Culture & Community | Fair Haven | Department of Youth & Recreation
Top: Rosemary Porto and her granddaughters, Kayleigh (left) and Arabella Yeager (right) enjoying ice cream provided at the event. Jayniel Bermudez Photo. Bottom: Attendees at Family Fun Day, in line for ice cream. Karina Gonzalez Photo.
Sitting on a wooden fence at Clinton Ave Park, Rosemary Porto and her granddaughters, Kayleigh and Arabella Yeager, soaked in the warm afternoon sun. Around them, music and laughter bubbled up across the field outside Clinton Avenue School, where a blue and pink bounce house had appeared. Popsicles in hand, Kayleigh and Arabella drafted a gameplan of the next activities they’d pursue.
Last Wednesday afternoon, Porto and her granddaughters joined over 500 attendees at New Haven’s “Family Fun Day,” an annual six week summer series from the Department of Youth & Recreation that rotates to a different New Haven Public School each week. The most recent iteration took place at Clinton Avenue School, located in the city’s Fair Haven neighborhood. The next one, scheduled for July 29, will take place at Ross-Woodward Classical Studies Magnet School from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m.
The festival contained tables from city departments, and activities such as water slides, bouncy houses, and a pop-up barber shop. Youth & Rec also provided free food and refreshments, including pizza, ice cream, snow cones, hot dogs, and popcorn.
Porto and her granddaughters described their time at the event as “fun, very nice, and enjoyable,” and were looking forward to the rest of the day. In particular, Kayleigh, 12, and Arabella, 8, were excited for the bounce house and water slide, and perhaps entering the prize raffle.
Top: Mayor of New Haven, Justin Elicker, shortly after arriving at Clinton Ave School for Family Fun Day. Bottom: Loria Jones, protecting herself from the sun with an umbrella. Jayniel Bermudez Photos.
As he made his way around the school’s sprawling field, New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said he was already feeling the fun, and excited to support Youth and Recreation Department members like Gwendolyn Busch-Williams and Ronnie Huggins.
“I like how it brings people from all neighborhoods, and all walks of life together, to move each other and to enjoy,” he said. “Free food, free ice cream, free slide … It doesn’t get much better.”
With her sunglasses and umbrella, frequent Family Fun Day attendee Loria Jones sat back and embraced the joyful atmosphere of the Family Fun day. After coming across the flyer in her email, she decided to bring her 9-year-old grandson Lawrence Sellers to enjoy the activities. She described the event as “really nice,” going on to account for her experience.
“We got ice cream. I had a hot dog, and chips, and a soda. And my grandson is in the bounce house,” she said.
With all that in mind, she rated the event a 10 out of 10, and said she looks forward to it every year.
Top: Police Officer Jabare Roach offering free items at the Police Department’s stand. Jayniel Bermudez Photo. Bottom: Louise Lopez and Shavonne Niang with the Livable City Initiative. Karina Gonzalez Photo.
Officer Jabare Roach stood representing the New Haven Police Department, hoping to find recruits for patrol officers and engage with the community. Roach described Fair Haven as a “rich, diverse area,” that he loves, hoping to patrol there once again, as he did in the past. Roach was sworn in to the department just a little over two years ago.
“I think everybody coming together, the kids, giving out free things, giving back to your community, I think it’s a beautiful thing,” he said.
At another booth were Shavonne Niang and Louise Lopez with the Livable City Initiative (LCI), New Haven’s anti-blight housing compliance agency. Their job is to make sure every resident lives in a safe home by enforcing the city’s housing rules.
Both said they were there to spread the word about what the LCI does, including programs and resources for housing code enforcement, inspections, aid and relief programs in the city’s diverse neighborhoods, financial assistance, and landlord licensing.
“The tenants call us when their landlord hasn't fixed the repairs and the LCI comes in and does inspections,” Niang said. “We force the landlords to do the repairs.” Since Family Fun day began with Covid-19 relief dollars a few years ago, LCI has come out to the series to build trust with the community. Both Niang and Lopez em the phasizedpower of face-to- face connection.
“It shows us on a different level,” Niang said. “We need to act with the community, get to know the people so that they know what we do and that we are here to help.”
Lopez agreed, noting that being present in the community changes how they do their jobs.
"It's important because you see the constituents of the community, you're able to interact with them, you're able to better the neighborhoods, and keep it nice here,” she said.
Top: Kyle Williams and Amadi Towe representing the Youth and Recreation Department. Jayniel Bermudez Photo. Bottom: Ryan Munasinghe and Gino Cordone in the NHFPL Readmobile holding up paper pamphlets and event tickets. Karina Gonzalez Photo.
Standing at the Youth and Recreation Department table was community engagement coordinator Kyle Williams and Youth @ Work member Amadi Towe. The department focuses on building skill development for local youth by offering academic, career, and recreational programs.
Williams said that Family Fun Day aims to highlight Black-owned businesses and community vendors, while promoting community spirit and togetherness.
“It brings different races, nationalities together. It makes you realize who you live next door to, who you are going to school with, stuff like that,” he said.
This year is Williams’ third year organizing Family Fun Day, which has been going on for about five years. Outreach to vendors and businesses to attend the event begins in late winter and early spring.
According to Williams, each Family Fun Day event brings around 500 attendees; Youth and Rec staff calculate the number of people from the amount of free ice cream tickets given out. He recalled that one of their biggest turnouts was at Scantlebury Park in Dixwell last year, where almost 800 people passed by throughout the day.
The event also serves the dual purpose of providing for others, giving out food at no cost for those who may need it. Williams said that accessibility was a major component behind programming.
“The goal is honestly, to keep these events local and accessible for the community, to have the most people in the city come and enjoy everything,” he said.
Towe agreed with Williams’ sentiment. An employee at Youth @ Work for two years, he said that the event was about spreading positivity and provided an essential third space for people to gather. Towe recently graduated from New Haven Academy.
“No drama, no problems. Families all love it, smiles, no complaints so far. We like to keep it that way,” Towe said.
Taking literacy to the streets were New Haven Free Public Library (NHFPL) Readmobile staff Ryan Munasinghe and Gino Cordone. Through the Readmobile, a miniature branch library on wheels, local residents can check out books, return books, and sign up for library cards (read more about the Readmobile in a full article by fellow YAJI student Samir Iydroose here).
This marks the second year the pair has worked at the Readmobile for Family Fun Day. When asked what the event means to them, both Munasinghe and Cordone emphasized that their main goal is breaking down barriers by bringing the library directly to the people.
“It's an extra step towards commitment to community engagement in public education,” Munasinghe said.
This article comes from the ninth and current cohort of the Arts Council's Youth Arts Journalism Initiative (YAJI). From June 29 through August 21, YAJI students pitch, report, write and edit stories with Arts Paper Editor Lucy Gellman, Program Assistants Abiba Biao and Grayce Howe and Mentor Ruby Szekeres. Jay Bermudez is a rising sophomore at Eli Whitney Technical High School in Hamden and Karina Gonzalez is a rising sophomore planning to transfer into Madison High School. She was previously at Engineering and Science University Magnet School (ESUMS) and Acellus Academy.