing up unasked at my apartment door with medicine when I was fighting for my life with Covid-19, or sitting in the pews at my cousin’s funeral, Lindsey has walked through the fire with me time and time again, and it has made the difference in my personal and professional life.
Lindsey is way beyond what people casually call an “ally.” That word has been watered down by folks who put signs in their yards but never step foot in the trenches. With what I’ve lived through, I would have sniffed out a fraud a long time ago; Lindsey is the real deal — a rare human being who doesn’t tolerate BS and truly believes that power belongs in the hands of everyday people, not a connected political circle.
That is why Lindsey raised her hand to run and earned her spot on the ballot the hard way: from the outside, listening to residents, and petitioning her way on. It’s the exact same energy she has poured into New Haven for over 20 years, creating apprenticeships for hundreds of young people many of whom are now working inside our schools, community organizations and government institutions, fighting alongside the Student Loan Fund, and knocking on over 650 doors across Ward 24 to fight for affordable housing, safer streets, and youth programs.
It’s why she has the support of someone like Ward 24 resident and business owner Lauren Anderson. Lauren shared with me how Lindsey has shown up for the bookspace from jump, promoting it with people locally and with folks like me who live at a distance. She told me what that kind of support means in a business’s make-or-break-it first few years especially. She also shared stories of the refugee families in the neighborhood pushing their kids in strollers Lindsey handed off to them, about the families that don’t go hungry through the holidays because of local food drives that Lindsey helps coordinate, about the neighborhood kid who would never have made it to drama club without Lindsey ensuring a daily ride, and about what it’s been like to live near Lindsey for over a decade, where she’s watched Lindsey raise a beautiful civically engaged family, build relationships, and welcome new neighbors.
Like Lauren and so many others, I know from experience that Lindsey shows up and never shows up empty-handed. She brings skills from her years leading nonprofit organizations, drawing federal funds to cities, and coaching community leaders, including “unlikely” ones like me. And she brings real resources, connecting people to opportunities and building opportunities where there is need. With Lindsey, there is no gate-keeping; the gates are open and you are invited in.
Edgewood needs a fighter who answers to the block, not to City Hall insiders. It needs someone who will open the gates for maximum neighborhood connection and participation, and who will do the unglamorous, often invisible work that makes inclusive participation possible. If you live in Edgewood, talk to a trusted neighbor that knows Lindsey well, or listen to a voice like mine that Lindsey has helped to amplify against the odds.
Ward 24, I wish I could vote with you tomorrow, Nov. 10. I hope you’ll vote for Lindsey Eichler Tengatenga.
Yancy Singleton is an alumnus and former program manager of Public Allies Connecticut, co-founder of Justice Advisors at the Connecticut Justice Alliance, and founder of The Fortitude Project. He currently lives in Waterbury.