Trinfo Reopens Building, Celebrates 25 Years of Serving the Community

A gathering space at Trinity College that has welcomed Hartford residents for 25 years has reopened with a new name and a renewed focus on serving the community.

Trinfo—formerly known as Trinfo.Café—hosted a reception on Saturday, September 6, to celebrate its reopening and its milestone anniversary. The event featured live music, food, community resources, gardening prizes, and family activities. Located at 1300 Broad Street, Trinfo stands on the northeast corner of campus, between Vernon Street and Allen Place. (See the campus map.)

Liliana Polley IDP’21, M’23, executive director of Trinity’s Center for Hartford Engagement and Research—which counts Trinfo among its core programs—said that while Trinfo’s priorities have been adjusted over the years, its mission remains the same.

“While Trinfo will continue to honor its historic role in bridging the digital divide, this new phase will emphasize resources provided by Trinity College, the city, and the state to increase accessibility to educational opportunities and social services,” Polley said. “The community garden and VITA Tax Clinic are excellent examples of mutually beneficial relationships. It’s about building trust and collaboration while addressing real needs.”

Polley said that Trinity made a significant investment in maintenance and repairs to the building, which was closed during the 2024-25 academic year. It reopened with new flooring, new bathrooms, a new accessible sidewalk, and updated HVAC and fire systems. Trinfo also debuted new signage and a new logo. “We wanted to make the space inviting and welcoming, and it needed a fresh face,” Polley said.

Trinfo.Café was founded in 1999—when internet cafés were popular worldwide—to broaden access to the internet and tech skills for Trinity’s neighbors. “It used to be a place where we offered digital connectivity and technology services for residents. Today, many more residents have a cell phone in their hand and the community’s priorities have changed,” Polley said.

After noting a decline in the building’s usage when it reopened to the public after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Polley and her team embarked on a plan to re-envision Trinfo based on community feedback. “We surveyed Hartford residents and talked to the local Neighborhood Revitalization Zones and community leaders,” she said. Several clear priorities emerged: a desire for college access and career readiness; expanded programming, including social services; continued tech support; and sustaining the community garden.

“The biggest change is an increased focus on college access and career readiness resources for Hartford high school students,” Polley said. Trinfo will offer FAFSA workshops, essay-writing assistance from students in Trinity’s Writing Center, and regular on-site office hours with staff from Trinity’s Admissions Office and Career and Life Design Center. (Click here to learn more.)

“Trinity has these resources and it’s important that we share them with the community,” Polley said. “And this is not just for students; we will offer writing resources and career services to Hartford residents as we expand our community and our partnerships. Trinity is invested in the success of its neighbors and is committed to creating a welcoming space for everyone in the city.” Additional resources available at Trinfo will include Greater Hartford Legal Aid clinics and Hartford 311 office hours.

Trinfo saw about 2,500 visits during the 2023-24 academic year, and Polley hopes to increase that number with the new offerings. Polley said that even while the building was closed last year, Trinfo’s programming—including the VITA Tax Clinic—carried on elsewhere on campus, and the community garden adjacent to Trinfo remained as popular as ever.

Many organizations in the Hartford community have longtime partnerships with Trinfo that will continue in its next chapter. Annie Sablon, executive director of Organized Parents Make a Difference, Inc., said that collaborating with Trinfo has given younger Hartford students valuable computer skills. “Trinity students taught our students how to create and deliver PowerPoint presentations on various topics—a skill that has helped many of them gain the confidence to speak in front of a group,” Sablon said.

Generations of Trinity students and alumni have benefited from being part of these community collaborations, as well. Jeremias Vazquez ’25 said, “Working at Trinfo shaped my Trinity experience. It opened the door for me to connect with the wider Hartford community and I came to value those everyday interactions and the relationships built through them. It helped me recognize that one of my strongest skills is connecting with and supporting people, which I know will continue to guide my career path.”

Ray Alvarez-Adorno ’23 added that working at Trinfo was essential to his success at Trinity and beyond. “Trinfo was much more than a college job; it was a place where you became a member of Hartford,” he said. “Through helping people file taxes, watering the plants in the garden, or just talking with people, I could escape the pressures of college and become who I wanted to be: someone who can help those around him.”

Educational studies major Jess Cruz ’26 said that her time working at Trinfo has encouraged her personal, career, and academic growth. “I work as a mentor for Hartford Magnet Trinity College Academy students and I have found my own leadership style, guided by the trust and care that I’ve gotten from my Trinfo family. As a senior, I feel considerably more confident in reaching my goals and I find so much joy in my work on campus because of the dedicated backing of the Trinfo community of patrons, students, and staff.”

Polley added that she is hopeful for the future of Trinfo and all of Trinity’s community engagement work, led by CHER. “Successful partnerships don’t happen through the efforts of one person. I am extremely grateful for the continued support of Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty Sonia Cardenas and Chief of Staff and Associate Vice President for External Affairs Jason Rojas,” Polley said. “Former Trinity College President Joanne Berger-Sweeney also was a huge supporter of the work we are doing here. Now I’m very excited about working with President Dan Lugo, who is passionate about his commitment to Hartford.”

Lugo said that the reopening of Trinfo marked an important milestone in Trinity’s history of community engagement. “For 25 years, Trinfo has demonstrated the power of reciprocity—where the College and the community learn from and strengthen one another,” he said. “As we look to the future, Trinity remains committed to investing in spaces and programs that embody this shared growth. The vitality of Hartford and the vitality of Trinity are deeply connected, and Trinfo represents the kind of partnership that makes both stronger.”

Trinfo is open to the public. Its hours for the 2025-26 academic year will be Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Community meetings may be scheduled in the space on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

For more information, contact Liliana Polley at [email protected].

See photos from the September 6 celebration below.