The air in the room was thick, and seemed to get thicker with the passing of each moment. Tears streamed down cheeks as one by one leaders bravely shared some of the most heart-wrenching stories of abuse, incarceration, and hardships living in Hartford’s North End, an area plagued by a 49.35 percent rate of poverty.[1]   The heaviness was palpable as the last person shared her story, but even this could not overpower the tremendous spirit of survival and resilience emanating from those gathered.

The work of organizing hinges on the capacity to build relationships. Thus, on Thursday, March 22, seventeen North End community leaders filed into a conference room at the Holiday Inn in East Hartford for a 2.5-day broad-based organizing retreat. The purpose was three-fold: 1) to build relationships between leaders from past and current organizing campaigns, 2) assess appetite/capacity for starting an organizing North End Core Team, and 3) do an organizing deep-dive.

Well, on the first day the leaders — from all of the various campaigns including Milner safety, MLK School, Weaver transportation, Vine Street relocation, and CARA No More Slumlords — unanimously and enthusiastically voted YES! “If one person can make a difference,” stated Natalie Langlaise, MLK parent leader, “can you imagine what a cohort can achieve?” Together, with the help of CAC organizers, the leaders took up that imaginative task.

In their first act of solidarity, the North End Core Team leaders decided to accompany the CARA resident leaders to a fortuitously scheduled meeting called by the City’s Tax Abatement Committee regarding the possibility of removing CARA owner, Emmanuel Ku’s tax abatement. “I thought I was alone,” said Joshua Serrano, CARA resident leader, “until that meeting and I saw we had an army.”

Since the March retreat, the North End Core Team has continued to meet with CAC Organizer, A.J. Johnson, to strengthen relationships and further organizing training. Some of the leaders have also participated in the ongoing CAC sponsored antiracism training led by the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond (PISAB), and CAC’s Multi-faith Core Team organizing retreat.

[1] http://www.hartford.gov/mayors-office/115-office-of-the-mayor/1674-north-hartford-promise-zone