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CenterEdge Project
Questions and Answers
1. What is the CenterEdge Project?
The CenterEdge Project is building a broad coalition to educate as many people as possible about disparities created by our long-term pattern of development in each metropolitan area of Connecticut. It will give people who live in very different settings the chance to discover surprising facts about shared problems and common self-interests.
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. “You can’t get there from here” has new meaning as car traffic and travel times increase. 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 farm land 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?
It is made up of religious, environmental, business, civil rights, educational, government and civic-minded organizations, as well as groups with a focus on housing and social services. Your organization can join by completing the membership form.
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 Ameregis and the Metropolitan Area Research Corporation (MARC) headed by Myron Orfield, based in Minneapolis. A report containing a selection of maps, the analysis and policy recommendations is now complete. Click here to see it. (You'll the need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader, version 5 to view it. Click here to download it.) You can see the table of data underlying the maps by clicking here; for school data click here; for an executive summary click here. It is 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. Examples of its activities are conferences, this web site, videos, a speakers' bureau, a powerpoint presentation, etc. Members can use CenterEdge@yahoogroups.com to post information or share resources, and anyone can receive all notices by joining at CenterEdge-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. More than 60 organizations are members to date. Anyone willing to serve on a local organizing committee to plan a community education event in your city or town can sign up here. You will be contacted. We have a CenterEdge Organizers' Toolkit and will assist these local committees.
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 has given 70 Catholic parishes quality education about Catholic Social Teaching and about regional issues. The Archdiocese of Hartford and the Dioceses of Bridgeport, Norwich and the Ukrainian Diocese of Stamford through the Connecticut Catholic Conference have committed to this. Participants had the chance to think about 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 invited 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. The Connecticut Bishops have issued a statement about the Connecticut Metropatterns report in English and Spanish which parishes are encouraged to use as a Justice Education resource. Parishes 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.
6. After the education, what then?
The 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.
7. For more information or to get involved communicate with...?
Call Patricia Wallace at OUA 203-777-7279 or e-mail her at Pwallace@oua-adh.org.
See more information and links at the site of the organization which is our major technical assistance provider for this project, Ameregis and the Metropolitan Area Research Corporation.
See list of member organizations of the CenterEdge Coalition.
See powerpoint presentation on the
Connecticut Metropatterns Report.
To request a speaker click here.
To become a presenter to interested audiences click here.
To order a copy of a half-hour video featuring Myron Orfield and john
powell talking about our pattern of development and patterns of injustice,
call Videolab, 203.799.7017. The cost, including shipping and handling
is $18. It is formatted for use on cable-access stations. Ask for
the CenterEdge video. Some cable access stations will air this
video.
To view a presentation by Myron Orfield on March 6, 2003 to the CenterEdge
Coalition at Central CT State University check the schedule at the CT
Television Network. To order a copy for $25 plus shipping and
handling click here.
The screen will ask for a password. Keep clicking cancel until you get to a
screen with a place to click "order a video." You can order
and they will bill you.
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