Hands On Hartford Celebrates 50 Years—And Keeps Giving

November 25 2019 Innovation Destination: Hartford CT Lifestyle 0 comments Tags: community, Connecticut, CT, Hands On Hartford, Hartford

"Celebrating our 50th year has meant reflecting on how far we’ve come and honoring and celebrating five decades of service to the low-income community," says Hands On Hartford Executive Director Barbara Shaw.

Hands On Hartford celebrated its 50^th anniversary on October 24, 2019. The Hartford-based organization maintains its mission of helping people in the areas of food and housing and health support and continues to provide new programming and initiatives to meet the community’s needs.

MetroHartford Alliance Content Manager met with Hands On Hartford Executive Director Barbara Shaw and Development & Communications Manager Kate Shafer to learn about how the Hartford community can become involved with giving initiatives during in the holiday season and beyond.

NAN PRICE: First of all, congratulations on your 50^th anniversary!

BARBARA SHAW: Thank you! Celebrating our 50th year has meant reflecting on how far we’ve come and honoring and celebrating five decades of service to the low-income community. More importantly, we’re looking at what we’ll we be doing for the next 50 years. How do we create more impactful service to the community? How do we do an even better job connecting communities and engaging volunteers to make change in this world?

NAN: The holidays are right around the corner, which is always a great time to engage volunteers and give back in the community. How can people get involved?

BARBARA Hands On Hartford provides meals for all the holidays throughout the year. On Thanksgiving day, we’ll host a meal at Christ Church Cathedral’s parish house on Church Street in Hartford.

The Kitchen-to-Pantry team at Hands on Hartford.

Our volunteer opportunities are full Thanksgiving day, but we do have volunteer opportunities for Christmas and New Year’s Day and we’re always looking for the community to consider getting involved by helping to fund the cost of these special holiday meals.

We’re excited to host our annual Toy Shoppe and holiday party for the families we serve on December 19. We’ve been doing that in partnership with Avon Old Farms School and other groups for the last 27 years. It’s such a fun event with music, games, food and treats—and a visit from Santa. We’re still looking for sponsors for that event to help with some of the expenses and would love to see more of the community get involved.

NAN: There are many opportunities for the community get involved beyond the holidays, too. Can you tell us about some of the newer initiatives?

KATE SHAFER: Sure. As we looked back over the past 50 years, we saw the wide range of different programs we offered to respond to the community’s needs and we’ve created some new initiatives to better serve people who are living in extreme poverty and help with community building.

One of our big goals over the last couple of years has been improving health. Since we last talked to you in 2017, we started an initiative called Kitchen to Pantry , which reduces food waste and provides access to healthy produce for pantry families. Volunteers help clean, chop, and package fresh produce to be distributed in our pantry. Some of this produce comes from Foodshare and some is donated by local gardeners and farmers.

Forming a partnership with the Muslim Coalition of Connecticut enabled us to start offering Halal meat through the pantry because we want to make sure people can access culturally, religiously aligned food from us.

We’ve also expanded the hours at our MANNA Community Meals and Day Program and we now have a full-time social worker who meets with people to help get them onto the path toward finding shelter and eventually permanent housing. That’s been a real benefit because many people aren’t able to get the kind of one-on-one assistance they need to become more stable.

We’ve gotten vital support from the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving to make that happen and are thankful to Christ Church Cathedral, which has provided space for the last 40 years. There are plenty of opportunities for folks to provide meals (and of course financial support) and volunteer to prep, serve, and visit with guests at that program.

BARBARA: I’ll talk about our Hands On Hartford ventures, which are our mission-centric businesses. The Café at Fifty-Five was the first one. It’s been open three years now and provides jobs, volunteer opportunities, and a wonderful gathering space for the community. From that, we formed a catering company called Caterers Who Care, which is also aligned with our organizational vision of engaging people in taking next steps in their lives with jobs and volunteer opportunities. It also provides delicious food for customers at the right price point.

KATE: With these ventures, all the income helps pay for our charitable programs. Everything we do here relies on donations. It’s challenging to predict when they come in and at what amount, so having a steady income stream helps even out that flow and helps with planning our services throughout the year.

A shared kitchen member in action: Chantal Thomas of Amazing Ackee.

BARBARA: Another of our initiatives is through our licensed commercial kitchen, which is nicely sized and well-appointed. We’ve been able to share it with culinary businesses, often startups although not exclusively, who need licensed commercial kitchen space to operate lawfully and safely in Connecticut. Our kitchen is available 24/7 to our 34 members. They’re a variety of small businesses—food truck and food cart owners, caterers, bakers, small-scale manufacturers, and the urban farmers in Hartford who produce their value-added products here.

NAN: Does Hands on Hartford collaborate with other organizations?

BARBARA: Yes. We formed The Culinary Collaborative with Breakfast Lunch & Dinner, Forge City Works, Knox, Parkville Market, reSET, and Swift Factory to help culinary businesses launch, test their products, grow their businesses, and create more jobs. Working together, we’re obviously able to be much more effective.

Learn more about Hands On Hartford

READ: Hands On Hartford: Strengthening The Community In Hartford
VISIT: www.handsonhartford.org
FOLLOW: Facebook | Twitter

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Hartford Has Winterfest

November 25 2019 Innovation Destination: Hartford CT Lifestyle 0 comments Tags: activities, community, Connecticut, fun, Hartford, Winterfest

“I always called Winterfest ‘The Magic of Hartford’ because it brings together people from all different ages and all different backgrounds who are just having a fun time in downtown Hartford in the middle of winter in a beautiful, historic park,” says iQuilt Executive Director Jackie Mandyck.

Winterfest Hartford is bundling up for its 10^th year celebrating the winter holiday season in Hartford. An initiative of the iQuilt Partnership, Winterfest Hartford begins November 29, 2019 and runs through January 20, 2020. The skating rink is open from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. On Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day, the rink is open from 12:00 to 4:00 p.m.

MetroHartford Alliance Content Manager Nan Price spoke with iQuilt Executive Director Jackie Mandyck to find out more about the holiday tradition and how it makes Hartford a great place to chill.

NAN PRICE: How exciting that Winterfest Hartford is celebrating its 10^th year! Tell us a little about the evolution.

JACKIE MANDYCK: Thanks! We’re excited too. The concept was to provide fun winter activities in Hartford that are available to everyone. Years ago, the city celebrated the season with lights on Constitution Plaza and Santa arriving via helicopter. There was excitement and energy. We wanted a way to recreate that and have that feeling available to everyone in the community. That’s one thing we feel Hartford has over other cities with ice rinks—we offer these free activities to one and all.

NAN: Let’s talk about those activities.

JACKIE: Winterfest Hartford brings more than 100,000 visitors into the park for all kinds of activities. I want to emphasize that all the activities are free and open to everyone.

There’s a lot of fun in Hartford and a lot of things to do. iQuilt tries to help with that, specifically with Winterfest. And we offer more than just ice skating. Some of the other activities are photos with Santa, a mascot day, and an ice sculpture day. We also have a variety of music nights from 70s, 80s, and 90s to jazz, Disney, hip hop, and heavy metal and hard rock. We’ll have our giant game room set up in the Pump House Gallery on the weekends. This year, we’re hoping to have an outdoor beer garden like the one that was so popular this summer.

NAN: How is Winterfest Hartford funded?

JACKIE: About 200 people, organizations, and foundations contribute to Winterfest with donations that range from $5 to $65,000, everything from large corporations to family-owned small businesses in the city of Hartford. We have a list of sponsors. A lot of corporations downtown have been long-time supporters, including Travelers, The Hartford, Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, Eversource, and LAZ Parking.

NAN: What’s great about Winterfest is, it’s creating an experience in Hartford. It brings people to the city and it has a significant community impact.

JACKIE: It’s true. The days we’re open, we average close to 1,000 skaters. It’s indescribable. You have to be downtown to feel it. I always called Winterfest “the magic of Hartford” because it brings together people from all different ages and all different backgrounds who are just having a fun time in downtown Hartford in the middle of winter in a beautiful, historic park.

NAN: How does Winterfest contribute to the overall goals of iQuilt?

JACKIE: One of the tenets of the iQuilt plan is to create a more walkable city and another is to connect our cultural organization to entities and assets. We really believe that Winterfest does that because we want people to have a Winterfest plus one.

We want people to go to Winterfest and then have a bite at one of the many restaurants downtown, or visit the annual Festival of Trees & Traditions at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art and then walk over to skate at Winterfest or maybe go see a show at the Bushnell or Hartford Stage and do a little skating beforehand. So, we really think being in Bushnell Park is a centerpiece to attract people to come into the city for some fun, not just for Winterfest, but to also enjoy some of the other things around Hartford.

The richness of the arts and culture here in Hartford is just amazing. I don’t know if you can find that amount of density in other cities. iQuilt tries to “quilt” together patches of arts, culture, and activities happening downtown, whether they’re physical or programmatic. I think Winterfest does just that. It creates a wonderful vibrancy downtown.

Find out more about iQuilt and Winterfest Hartford

VISIT: theiquiltplan.org and www.winterfesthartford.com
FOLLOW: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

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The 10th Annual Hartford Rib Off

May 29 2019 Innovation Destination: Hartford CT Lifestyle 0 comments Tags: charity, community, CT, Hartford, Hartford event, Rib Off

The 10th Annual Hartford Rib Off will take place at Hartford’s Riverside Park June 14 and 15, 2019.

Hartford’s Largest Charity BBQ Event

Local small business owner Guy Neumann, Founder of GN Construction LLC, grew a backyard BBQ party into a charitable event that draws thousands of people to Hartford and has raised more than $150,000 since 2009.

The 10^th Annual Hartford Rib Off includes a kick-off party, Kansas City Barbeque and New England Barbecue Society competitions, live music, and family fun. The event will take place at Hartford’s Riverside Park June 14 and 15, 2019 with 100% of the event’s proceeds supporting local charities: MARC Community Resources, Mayor Mike’s Foundation for Kids, and The Hartford Rib Off Scholarship Fund.

MetroHartford Alliance Content Manager Nan Price got some background from Guy about the how the event came to be.

NAN PRICE: Tell us about the evolution from having a backyard party to creating an annual charity event.

GUY NEUMANN: It started in 2009 as a backyard BBQ at my home in the West End of Hartford. We asked friends to donate and, as the night went on and more people contributed, we realized we’d covered the costs of the party. We had an extra $1,000 and decided to donate it to Organized Parents Make a Difference, where some of us were doing some volunteer work.

The event was so successful, we decided to do it again the next year. Following that event’s success, I gathered a board of directors and we formed the Hartford Rib Off as a 501(c)(3). We are volunteer based. Growing the event and giving back to local charities became a passion for me—and for others. Every year, more people come out of the woodwork to help me and support the event. The generosity I’ve gotten from people is amazing. I never expected it.

Hartford Rib Off Founder Guy Neumann and his son Maximus make the rounds in the Gator at the 2018 event.

The event is really for the community by the community. I think we’ve touched some lives and helped some people. I always believe you make bigger changes on a micro basis then a macro basis. I look for causes where I can impact an individual to change their world and change the world around them.

NAN: As a small business owner, you’ve already gone through the experience of launching a business. Was it a lot different for you to start this nonprofit organization?

GUY: I’ve launched several businesses. I worked in corporate America doing advanced planning on the insurance side of things for a few years after college, so I have some knowledge about the corporate structure and business planning in general, which was helpful in the process.

I know what it’s like to run a business. I’m comfortable with income statements, setting up QuickBooks, tracking accounts and expendables, and things along those lines. I also know a lot of people in many industries, so that helps. It was just a matter of good, old-fashioned audacity. Just ask.

NAN: Why Hartford?

GUY: I love Hartford. If I’m going to live in Hartford and raise my children in Hartford, I’m going to do my best to be good to Hartford. I think Hartford could use it. My goals with this event are to promote community, promote Hartford, and promote a cause.

This event draws people and families to Hartford from the suburbs. They’re coming to use some of the infrastructure that’s free and available on a daily basis. That’s an important part of the event for us—and we accomplish it. People tell us they’ve had a great day in Hartford

To some degree, employers use the event as part of their recruiting tool. They talk about the Greater Hartford Festival of Jazz; local sports teams the Hartford Yard Goats and Hartford Athletic, which are involved in our event; and they can also mention in June we have the Hartford Rib Off, it’s a professional Kansas City barbecue event and it’s the only one in Greater Hartford.

Barbecue is a big thing in this country. It’s all American. For recruiting purposes, it’s nice to know that this part of America is also present here in Hartford.

NAN: Community is key to an event like this.

GUY: Yes. We’ve been fortunate to have community sponsors that help with the event: 102.9 The Whale, Radio 104.1, Miller Lite, Tito's Handmade Vodka, Pig’s Eye Pub, and GN Construction LLC. This year’s presenting sponsor is Hall’s Market of West Hartford.

I believe people can make big changes in the world around them by engaging the community. I couldn’t be where I am today without the team that helps me and the generosity of people who hear the word “charity” and want to get involved.

It’s a matter of tapping into that. You can help people feel empowered to make a change. That’s kind of how we built this little movement. People just want to help. In this case, they give a day of volunteering and it’s a fun day for them. They end up wanting to help the next year. It’s great to see the community so involved in an event that gives back.

Learn more about the 10^th Annual Hartford Rib Off

VISIT: hartfordriboff.com
FOLLOW: Facebook | Instagram

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KNOX Beautifies Hartford, Strengthens Communities

May 09 2019 Innovation Destination: Hartford CT Lifestyle 0 comments Tags: community, community engagement, CT, Hartford, KNOX

KNOX Executive Director Patrick Doyle and Advancement and Marketing Director Clasina Jones at one of the community gardens on Evergreen Street in Hartford.

For more than 50 years, KNOX has served citizens, businesses, and communities improving the environment and helping Hartford become green, sustainable, and healthy. Efforts include connecting people with horticulture, encouraging local farmers to start their own businesses, beautifying neighborhoods, and establishing community gardens.

MetroHartford Alliance Content Manager Nan Price recently spoke with KNOX’s new Executive Director Patrick Doyle and Advancement and Marketing Director Clasina Jones to learn more about how the organization is supporting local business growth and economic development in Greater Hartford.

NAN PRICE: Let’s talk about the impact KNOX has on Hartford-area businesses.

PATRICK DOYLE: KNOX does so much to create a strong and healthy Hartford—especially within our business community. Right now, we’re working on our City Planters program, which show Hartford is a welcoming place where people want to spend time. The planters also help local businesses by beautifying their grounds.

We used to receive a grant to bring those planters to the city. Unfortunately, we no longer have that funding, so it falls on KNOX and all of us as a community to figure out how to keep this resource in Hartford.

We’re working very hard to meet our goal, which is to get 300 of these planters out around the city. We’re reaching out to our corporate partners and the business community to encourage them to work with us and help support the program so KNOX can continue to beautify Hartford with these planters.

Another of our initiatives is our Incubator Farm program. We are actually incubating small businesses here in Hartford and using our community gardens to help commercialize our urban farmers and their unique, Hartford-based products.

CLASINA JONES: The first cohort of urban gardeners were six community farmers. The program helped them take the next step from enjoying a hobby to realizing they wanted to make a living doing it.

During their first few years creating their farm business startup, KNOX provides one-on-one support and gives famers access to land, infrastructure, and equipment. This enables them to start selling at a wholesale capacity and increase their local business, which is helpful for the city’s overall economic development.

NAN: How does Knox collaborate with other organizations or local businesses?

PATRICK: We’re working with some businesses around town in our corporate community. We want to make sure Hartford is a city people are excited to come to—it’s green, it’s beautiful, it’s healthy. That makes it easier for employers to have their workforces want to come into work here. And it means passing by some of our community gardens on the way into work.

CLASINA: We’ve had a long-term collaboration with the city of Hartford and the Hartford Business Improvement District. Aetna, The Hartford, and Prudential are among our program sponsors. In addition, corporate volunteer groups participate in KNOX annually. It helps improves employee morale, encourages team building, and gives back to the Hartford community.

PATRICK: We’re in the process of working with Aetna to build a community garden right outside their doors that their employees will be able to use, both for themselves and in some of the partnerships Aetna has with other community organizations.

NAN: Patrick, what do you hope to accomplish in your new Executive Director role?

PATRICK: On paper, a lot of my previous experience has been about community engagement—bringing people together; helping people who may come from different backgrounds but they’re all within the same ecosystem to develop and form authentic relationships. What you won’t see on paper is my belief that, when people have the opportunity to connect with their natural world and the people around them, we all live happier and healthier lives. That’s a driving passion I bring to KNOX. I really want to see the organization supporting the concept that horticulture can be a catalyst for community engagement.

In my role, it’s important to focus on people. We want to support our staff to become stronger and our community gardeners to become better gardeners and have access to other resources. I also need to ensure that people are forming good relationships through KNOX. We want to encourage connections that help create healthier and happier lives—that’s what we’re seeing as one of the outcomes of our work.

NAN: What’s next?

PATRICK: Over the course of decades, Knox has grown into this incredible organization in Hartford that supports so much: We have 23 community gardens and four greenhouses on our property on Laurel Street. My core focus now is to ensure that there will be lasting, sustaining resources for the Hartford community. That’s my first step. From there, we’ll see the different ways we can grow Hartford together.

Learn more about KNOX

VISIT: www.knoxhartford.org
FOLLOW: Facebook | Twitter

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Social Impact Company Provides Community Space in Hartford

March 04 2019 Innovation Destination: Hartford Initiatives 0 comments Tags: community, Connecticut, CT, Hartford, small business

CO:LAB has reactivated the Hartford Public Library’s former Goodwin Branch into a community space called the Free Center.

Social impact brand development and design firm CO:LAB is committed to supporting the community in Hartford. The company recently moved from its Parkville location to the Hartford Public Library’s Goodwin Branch, which closed in 2018.

CO:LAB operates out of the building and has reactivated it into a community space called the Free Center.

“This space meant something to this community. It meant their ability to actualize their empowerment,” explains CO:LAB Principal Rich Hollant. “This was a place where people became part of the community fiber. And that matters—it matters to people and it matters to the community.”

Plans for the Free Center are based on the community’s needs. To that end, CO:LAB is doing some research with actual community members.

“Folks who participate in neighborhood revitalization programs are those who have the time, wherewithal, a sense of culture around civic engagement, and fewer barriers to participation. That’s not the bulk of the folks who live here,” underscores Rich.

“A minority of the folks who live here have that capacity,” he adds. “We’re really interested in supporting the majority of the folks who live here—those who can’t migrate to another library, because what appears to be a minor inconvenience to some is inhibitive to others.”

CO:LAB EMBRACES SOCIAL IMPACT MISSION

CO:LAB launched 30 years ago as a branding communications company working with Fortune 500 companies including Conagra Foods, Motorola, Travelers, and Hasbro. Over time, the company evolved. As Rich notes, “We are a perpetual startup. Every few years we do something new.”

The company’s biggest shift began about 10 years ago while they were working on a project for the

Human Rights Institute. For Rich, personally, it provided a deeper understanding of the plot of human rights violations over time.

“I recognized that if we don’t address a change in the social fabric, the current condition becomes the new normal,” he says. “As we were doing this work, I gave a lot of consideration to what urgency meant. While we were helping some nonprofits and organizations in some ways, the work we were doing didn’t fall under the auspice of social impact in a manner that addressed the urgency.”

Soon after working with the Human Rights Institute, Rich says he told the team to wrap up the corporate work because they were going to try to figure out how to participate in social impact.

“It took about six months to complete those projects and then we started working on how to put our energy and time into work that’s going to make a difference—doing something that’s actually going to have an impact, not just feel good for us to do,” explains Rich. “How do we get to a place where we’re confident that we’re making a quantifiable difference?”

Since then, CO:LAB has been focused on social impact work. “We largely just say yes to things that look like we could learn about how systems work, or we can use our learning about how systems work to influence change and encourage favorable outcomes through communications,” says Rich.

The company works with many local foundations, nonprofits, cities, and the government. Rich is also Commissioner of Cultural Affairs for the City of Hartford, a Billings Forge Community Works board member, an AIGA national board member, and co-chair of Design for Democracy.

“I show up and I advise folks who may be having board challenges or organizational challenges,” he says. “CO:LAB is engaged. We’re in it.”

The company is also committed to giving back—which is how they became involved with the Hartford Public Library.

MAKING COMMUNITY IMPACT

CO:LAB was invited to attend a meeting at the library to discuss the evolution of the space. “We showed up and started sharing some thoughts—not really thinking about us!” admits Rich.

CO:LAB and the Free Center are located in the Hartford Public Library’s Goodwin Branch.

“But the more we looked at how the space operates, what it takes to run this facility, and what the contractual agreement would be, it was a complete switch from where we were in Parkville,” Rich explains. “Though our office was pretty cool there, we were isolated. And impact doesn’t happen in the back row. It happens up front, on the street. That’s the magic of this new space—it’s in the middle of community where the real social work happens.”

He adds, “There was very little additional cost to get going in this environment. The additional cost is going to come in determining how to activate the space in terms of staffing and equipment. We need to figure out what running a community center is really going to take beyond the space.”

While they sort out the programmatic details, CO:LAB initially plans to make the space open with a few computers available, free Wi-Fi, and meeting spaces that can be signed out for use.

PROGRAMMING AND COLLABORATION

In terms of programming, Rich notes, “We’re still sorting that out with our nonprofit partners. The idea is the space is accessible for free as long as the programs happening there are also free. There’s something about that model I like tremendously.”

He continues, “But, then I struggle with the idea of the space being used for a fundraising event or something along those lines. There’s an exchange going on, so it gets a little complicated. That’s where we’re still figuring out the model and how to keep the space functioning equitably.”

CO:LAB also plans to create some of its own community programming and events. And they started a forum with local organizations including COMPASS Youth Collaborative, Hartford Youth Scholars, Billings Forge Community Works, and RE-Center.

“These organizations have human capacity. They have programmatic design capacity. They run their programs well, but access to space can be a challenge,” notes Rich.

“We invited them to sit together to visualize: If space weren’t an issue, what would they run programmatically together as a team? And, as we started to look at what each of these organizations brings to the table, we realized they can actually mesh nicely, and we can create something new together,” he says. “So, we’re working to provoke those types of conversations and encourage a sense of natural collaboration based on how we already know these folks in the community—because these are the people we work with every day.”

Other ideas for the community space include an on-site farmers market, a community garden, a pop-up café, training courses, musical performances, and art exhibitions.

KEEPING THE ARTS IN CONNECTICUT

The real drive is to continue giving back. In addition to opening the Free Center, for the past three years CO:LAB has run Parkville Studios, an artist residency program at their former 1429 Park Street location in Parkville.

“To me that was the real forbearer to this Free Center project,” says Rich.

He explains, “A number of years ago, when I was working on Hartford Fashion Week, I noticed some volunteers were students or recent art school graduates who were planning on leaving the state. They were going to New York, San Francisco, Miami—anywhere but Connecticut. My son was one of them, so I was really curious why!”

Rich continues, “What it came down to is this: While they were at school they were working collaboratively. They had studios together and they were working in large scale. Once they graduated, they were living with roommates and working this way was a challenge and ultimately a limiter. So, they wanted to go somewhere else where ‘accidents’ happened with greater frequency, where they could collide into other people and create opportunities.”

Rich’s solution: What if CO:LAB creates that kind of space?

“We’ve been developing a space where curators, gallery owners, or museum directors could come in and support, provoke, or catalyze artistic exploration and growth. We have five local artists using studio space. And what we’re finding is, three years in, even though they were considering moving elsewhere, they are here. They’ve made investments in the community. They’re selling work. They’re starting ’zines and starting alternative spaces in the Fuller Brush building. They’re deeply engaged in the creative community here,” he says.

“Like the Hartford Public Library opportunity, it all started because of conversations,” Rich points out. “Simply saying: Let’s all talk, figure out what folks need, and find out how we can be helpful.”

BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER

The new space brings new opportunities to the community—and CO:LAB.

“I think we’ll do better brand communication and strategy work for nonprofits and social enterprises as we run our own,” says Rich. “We’ll have a better understanding of the capacity challenges. We’re able to motivate folks around the distinction between what they are working on and what they are working toward. And we’ve been able to do that with very little experience ourselves living that distinction.”

He adds, “For the most part, we have been advising based on theory, and it’s been helpful to people. We’ve been in the community on boards and as a partner, and we’re working to understand our community dynamics. We bring strategic thinking and the love of research and data and our communications acumen to the programmatic and operations side of the table, which I think is going to make this new endeavor work pretty nicely.”

Learn more about CO:LAB

VISIT: www.colabinc.com
FOLLOW: Facebook |Instagram| Twitter

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Miracle League of Connecticut

February 18 2019 Innovation Destination: Hartford Change Makers 0 comments Tags: community, Connecticut, CT, Miracle League of Connecticut, West Hartford

West Hartford local Gabriel Dell enjoys playing ball at the Miracle League field.

Miracle League of Connecticut Executive Director Mike Michaud spoke with MetroHartford Alliance Content Manager Nan Price about how a mission to make baseball accessible to children with special needs evolved into an organization that provides many opportunities for Connecticut children with physical and cognitive challenges.

NAN PRICE: Give us a little background about how Miracle League of Connecticut began.

MICHAEL MICHAUD: In 2006, the town of West Hartford received a $1 million state grant to work on the site that is now the Little League complex on corner of Trout Brook Drive and Asylum Avenue. I was president of the Little League at the time, so I was on the committee.

I had seen a story about the first Miracle League field that was built in Conyers, GA in 2000. And, it dawned on me: That undersized plot of land would be the perfect spot for a Miracle League field.

So, the Miracle League field was drawn into the plans, but we didn’t have the funding to build it. The land sat empty for a couple of years.

Around 2008/2009, as I was leaving my term as Little League president, I got together with West Hartford residents Scott Franklin and Ronit Shoham, who are also very involved with Little League and ran the Challenger Division. I said: Let’s start raising funds to build a Miracle League field.

It was a daunting experience. We had never taken on anything that big. We had a $550,000 to $600,000 budget for the field and the playground.

NAN: How did you get started?

MICHAEL: Shortly after we registered with the national Miracle League Organization, I connected with Ted Crew. He’s CEO of Great American Donut, which owns more than 50 Dunkin Donut stores in the Hartford area. They came on board to help us start fundraising.

We started small and did a lot of grant writing. One of our Challenger Division players raised about $15,000 as his mitzvah project. Another local group that runs an annual marathon softball game wanted to find a charity to honor a member who had passed. They ended up donating $50,000.

The first Connecticut Miracle League complex is located on corner of Trout Brook Drive and Asylum Avenue in West Hartford, CT.

And then, in 2012, we hit finally our goal. It was amazing how the Greater Hartford community supported us. Our first year, we had about 20 kids and it’s grown every year. Last spring season we had 124 kids from 42 different towns.

NAN: As a business, how do you create a revenue stream?

MICHAEL: We’ve been fundraising all along. And we charge a registration fee for most of our programs. But our mission is to remove barriers from kids taking part in activities, so if finances are a barrier, we always offer a fee waiver.

We’ve also created revenue through grant writing, and we solicit sponsors for some of our programs from the local business community. We do an annual golf tournament the first Tuesday of June, the Miracle League of Connecticut Golf Classic, which brings in the bulk of our fundraising for the year. We’re always looking for more sponsors and golfers.

NAN: Let’s talk a little more about the evolution. Your initial mission was to build the field—but a lot of programming has been added since.

MICHAEL: Right. Our original intention was just to build a field. We had no inclination of doing more. But as we engaged with families, we saw they were so appreciative of this opportunity. There just aren’t a lot of opportunities out there for recreational non-competitive activities for children with special needs.

Miracle League of Connecticut provides many opportunities for Connecticut children with physical and cognitive challenges.

We realized we could be doing so much more. Our next project was to offer adaptive swim lessons. And then the town of West Hartford asked if we would take over the iCan Bike program. The mission fit right in with ours, so we said yes and that became our next big program.

We also started working with Chapter 126, an adaptive sports and fitness Oak Hill Center in Bristol that’s designed specifically for folks with disabilities. Now we’re able to offer an indoor adaptive gym experience during the winter. The experience at Chapter 126 was so great, we entered into a formal three-year collaboration agreement that’s working well for both organizations.

This past year we started Everybody Dance Now, an adaptive dance program. We expected about 15 people to register and 45 signed up. So now we offer that program in two locations, West Hartford and East Lyme. And we’re talking to some folks at Yale to offer it in New Haven.

We also started hosting Parents’ Only Night events, which give parents a chance to socialize and get to know each other. Along those lines, last year we started Sibshops, a program for the siblings of children with special needs.

Some other accomplishments include becoming a sensory-friendly sponsor for the Connecticut Science Center in Hartford, which now offer several sensory-friendly days per year. At the last one, which took place January 27, 1,400 people showed up.

We also sponsor the Theatre for Young Audience series at the Playhouse on Park in West Hartford. They provide sensory-friendly performances of kids’ shows, which brings in a few hundred kids every year.

Eventually, with the way we were growing and broadening our programming, we knew it was time to hire a full-time executive director. I was honored the Board asked me to take on the job. We also formed an executive committee, in which Scott became our Secretary and Ronit was named Vice President. They have played an integral part in forming the organization.

NAN: What’s next?

MICHAEL: We’ve set a goal to build four or five additional Miracle League fields in Connecticut. Because kids from Southeastern Connecticut shouldn’t have to travel more than an hour to play a game of baseball. We’ve been working with a group from East Lyme and they’re more than halfway to their fundraising goal.

We’re always looking for new opportunities that will attract the kids and might not be easy for them to do in an integrated or inclusive setting. I think the niche we found is a low-commitment, non-competitive, purely social atmosphere. It’s about the kids being part of a team, getting to know each other, and having fun.

Learn more the Miracle League of Connecticut

VISIT: www.miracleleaguect.org
FOLLOW: Facebook

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Hartford-Based Social Enterprise Company Shares Updates

September 17 2018 Innovation Destination: Hartford Startups, Where Are They Now? 0 comments Tags: Breakfast Lunch & Dinner, community, Hartford, KNOW GOOD Market, reSET, social impact, startup social enterprise

Where Are They Now? Follow Up with Breakfast Lunch & Dinner Co-Founder Jeff Devereux

Breakfast Lunch & Dinner Co-Founders Jeff Devereux (right) and Onyeka (Ony) Obiocha.

Innovation Destination Hartford spoke with Jeff Devereux, Co-Founder of Breakfast Lunch & Dinner, in December 2016. (Read: Hartford-Based Social Enterprise Startup Committed to Community.) At that time, BL&D was working on “creating collective culture” in Hartford. The company has made significant progress since then. Most notably, it formed a partnership with reSET and is finalizing details for a collaborative retail space in Hartford.

IDH Website Curator Nan Price checked in with Jeff for some updates.

NAN PRICE: BL&D has been busy since our IDH feature. Let’s start with the reSET partnership. How did that come about?

JEFF DEVEREUX: BL&D Co-Founder Onyeka (Ony) Obiocha and I met at reSET’s first accelerator class in 2013, when reSET had just moved to Pratt Street in Hartford. We’ve been connected and peripherally involved with reSET for a long time since then. We encouraged them to move to Parkville and were excited when they did.

We forged the partnership because we felt the need to build a stronger entrepreneurial community. Last fall, Ony and I took road trip. I ended up out in Oakland and visited their Impact Hub co-working space, which shared a lot of similarities to reSET. It was an amazing hive of activity. I was inspired, and I realized: This is what we need in Hartford.

NAN: What is BL&D adding to reSET?

JEFF: We’re responsible for community, including coworking and events. We think entrepreneurship and social change are social in nature, so the closer we can get those people to one another, the better we’ll all be.

With reSET, our focus is to get more ground-up businesses and organizations involved. This fall, we will be launching regular convenings—forums to provide opportunities for discussion and learning around topics including social enterprise, community development, the business of art, technology, media, and journalism.

NAN: BL&D recently announced plans for Niche, a collaborative retail space in Hartford. Tell us more.

JEFF: Niche will be a brick and mortar retail location for local brands, fashion, and goods.

The Know Good Market created great sales opportunities specifically for food vendors, which was encouraging. BL&D felt the need and desire to create local revenue generation at a larger scale for these other local businesses. Not a lot of retail in the Hartford region is locally owned, which makes it challenging to promote and grow a local brand.

And, with the advent of ecommerce, there’s not a lot of energy being put into local brick and mortar retail, even though brick and mortar is still much greater than ecommerce . We thought there needed to be more support of local business growth. We hope that brands will succeed in Niche and be able to then open their own store around Hartford.

NAN: How did you find the space?

JEFF: It was a natural progression. Our partner Josh Jenkins has been working in the back of How Bazaar in Hartford for more than a year as his design space and cut and sew facility of his menswear brand demuerte. So, we’d been eyeing the space and, when it became available, we jumped on the opportunity to utilize the rest of the space.

BL&D formed a partnership with How Bazaar where we plan to sell goods up front and have space for makers (tailors, fashion brands, etc.) in the back. BL&D will be responsible for the half the space, as far as curation, and How Bazaar will be responsible for point of sale for the entire space.

NAN: When will Niche open?

JEFF: We’ve been working on the buildout over the last few months and anticipate a soft opening at the end of September and a grand opening in October.

The process has been great so far—there’s been a lot of interest. We received a couple dozen applications from people who are interested in the space.

The hope is for Niche to become an active retail space. If we do our jobs right, we could create a successful retail space in Hartford’s West End that supports the growth of local brands.

Brick and mortar retail is suffering, with a lot of high-profile bankruptcies and likely more to come. We believe if we can be creative, find new avenues, and support local, we’ll be able to help fill empty spaces and create some local ownership in the void left by the big-box stores and mall closings.

Niche seemed like a good solution. The West End isn’t far from being a destination shopping space. We want it to be a thriving retail space. We’ve seen this “concept shop” idea growing recently in larger cities like Boston, New York City, and Los Angeles. It’s kind of modeled as an antique store—brands are essentially renting space in the store as part of a larger retail space. The idea is that it can act as a stepping stone.

NAN: It’s a great way of supporting local economic growth.

JEFF: Right. We’re hoping to capture attention of national and international vendors too, so they can test the market in Hartford. The idea being to allow that to bring attention to the brands in the store and make brands think about Hartford. And local vendors—or even startups—can test their business assumptions, either by renting space at Niche or renting the space out for a more elaborate pop-up experience.

NAN: Any other notable collaborations?

JEFF: Yes. We’ve connected with Jasmine Jones, who launched Aislin at the beginning of 2018. The quarterly magazine that covers Greater Hartford arts, culture, and lifestyle. We loved what she was doing and wanted to find a way to help her grow the product as a business.

When we saw the magazine, we thought: This is a beautiful thing. We need more of this. How can we help? So, the plan is we’ll be running a campaign in the fall to help establish subscriber base.

When we started BL&D, we knew we needed to be in charge of doing our own media. We made a conscious effort to create our journal/blog, monthly newsletter (known as the Feast Up) and we’ve dabbled in podcasts and video content all to cover the things we thought needed to be covered and to build our brand. We’re excited about doing this with Aislin. Jasmine is covering a lot of things we wanted to cover so it made things easy. We want to support the growth.

Local media serves a vital purpose. The problem is, there’s not robust media in Hartford or the region. That’s why we need more of what Innovation Destination Hartford is doing. The more people know, the more they’re able to solve their own problems and better connect with their community. With good information sharing, it’s easier for things to be sustainable.

Find out more about Breakfast Lunch & Dinner

VISIT: www.breakfastxlunchxdinner.com
FOLLOW: Facebook | Instagram

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Hartford Local Chion Wolf Enhances the Community with Activities

July 16 2018 Innovation Destination: Hartford Initiatives 0 comments Tags: Asking For A Friend, Chion Wolf, community, Connecticut, CT, Hartford, Pedal to the Medal, The Mouth-Off

Chion Wolf, a technical producer, announcer, and photographer for WNPR, has spearheaded activities in Hartford including The Mouth-Off, Asking For A Friend, and Pedal to the Medal. (Photo courtesy Cara Paiuk, Face Forward Headshots)

The enthusiasm Chion Wolf has for Hartford is contagious. The Hartford resident is well known in the community—and throughout Connecticut—for her voice work on WNPR, where she serves as technical producer, announcer, and photographer.

More recently, Chion’s recognition in the Hartford area has grown with her contributions to local entertainment including The Mouth-Off, Asking For A Friend, and her latest endeavor, Pedal to the Medal.

When Innovation Destination Hartford Website Curator Nan Price interviewed Chion in 2016, they discussed Chion’s general love of Hartford. The two caught up for lunch at one of their local favorites, Tangiers, to talk about her latest activities.

NAN PRICE: First of all, congratulations on becoming a first-time homeowner! Tell us a little about how it happened.

CHION WOLF: Thanks!

My love, Emily, and I decided to buy a home through the Northside Institutions Neighborhood Alliance (NINA), which is a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) organization that refurbishes and builds houses in Hartford’s Asylum Hill neighborhood. Since most people in Hartford rent, this organization helps people within certain income limits afford to make it happen. And this house is in the name neighborhood where we’ve already been living for nine years.

We’re hoping to close at the end of July. I’m excited—and nervous. I’ve only ever been a renter! But Emily and I make a great team. She used to run all the community gardens in Hartford, so we’re going to turn our big backyard into our own personal foodbank, complete with chickens! It’s going to be awesome.

NAN: There’s a lot to be excited about. Let’s start with your new bike ride, Pedal to the Medal. Was this completely spearheaded by you?

CHION: Yes! Two years ago, I was hit by a car while I was riding my bike here in the West End of Hartford. My collarbone was shattered—I got a plate, eight screws, and six weeks out of work. As soon as I healed up, I started riding my bike again. One day while riding through the intersection where the crash happened, I was thinking about how much I hate sharing the road with cars. It occurred to me that on the morning of the Hartford Marathon, they close the streets down to set up. I thought this would be a cool opportunity to ride on streets that had few to no cars on them.

So, six months after the crash, early on marathon morning, Emily and I rode the route with a couple of friends and it was glorious! I contacted the Hartford Marathon Foundation and I told them about my idea, which I was calling “Pedal to the Medal.” I thought I could pair up with them and, if we sold tickets for the ride, the proceeds could go to BiCi Co., Hartford’s only educational bike store.

Beth Shluger, Founder and Director of the Hartford Marathon Foundation, wrote back and said: We’re intrigued, but we would need more time to work on it. She told me to go ahead and do the ride again in 2017 and get back to them afterward. We agreed we should start our ride early, so we didn’t interfere with incoming marathon traffic, and we committed to leaving at 4:00 a.m.

For that 2017 ride, I made a Pedal to the Medal Facebook page with a hand-drawn logo and did some flyering, but otherwise not too much advertising. I expected maybe 15 people to show up, because it was so early in the morning. I printed 42 (my favorite number) releases just in case, but by 3:45 a.m., we ran out of forms! We had over 50 people show up at 4:00 a.m. in downtown Hartford, some dressed up in costumes, and lots of lights. It was awesome!

After the ride, I emailed the people who filled out the releases, and asked: What went wrong? What went right? What would you pay for this ride if it was a charity? How much would you pay if it wasn’t? I got some good ideas.

I met with the Hartford Marathon Foundation to tell them how it went, and they were in! Two other marathons in the country do a bike ride before the marathon, Los Angeles and Boston, but I’m pretty sure they don’t work with the marathons. So, Pedal to the Medal will be the only pre-marathon bike ride that works in tandem with the marathon organization. Because of this, we’ll have a police escort, insurance, and actual medals! People love medals.

The Hartford Marathon Foundation told me I needed to raise $20,000 to do all this. I swallowed hard. But I thought: Obviously, I’m going to try. I had no idea how hard this is going to be—or how easy. Through this experience, I learned so much about fundraising. You can’t just make one generic appeal to everyone. Stipulations with the Foundation prevented me from using online crowdfunding—I needed sponsorships, which are different than donations.

It was a lot of work, but I hit my goal one month and one day after starting. The two biggest funders were my dear friends at Freed Marcroft, LLC and Maki Law, LLC, which was my law firm after my crash. I also received donations from Pedal Power, Watch For Me CT, and a ton of personal friends and community leaders who were totally sold on the idea.

I love that two Hartford breweries, Hanging Hills Brewery and Hog River Brewing Company, got in on it right away! In fact, Hog River will host a fundraiser for the 2019 Pedal to the Medal ride on October 27, just a few weeks after the ride, which is on October 13 at 3:30 a.m.

I think my success in fundraising was a combination of it being a great story with the broken collar bone and aversion to riding alongside cars, and it just being a great, goofy, fun event. Everybody who rides bikes remembers the moment they realized “riding a bike is awesome!” And, for newer riders, I want that memory to be Pedal to the Medal. The more people who ride bikes, the more people who may advocate for new street design that protects cyclists and pedestrians. And they’ll be healthier and happier, too!

We half sold out two weeks after registration opened. I can’t wait to celebrate it selling out!

Chion Wolf (left) and a group of panelists at an Asking For A Friend event.

NAN: Let’s talk about Asking For A Friend.

CHION: Asking For A Friend came about after the election. I realized that the degree to which I was surprised by the results of the election was the degree to which I wasn’t really listening to other people who have been telling me all along about the state of our country. I wanted to find a way to build a platform for people who are smarter than me in different ways to be heard more, and I thought it would be cool to do an advice show on the radio.

Since the station wasn’t in a position to develop that kind of thing at the time, I sketched out on a napkin (where so many great ideas start) the idea of it being a live show somewhere in Hartford. I contacted Julia Pistell at Sea Tea Improv and, as soon as I told her the basic premise, she said: Don’t ask anybody else. We’re in. Let’s do this.

Asking For A Friend takes place every third Saturday of the month. The show features two panelists of my choice, and one Sea Tea Improv member. We discuss three prepared problems, which I pick from things I’m hearing in my community, in the news, and, well, from Reddit. There’s a lot of good problems on Reddit.

We have a “Y U So Salty” round where audience members take the microphone and talk about what’s irking them off lately. There’s another round where the panelists talk about a philosophical question, like last month’s: “Do you believe in vino veritas?” The final problem of the night is one chosen from an audience member. That’s always really fascinating and thrilling to work something out with someone in front of other people. Audience members judge the panelists throughout the show, and whoever gets the most points wins a loofah. At the end of the night, I read anonymous confessions that audience members submitted before the show in a special confession chest. It’s like PostSecret.com, but in real life.

I love that Sea Tea Improv houses the event, lends me one of their talented cast members, takes care of selling the tickets and refreshments, and plugs my recorder into their soundboard so I can turn the audio into a podcast. It’s a wonderful partnership!

NAN: It’s great that you’ve created another community event for Hartford. It’s bringing people downtown and showcasing another thing Hartford has to offer, which is Sea Tea Improv, an organization the community may not otherwise know about.

CHION: That’s true! Our event might get Sea Tea Improv more shows too, because Asking For A Friend is from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. and there’s always a 9:00 p.m. improv show.

Speaking of Sea Tea Improv, I want to invite some of their cast members to tell stories at The Mouth-Off, because comedians are sometimes really good storytellers. I love how things overlap in Hartford. Happens all the time in this little city.

NAN: That’s a good segue into The Mouth-Off. How many years has it been running?

CHION: Six! I’ve got every single story recorded. The Mark Twain House & Museum has been really supportive. They’ve been great at promoting it—we even have merchandise now in the gift shop! And now we’ve got someone helping me figure out how best to turn that into a podcast and find a sponsor for it. It would be Connecticut-based stories told by Connecticut people at that Mark Twain House. It’s an easy sell.

I’d like the podcast to be a combination of The Moth and TED Radio Hour. You’d hear the recording of the story from the stage and then a short interview between me and the storyteller, pulling out a few more details.

What I really love about The Mouth-Off is that, because none of the storytellers audition—they just send in story summaries—I never know how it’s going to go. Neither does the audience. Some people are experienced storytellers, like Speak Up co-founder and many-time Moth Grand-Slam winner, Matt Dicks. Some people have never spoken in front of an audience before in their lives. How cool, to be treated to that kind of diverse, intimate, vulnerable storytelling?

NAN: That’s the differentiator between The Mouth-Off and Speak Up, right?

CHION: Right. Speak Up is a lot more engaged with their speakers. They work with them one-on-one to help them develop their stories to be as concise and powerful as possible. For the most part, they do know how the story is going to go. As a result, you can always expect some pretty polished stories, and it benefits the storyteller to have the guidance.

NAN: I love that there’s room for all of it.

CHION: Me too! I also like the idea Pedal to the Medal, Asking For a Friend, and The Mouth-Off are open to people of all experiences and all abilities.

So many people need and deserve a platform to express themselves. I’ve realized doing all these shows that it’s not hard to accomplish this. People show up when you make room for them! I don’t have a ton of power in the grand scheme of things, but with whatever power I do have, I want to share it. I need to.

NAN: What I love about your involvement in these projects is that you’re known as this “voice” in Connecticut. And you’re stepping aside, handing over the microphone, and putting others in the spotlight. I think it’s admirable. Your message is: Let’s hear from other people. Let me listen. Let me ride along.

CHION: I’m grateful to. But it is somewhat self-serving. I don’t know what I don’t know, but I do know that there are plenty of people who are so much smarter than me in so many different ways. I’m eager and impatient to learn, to evolve.

NAN: In your original interview, you noted that a little goes a long way in Hartford and, if you have something to give, or think you do, there are resources to make it happen. You’re definitely showing that by collaborating with Sea Tea Improv, the Hartford Marathon Foundation, and the Mark Twain House & Museum. You do an excellent job promoting Hartford and promoting the community.

CHION: Thank you. This city is important to me. I was born in Hartford. I’d like to get married in Hartford, and own a home in Hartford, which I will soon. I’d like to die in Hartford, too. I remember getting hit by the car feeling: Okay, at least it happened within Hartford city limits! I’d love to die in Hartford—just not for a very long time.

Learn more about Chion Wolf and her Hartford-based activities.

READ: Hartford’s Own Chion Wolf on Why Hartford Has It

Interested in learning more about activities and organizations in Hartford? Read these stories:

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Parkville Sounds Provides a Creative Space for Musicians

July 12 2018 Innovation Destination: Hartford CT Lifestyle 0 comments Tags: artists, community, Connecticut, CT, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, Hartford, musicians, Parkville, Parkville Sounds, startup, startups

Stephen Cusano, Founder of Parkville Sounds, developed an innovative business concept that created a practice space in Hartford-based and touring musicians.

Innovation Destination Hartford Website Curator Nan Price visited Parkville Sounds and met with Founder Stephen Cusano to learn more about his startup, which provides space for Hartford-area musicians and artists as well as touring bands passing through the city.

NAN PRICE: Have you always been entrepreneurial?

STEPHEN CUSANO: Yes, absolutely. I’ve been playing the drums for a long time, which started me on my path playing my own gigs and trying to start my own band.

NAN: Artists and musicians are inherently entrepreneurial. You are your brand and your business, and you always have to market yourself.

STEPHEN: Right.

NAN: How did you develop the business concept for Parkville Sounds?

STEPHEN: It started out with a personal need. I went to the University of Hartford Hartt School of Music where I studied jazz specifically for just drums. I had a practice room at the school, but once I graduated I had to move my drums into my West End apartment. I couldn’t play there. I needed to figure out how I was going to practice. And I needed a place to make music whenever I wanted.

I wanted to stay in Hartford because I love Hartford. I found this place on Park Street in the Parkville neighborhood, which has allowed me to meet those goals. I can play 24/7 and I can make as much noise as I want.

I guess the entrepreneurial part of me had a vision. I saw bands needing a place to practice, needing a facility, and needing the services we offer. I saw a need in the Hartford area for local musicians and people passing through needing a facility where they could create.

I realized I could really help other artists and musicians hone in on their craft. For bands passing through, Parkville Sounds provides a space to practice and get a good video session. And it gives them another reason to stop in Hartford.

NAN: Did you base the idea on any other business model?

STEPHEN: Not particularly, but I knew there was no practice facility in Hartford for musicians. Growing up as a musician, I once took a lesson from a well-known drummer in New York City. We went to a rehearsal studio with many rooms. That was the first time this seed was really planted. I had never seen anything like that before. Usually my lessons were at a teacher’s house or at the school.

NAN: At what point did you realize this business model was viable and sustainable?

STEPHEN: We provide practice and rehearsal space, video sessions, and instrumental lessons and we also rent sound. It’s sustainable for me because I give lessons, I run this, and I perform. I’m also a touring musician. I’m out playing on the weekends with a lot of different bands.

Parkville Sounds is home to multiple musicians who live in Hartford. It helps them out because a lot of our lesson teachers live in a place where they can’t bring students in. For example, it’s been great to see people want to take lessons from Mike DiPanfilo, the guitarist for Hartford-based funk/soul band West End Blend.

And renting out the space for band practicing is a huge part of our business. Some people just want to make some noise or get together and play with each other. I love that! There’s a guy who comes here twice a week and plays bagpipes at 6:00 a.m. There’s no other place in Hartford where you can do that!

NAN: Was your overhead relatively low when you opened? Did you already have most of the equipment?

STEPHEN: I’ve got drums for days because it’s all my stuff! Little by little, I’ve been getting more equipment. Before I opened the business, I didn’t have too much. I knew what to get and I bought what I knew would be needed.

NAN: And you’re entirely self-funded?

STEPHEN: Yes. I’ve never asked for funding; the business has been floating and paying for itself. It’s really working quite well.

NAN: And how are you marketing?

STEPHEN: Mostly social media. We’ve gotten a fair amount of press, too.

NAN: Aside from you, who else is involved in Parkville Sounds?

STEPHEN: It’s me mostly. Connor Millican, co-founder of IdleWilde Printing Company helps me out with a lot of the video editing, branding, and graphic design. IdleWilde is just across the hall, so that’s convenient. Jillian Foley, owner of The Dance Collective is our operating officer. She’s very talented. Jill schedules our lesson teachers, runs social media, and developed our website. She’s our point of contact.

Hartford-based Parkville Sounds provides a creative space for musicians.

Connor and Jill have helped me a lot. When we first moved here, this basement was an empty space. We got a great deal, but the deal was that the landlord would put up some walls and we would do the rest. We moved in January 2017 with just some bare walls. We did all the interior stuff ourselves.

It took us from January to April to finally open the doors. The landlord saw what we did and helped increase the space for us, which has doubled our size. Now we have three different rooms where we can have a lesson, rehearsals loading in, and another person practicing. Having multiple rooms has opened up a lot of opportunities for our business.

NAN: As far as the business side of things, do you have a business background?

STEPHEN: No. My father is a successful businessman. I’ve learned so much from him. He worked on some well-known products at Anheuser-Busch, Famous Amos, and Cape Cod Potato Chips. With anything business-oriented, he’s the first person I call because he gives me the guidance I need. I don’t have that study, but he has given it to me, in a way.

NAN: Any other local mentors?

STEPHEN: The co-owners of Hog River Brewing Co. have been huge mentors to a lot of the people in the Parkville neighborhood. Watching Ben and Joy Braddock run that business has been instrumental to our growth. We’ve been working closely together now with Connor to develop a weekly concert series called Twang Thursdays. We’re trying to get more music and more collaboration in the neighborhood.

NAN: Parkville is becoming a hub of creativity and innovation. There’s so much energy with places like reSET, Hands on Hartford and the Café at Fifty Five, Hog River Brewing, IdleWilde Printing, and Hartford Denim. Do you see it building?

STEPHEN: Absolutely. I’ve always seen it as a stomping ground for artists. We’re in a niche market—Hartford is not like New Haven or New York City. Anything you can put your mind to is really possible. It wouldn’t be possible for me to do this in New York City.

Hartford has so many talented artists throughout this entire city. They’ve been living here, working here, and touring the world using Hartford as their home base. I see the love they have for the community and what everyone is building around the neighborhood. It’s inspiring to see all these musicians and artists work here and live here and try and hustle their businesses.

NAN: What’s next for Parkville Sounds?

STEPHEN: We recently had a meeting with CPTV. They’re interested in turning some of our Parkville Sessions into a four-part series of 30-minute episodes throughout the neighborhood. Parkville Sounds takes musicians on a guided tour of Parkville, sharing unique stories of how this area is being revitalized by emerging creative businesses. We will showcase live music, unique stories of the historic neighborhood, and the artists who use the empty factories to ignite creativity.

It’s been crazy and so much fun. I knew there was a need for this kind of space and I know we can grow here. This is not the end-all-be-all space for Parkville Sounds. We’re going to continue to grow and we’re going to continue to push.

This is already a home for a lot of musicians, but I’m always looking for the right space—a real place where I can do some more serious recording and really make it like a residential home for recording.

Each avenue of the business has been growing and developing rapidly. It’s been great to change and roll with it.

Learn more about Parkville Sounds

VISIT: www.parkvillesounds.com
FOLLOW: Facebook | Instagram | YouTube

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Hartford-Based Marketing Company Helps CT Businesses

June 29 2018 Innovation Destination: Hartford Startups 0 comments Tags: community, Connecticut, CT, CT startup, entrepreneur, Greater Hartford, Hartford, Hartford-based startup

Fitzgerald Council is CEO and Founder of Hartford-based marketing company Pathos Digital.

Fitzgerald Council, CEO and Founder Pathos Digital, spoke with Innovation Destination Hartford Website Curator Nan Price about the process of launching a marketing company, the importance of tapping into Connecticut startup resources, and how he hopes his business can add value to the community.

NAN PRICE: When and why did you start your company?

FITZGERALD COUNCIL: I officially started in 2016. However, the concept started around 2012. I took a few years to do some due diligence and make sure I knew as much as I could before I took the leap.

I had spent about six years in the retail space, so I was very familiar with customer service. I was already coming from a creative background and I’ve always been good with the sales part of things.

To me, a business model was a huge concept that was very intimidating, so I did a lot of reading and research and developed self-taught concepts.

I also asked a lot of questions. At networking events, I’d engage in conversations with people I considered more successful than me. I’d try to absorb as much information as I could.

NAN: Is your first startup? Did you always want to have your own company?

FITZGERALD: Yes, this is my first startup. Launching a company wasn’t always something I had in mind. One thing led to another, which led to me saying: You need to just do it yourself.

NAN: When did you have that “aha” moment?

FITZGERALD: In 2015, when I was living in downtown Hartford, I was doing side projects building websites, doing social media, and throwing events. I kept seeing one trend, which was a lack of communication. There was no cohesive branding or messaging with business owners or at events.

The dissonance wasn’t because the business owner was offering a bad product or service, or the event wasn’t run well. It was caused by a lack of communication, a lack of branding, a lack of consistency with branding, and a lack of preemptive thought in terms of thinking about how someone was going to experience an event, service, or product.

Around that time, I was encouraged and began researching how to do everything I was doing—how to integrate the creative and business branding—and figure out if I could make a business out of it. I started Pathos Digital a couple months later in 2016.

NAN: Let’s talk a little bit about the startup evolution. You have other people working for you. What has that experience been like?

FITZGERALD: When I first started, I was doing everything myself. I realized I need help. I wanted to bring in a sales person, a creative, and a technical person. It was difficult because I was in the process of learning how to run a business while I was running a business. I didn’t have the time to mentor or develop someone else. I needed people who had their own strengths.

So, I had a not-so-great experience at first. The consistency of the work wasn’t good and there wasn’t a good communication system. All of this was because I didn’t have the right processes in place.

NAN: What did you learn from that experience?

FITZGERALD: After a few months working like that, I decided to retract from that model. I implemented more of a subcontracting model instead of employing in-house, where I would hire people per project. I took the subcontracting approach because it was more flexible, and I could curate the work better and keep the quality more consistent. Now I have people I work with pretty much all the time. I’ve established relationships.

Through trial and error, I realized if you’re doing things on a whim without certain systems in place—whether it’s onboarding a client, making partnerships, creating a referral program, or developing a community outreach program—you can find yourself right back where you started and end up going in circles.

What I’ve seen with businesses is the more successful ones have better systems in place. With my own business, I noticed nothing was really progressing until I realized if I systemized things I could benefit from the results. If something isn’t working, I can see where in the system that something is breaking up.

NAN: According to your website, Pathos Digital is “run by millennials.” How do you think that sets you apart from the competition?

FITZGERALD: I put that in our bio because marketing and branding through social media has become part of a lifestyle. The business environment and the work environment have changed. So, the innovation has been woven into the millennial lifestyle.

In the past, branding and marketing were more segmented. We’re in a Renaissance kind of time now with technology, where we have to try multiple approaches because there’s so much to learn. That’s just a part of the millennial culture. We understand certain concepts about branding almost subconsciously. I think the reason why millennials have an advantage is because it’s been woven into our culture.

NAN: Your site also notes Pathos Digital is “Helping Connecticut businesses market smarter.” How so?

FITZGERALD: Earlier I was talking about the dissonance I would encounter. I was noticing business owners would hire a photographer, a graphic designer, and a copywriter. But they didn’t necessarily all work together. I kept noticing this pattern repeat. There was a huge efficiency leak between communication and having a consistent workflow.

And I noticed with other agencies downtown, there were either creative agencies that focused on storytelling and video or agencies run by retired corporate people who were in the data analysis and results field. They were more focused on ad management, scaling, and paid traffic. I kept seeing these two extremes and I saw, especially in Connecticut, that when businesses reached out, they go to one or other extreme.

That helped us develop our mission statement: “Where creativity meets purpose.” Creativity can have structure to it. And structure can be creative. Pathos Digital can help Connecticut businesses by providing that balance.

NAN: Are all your clients in Connecticut?

FITZGERALD: Yes.

NAN: What is your niche? Do you work with a specific industry?

FITZGERALD: That’s an interesting question. It’s changed a little bit. We started with food services, gyms, and one-off projects where the clients were general market service providers. Now we’ve niched into more healthcare clients. We’ve been in that field for about a year or so.

We still work with other industries. We never deny people unless were not a good fit for them in terms of what we can offer. But for the most part, we try to have a proficiency in a certain area. And we’ve noticed in the healthcare industry the services we can provide have a better return on investment for that market.

NAN: Aside from funding, can you tell us about any startup challenges you encountered?

FITZGERALD: For me it would be utilizing startup resources. They were right in front of my face! I just didn’t look hard enough to find them. I didn’t really tap into Hartford-area startup resources until the second year of my business. It wasn’t until I’d already established the business that people began telling me about tools like reSET and Innovation Destination Hartford. I remembering thinking: Those things exist? That’s so cool!

NAN: As a marketing company how are you marketing?

FITZGERALD: Earlier on, that was another challenge. When you’re learning how to be a business while being a business, you can lose sight of your own house.

I was investing so much time into clients, I wasn’t marketing myself. Then we weren’t getting as many leads and earning more clients and referrals. I remember thinking: Why is that? The answer was obvious: We weren’t really doing any outreach.

NAN: So, how do you address that?

FITZGERALD: That’s all a part of my motivation behind getting involved in more community-based activities, because it’s a win-win situation.

Looking toward the future, I want to try to build a platform in which Pathos Digital can provide value that directly impacts the surrounding community and local businesses, which people can then use to do the same for others. Doing that directly in the community, we’re indirectly and vicariously advertising ourselves. That’s the strategy I’m trying to work on right now.

I want to create a community in which businesses or those who want to build a business in this area can access information. It doesn’t have to be monetary. I want to provide free information that can help people perhaps through mentorship or courses.

It would be for people like me when I was starting out. Instead of doing hours of research wading through good and bad information, I think there’s a way to better present helpful information to startups and entrepreneurs. Because I think advertising and marketing shouldn’t be a closeted thing.

And for me, providing transparency and providing value to my clients is a good thing. If a client learns how to do something as well as we know how to do something, we did our job. That’s the aspiration.

Learn more about Pathos Digital

VISIT: pathosdigital.co
FOLLOW: Facebook | Instagram
CONTACT: business@pathosdigital.co

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