The Sustainability Team has been hosting Community Conversations throughout this year to explore what sustainability means to residents of East Haddam, and how we can improve to make our town thrive. Each Conversation builds on the one before.
In the 1st Community Conversation, good ideas were brought up, but many did not consider programs already in place, offered by different town organizations, or programs that have been tried and had not found purchase. We set out to remedy the lack of organizational knowledge by hosting residents and community organizations in our 2nd Community Conversation to create a large floor size VENN Diagram of the organizations in town and how they connect, and what services they offer. This was a very successful and fun meeting, with good exchanges and a fascinating diagram of the relationships and collaboration between organizations. The diagram still needs some work before it’s published but it engendered new connections and goodwill between organizations.
Following a request by some participants to further conversations between nonprofits, who feel under the radar, we held our 3rd Community Conversation as a volunteer fair for local non-profits to connect them with residents, and to continue contacts with each other. This conversation was less successful, partly because there were so many other events in town that afternoon. Talking with other residents and participants in the conversations we realized that one of the big issues in town is the lack of a central community calendar that lists everything that is going on, that can be used in planning and participating in events. There are partial listings in the East Haddam News, on FB groups and on the town website. Eightmile River posts events about the outdoors and conservation on their community calendar. The libraries, Youth and Family Services and the Historical Society have their own calendars on their websites. The schools have their calendar for parents. All of these give partial information. In our busy world, where many are involved in raising families and with work, and some are befuddled by the overabundance of choices and technology, it would be so useful to create a place to land, one that we can agree on and trust. This has been tried, unsuccessfully, in the past.
Our 4th Community Conversation was another brave attempt to gather residents, organizations, the municipality and businesses together to brainstorm and find possible solutions, to look at the financial and administrative costs and to see maybe this time we can use the town wisdom and create a town calendar for all. This Community Conversation had 18 participants, some associated with different organizations such as VFW post 3336 and Cemetery Troopers, East Haddam Clothes Bank, East Haddam Land Trust. East Haddam Conservation Commission, East Haddam Sustainability Team and Community Lions and others who were there as residents of East Haddam. We sat in a circle and started with a Round of Introductions, backgrounds and reasons for interest in creating a community calendar. Johan and Ellen Varekamp talked about their background in Wesleyan and their involvement in Save the Sound and also in the Historical Society including work on the seismograph to record the Moodus noises. They also mentioned the related program they did with 3rd grade in the Elementary School. Pete Govert gave the history of the municipal community calendar which he suggested 14 years ago when he was selectman as part of the building of the municipal website. Sheila Gleeson talked about missing events and only learning about them after the fact in the East Haddam News and Harold Moritz felt he was new to this and wanted to see what we would offer. Marie Clucas has lived in East Haddam 12 years with kids in the schools, and teaches Sociology at Tunxis Community College. She wants to be more involved in the community. John Olin talked about being part of the Conservation Commission and his resilience work on flooding in the village. Rev Erin Flynn has been the pastor at St. Stevens Church for the last four years. She is looking for a way to reach the community. They use Patch with partial success. She wonders how to reach those who are not online or on social media. She mentioned the weekly Harvest House and the young adult community gatherings for ages 23-35.
At the 5th Community Conversation there were only four participants. Again, timing was an issue as the last Saturday of the month of August was part of the Labor Day weekend and Haddam Neck Fair. Many people were otherwise engaged. Yet, we still had a very good discussion. We got to meet our new Library Assistant, Shomriel, who comes to us from Lebanon, CT, and has participated there in resiliency group conversations. We discussed the need to use our public spaces and have a place for young people to gather in a welcoming environment. Shomriel spoke about the process of creating a welcoming space for youth at the Lebanon library." Another issue that was raised in the last conversation was the idea of consolidating the food bank, clothes bank and personal care products bank into one centralized location. Continuing the conversation at Heritage Market with the Pastor of Christ Community Church, where the clothes bank is housed, the idea of transforming the clothes bank into a thrift shop where all community members can participate was brought up. This comes back to Ryan Knaggs’ idea of a thrift shop as a community anchor which he suggested at our first community conversation. Another idea that was brought up by a woman at the Summer Palooza as we discussed the coming Repair Cafe on October 4th. She suggested we create a repair and donate event where appliances that need a small repair can then be given to those in need. We discussed the unused spaces such as the Municipal Building basement, waiting to maybe be used as a library. In the meantime, or instead, it could host a Makers Space or a tool library or many other community projects that need permanent space. The same goes for the old municipal buildings, the River House and Former Town Office Building that could be used while we decide on the future of the area. The use of the Senior Center after hours was also discussed as a place that could be utilized to serve more of the community. As a result of these conversations and talks with different nonprofits, Amalia came up with an idea of creating a nonprofit association, similar to the business association, where nonprofits and service organizations can meet and exchange ideas and pool resources to stretch their shoestring budgets. Nora brought up a new topic - Coordinating the events for the 250 years of independence celebration, to include the whole year and the different organizations. We could make this a unique exploration of East Haddam’s participation, both for the good and the more difficult occurrences in our journey towards Independence. We could involve the Cemetery Troopers, The Historical Society and the EDC and other organizations in a year of place making events.
The 6th Community Conversation was held on Sunday, September 28, There were only 5 participants in this last Conversation asking the question - What Next? The answer seems to be to continue rolling the ball forward. One of the major issues we talked about is Youth activities. Engaging our youth. How to get people out as families, not just for a few events a year. We talked about successful programs such as the Baseball program and the AAU. We thought that we should talk to community elders and ask what they did in the past that worked. We raised the issue that we don't have a community center where young people can gather and hang out, have a cup of cocoa and just talk. A community center in Moodus would be a good idea. Maybe finding one of the abandoned houses in town and using it. Also maybe creating opportunities for youth gathering around a fire. Or a film series on Town Beach. We also discussed creating a survey for voting day. The survey at town hall would be to gauge what residents want town organizations to provide or host. Do we need a youth center? Should we consolidate the foodbank, clothes bank and personal products into one place? What services are needed? What are missing? Amalia Shaltiel brought up the idea of forming an association of non-profits and service organizations in town to coordinate and share resources. Nora Myers reported on the large calendar that still needs input from many organizations. Amalia Shaltiel reported on the trying to see if the COG would help with Civic Lift and continuing to advocate for the fixing of the town calendar. We finished with the understanding that these conversations have helped form connections between organizations and community members but that we need to continue into actions that will help move these ideas forward.
