1.      What is the CenterEdge Project?

 The CenterEdge Project will build a broad coalition that will educate as many people  as possible about disparities created by our long-term pattern of development in different parts of Connecticut.   It will give people who live in very different settings the chance to discover surprising facts about shared problems and common self-interest.

 2.      What does this project have to do with the everyday lives of people in Connecticut.

 It has to do with their health, their money, their quality of life, and their access to opportunity.  Car traffic and travel times are increasing.  Asthma rates in children are climbing.  The causes are not clear.  What is clear is that air pollution can cause asthma attacks with grave consequences. Development is extending further out into the Connecticut countryside.  Meanwhile, open space and farmland are diminishing.   Bridgeport, Hartford, New Haven, Waterbury, etc. and the communities next to them are the places the poorest people live, often without access to good affordable housing.  The people in greatest need of jobs can’t get to them because new jobs are in the suburbs, and there isn’t sufficient mass transit.   Too many children in our cities can’t read and do basic math, and they have high school drop-out rates. 

 3.      Who will make up this coalition?

 We expect that it will be made up of religious, environmental, business, health, civil rights, educational, and civic-minded organizations, as well as groups with a focus on housing and social services.

4.       Who is organizing it?

 The Office of Urban Affairs of the Archdiocese of Hartford is taking the lead but very much in partnership with the array of organizations listed above. The Archdiocesan Office of Urban Affairs (OUA) is one of the oldest and most respected religious social action agencies in the country.  The Archdiocese encompasses the central part of Connecticut:  Hartford, New Haven, and Litchfield counties.

  5.      How will it work?

 OUA has been working with the Metropolitan Area Research Corporation (MARC) headed by Myron Orfield, based in Minneapolis. The Regional Data Cooperative in New Haven did preliminary data collection as well. MARC has created 50 colorful maps which show what is happening in the state as a whole on a range of issues.  Professor Douglas Rae of Yale University has completed a draft of a narrative accompaniment to the maps, in which he analyzes what the maps show.   In the meantime, OUA has begun to have conversation with individuals and groups about this educational Coalition.  It will be the Coalition’s job to decide on the best educational strategies to use, and to raise the money and in-kind resources to implement those strategies.  OUA will do what is necessary to launch the Coalition and to support its work.  It is hoped that the education process can begin in 2001 and continue for two years.  Examples of its activities could be conferences, a web site, study circles, storytelling events, a television program, etc.  Members can post information about education events or resource information at an interactive website at CenterEdge@yahoogroups.com.

 6.      What is the CenterEdge Parish Education Project?

 Watersheds underlie and link our cities, suburbs, and rural areas and can help us to see our state from a fresh perspective. The CenterEdge Parish Education Project will give 25 or more Catholic parishes quality education about Catholic Social Teaching and about regional issues. The Archdiocese of Hartford and the Dioceses of Bridgeport, Norwich and the Ukranian Diocese of Stamford through the Connecticut Catholic Conference have committed to this.  Any pastor can opt to have his parish participate.  People will see themselves as citizens of a region by learning about the impact of development on Connecticut’s air and water in their own watershed, and on the human community which inhabits it.  We will invite parishes to work with local river groups and with our Action for Justice Network to care for the environment and for the human community as well, especially the most vulnerable.  Parishes will also have full access to other CenterEdge Project education resources. This project is one of only five in the country chosen by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to receive a grant of $50,000 from a private foundation.

 7.  After the education, what then?

 The CenterEdge Coalition will not be a permanent one.  After it takes the story of the maps on the road it will end.  Member organizations may pursue public policy changes in the state legislature.  Not everyone will agree on what those changes should be.  Myron Orfield will make recommendations, and throughout the education process the ideas of participants will also be collected in a systematic way and presented in a final report.  The commitment to join this Coalition is for education only.

For more information or to get involved call Patricia Wallace at OUA at 203.777.7279 or e-mail her at Pwallace@oua-adh.org.

Maps Index 

Cooperative Parish Sharing | Action For Justice | Environmental Justice | Parish Social Ministry

OUA Homefront | Center Edge | Send Info | Membership | Home