by Jamil Ragland CTNewsJunkie
HARTFORD, CT – Sen. Doug McCrory, D-Hartford, and the leadership of the renovated Hartford Swift Factory celebrated the latest investment in the site that will help spur development in Hartford’s north end.
The site received a $900,000 grant through the Community Investment Fund, which is designed to foster economic development in historically underserved communities across the state. The funds will be used to grow further development at the historic Swift factory and help establish a community Workforce and Youth Hub aimed at improving workforce development for Hartford’s north end.
“About a year and a half ago, after the George Floyd killing, myself and some of my colleagues at the Capitol came together and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got to do something different. What we’re doing is not working.’ We needed to create a community investment fund that would pour resources into those communities that need the most,” McCrory said during the news conference.
The Swift factory is owned and operated by North Hartford Partnership, a nonprofit partnership that owns and operates the roughly 80,000-square-foot facility in the formerly abandoned gold leafing factory in Hartford’s north end. The campus now serves as a multipurpose hub for local entrepreneurs, offering kitchen and office space as well as services like an early childhood education program run by the Capitol Region Education Council.
Brenda Watson, executive director of the nonprofit North Hartford Partnership that manages the Swift Factory site, said she grew up nearby. Credit: Jamil Ragland / CTNewsJunkie
Brenda Watson, executive director of North Hartford Partnership, which is the nonprofit that manages the Swift Factory site, said she grew up nearby.
“Well, I grew up across the street here on Love Lane, and when I was growing up here, we didn’t know what this factory was for,” Watson said. “So it’s gratifying to see it be a space that is open and welcoming to the community, and actually offering an opportunity for entrepreneurs and people who want to dream about becoming an entrepreneur. They can do that here.”
Watson also spoke about how she hopes the factory becomes a place where public safety and environmental justice work is carried out as well.
“When a climate disaster happens, it’s people in this community who will be impacted first and hardest. They also have a difficult time rebounding or recovering from a disaster. And that’s a result of a lack of government investment in this community,” Watson said. “The infrastructure is such that when it rains super heavy, the street floods. Our basements [at the Swift factory] flood. So if it’s happening in this building, it’s happening in the other buildings in our community. We’re confronting the injustices of our past.”
According to advocates, the north end of Hartford, also known as Northeast Hartford, has dealt with challenges of segregation and disinvestment for decades, and those challenges have had serious negative consequences for its residents. An analysis by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that residents of northeast Hartford had a life expectancy of 68.9 years – 11 years fewer than the state average of 80.8 years, and 15 years fewer than the life expectancy of residents of West Hartford Center, which is only about five miles away. The health and workforce orientation of the Swift site seeks to combat the underlying causes of these stark discrepancies.
Jim Boucher, chief strategy officer of Capital Workforce Partners, spoke about the potential for expanded training to help residents of the neighborhood find good-paying jobs that look to the future of industry in Connecticut.
“We have been talking with Brenda and others about the importance of employment training for good careers. There’s healthcare, there’s green jobs, manufacturing, construction, finance, and so many potential great jobs,” Boucher said. “So this phase of investment will be focused on further building out the space here. Capital Workforce Partners is one of the partners that’s involved, as are a number of other workforce development partners who are looking at how we can further support some of the work that needs to still happen around resource and partnership development to bring in those employment and training programs.”
The Swift Factory reopened under North Hartford Partnership’s leadership in 2020, but the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic slowed progress in staffing the building and sharing the results with the public. Now the Swift site is home to nine fully-rented kitchens and several small businesses that utilize the site’s office space.
Chrisann Miller, owner of the Ital Juicery Company that operates out of the historic Swift factory site, and her daughter/business partner, Amina-Nefertiti Miller. Credit: Jamil Ragland / CTNewsJunkie
Chrisann Miller, owner of the Ital Juicery Company, hopes to grow her business to help combat some of the issues she sees in Hartford’s north end.
“Hartford is a food desert, and residents lack access to healthy food options,” she said. “I am a trailblazer and pioneer when it comes to transforming the food desert landscape by providing access to clean ingredients and healthy food options.”
Miller says that business has been good, and the she’s laying the groundwork for the increased demand she anticipates as the Swift site grows and develops.
“If you’re consistent with your efforts, it’ll happen for you,” she said.