Beyond the Learning Corridor

HART Job Center/El Centro Comunal de Trabajo

The community-based organizations HART (Hartford Areas Rally Together) and SINA identified job-creation initiatives as central components in their collaborative efforts to revitalize Frog Hollow and the neighboring Hartford communities. Their goal was to establish a job center that would significantly increase job-training and employment opportunities for local residents.

The HART Job Center, located in the heart of the Frog Hollow neighborhood, represents true community partnership and collaboration in what is a top community priority. The Center opened for business in May 1996 and already has had a major impact on the local community by providing training and employment services for hundreds of neighborhood residents.

Progress to Date

• SINA purchased and rehabilitated the building housing the HART Job Center and turned it over to HART to manage.

• The HART Job Center had over 2,200 service visits in 1998. Seventy-nine percent of the clients come from the neighborhoods surrounding the campus.

• In 1998 over 300 people were placed in employment by the Job Center.

• Through a first-source hiring agreement, the HART Job Center is recruiting neighborhood residents for employment opportunities in the construction of the Learning Corridor. Over 30 percent of the Learning Corridor construction jobs have gone to Hartford residents.

• Employment and job training programs through the International Masonry Institute have been established for neighborhood residents as a part of the Learning Corridor construction operation.

• $450,000 in grants from the Mott, Rockefeller, and Chase Manhattan foundations has been secured for HART Job Center initiatives.

Better Housing and Home Ownership

Good housing is essential for a viable neighborhood. Trinity and its SINA partners have focused their efforts on a 15-square-block area in the Barry Square/Frog Hollow neighborhoods to improve housing stock and create new home-ownership opportunities for neighborhood residents.

To accomplish this goal, SINA is strategically rehabilitating multi-family homes for resale and building new homes. Plans are underway for more large-scale efforts off Broad Street near Trinity. The SINA partners offer residents and other prospective first-time homeowners financial incentives, down-payment assistance, and home-ownership education to help them purchase homes in the neighborhood. The SINA partners are also working with the City and with local residents in selectively demolishing and removing abandoned and uninhabitable buildings.

Progress to Date

• To create nearly 100 units of quality housing, 81 sites were identified for rehabilitation and/or new construction.

• SINA/HART’s turnkey project has rehabilitated and sold 10 homes. The goal is to rehabilitate or construct 10 to 15 homes per year.

• An architectural competition for model home designs for new construction was completed, and the first model home has been constructed on nearby Jefferson Street.

• In January 1999, 20 people graduated from the first class of the home-ownership education program provided by People’s Bank and SINA.

• Nearly $1 million in state and city funding has been secured for home mortgage gap financing.

• Fannie Mae has designated the SINA partnership as a national "housing partner."

Streetscape Improvements

How a neighborhood looks says a lot to the people who live there. Trinity and its SINA partners have joined the City of Hartford in a major street-

improvement program to help make the neighborhood more attractive, safer, and more welcoming. New and improved street lighting, wrought-iron fencing, landscaping, and directional signage will dramatically improve sidewalks, intersections, streets, traffic flow, and pedestrian access to create a "seamless campus" in the neighborhood.

Progress to Date

• Phase I of a $1.3-million program focused on the edges of the campuses of Trinity and its hospital partners has been completed.

• Phase II, supported by $1.6 million in federal funds, has begun and is scheduled for completion in 2000.

• Phase III is currently being designed and will continue the streetscape improvements.

Community Policing

Trinity, its SINA partners, community leaders and city, state, and federal governments have joined in a major effort to assure neighborhood safety and security by strengthening community policing. This initiative is already making the neighborhood safer, more secure, and more open.

Progress to Date

• A new community Hartford Police substation opened in the neighborhood.

• Neighborhood police bike patrols have begun. The patrols are coordinated with Trinity campus security, and the bikes were purchased by SINA with funding provided by the CITY of Hartford and SINA.

• Existing block-watch programs have been expanded.

Neighborhood Retail Development

The renewed vitality of neighborhoods depends on the renewed vitality of neighborhood marketplaces to serve the community’s needs. In Trinity’s neighborhood there is already evidence of the strength of these marketplaces to serve as a foundation for community renewal. A newly constructed national-chain drug store, a new federal post office, and new and resurgent small businesses nearby have already contributed to the vitality of the neighborhood.

Trinity and SINA are also exploring opportunities to help establish small, community-based retail businesses that will serve local residents, students, and employees of the institutions in the neighborhood. The retail development will include "captive retail"--retail services associated with the SINA partner institutions--in the area adjacent to or on the Learning Corridor campus and will continue to strengthen retail corners on Zion Street, Washington Street, Park Street, and New Britain Avenue.

Progress to Date

• Neighborhood retail assessment has been completed.

• Financing for small businesses in the area has been increased through the efforts of a local merchants association.

• "Captive retail" opportunities have been identified.

• In July 1999, the U.S.Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded $2 million in Economic Development Initiative Funds and an additional $6.2 million in loan funds to support key commercial and retail components of the neighborhood initiative. The funding will be used for retail development within the Learning Corridor and for mixed-use projects on Zion Street, to the west of Trinity's campus

• Planning has begun for establishing local business access to a common electronic information server providing technology support for small business use.