Good evening.

Good evening, everyone.

We'd like to call this uh C D BG public hearing to order for today, April 20th, 2026.

So my name is Council President TJ Clark, and I'm joined by uh my stand colleague uh councilman John Gale.

Uh just want to read to you a uh disclaimer.

Uh the public hearing is being broadcasted live on HPA TV's Xfinity Government Channel 96 and Frontier Government Channel 6032.

It is also being streamed via HPA TV.org and HPA TV Facebook page, HPA TV, Apple TV, HPA TV, uh Amazon TV, and real cool TV apps.

It also can be made available on HPA TV YouTube channel.

Would like to welcome you and introduce uh which I've already done introduce the members of our council, um, and here's some additional uh housekeeping rules.

This public hearing will be conducted in accordance with the following procedures.

Each person wishing to address the council or members thereof upon recognition by the presiding officer, give his or her name, address, and if he or she represents a group, and shall in addition state for the record the name and address of such said group or organization and shall limit his or her remarks to five minutes.

All remarks shall be addressed to the council as a body and not to any member thereof.

Any person making personal and pertinent pertinent or slanderous remarks, or who shall become voicerous while addressing the council shall be forthwith barred by the presiding officer from further audience at this meeting, unless permission to remain is granted by two-thirds vote of the council members present.

During the public hearing, there should be no debate by the council, although questions may be asked by council or persons making such presentations.

And we shall now begin with our uh CDBG presentation by the director of the Office of Grants.

Good evening, Council President and Council members.

My name is Cheryl Horowitz, and I am the director of the Office of Grants at the City of Hartford.

I have next to me Anjali Croazdale, who's one of my staff, and in the audience is Ronnie Vasquez, who is another person, both of whom work on CDBG.

I have done this presentation numbers of times.

I really want to get through it quickly because there are people here who want to speak towards their projects, and so I want to let that happen.

Because there is a lot of information about the process that we're doing and on how important what we are doing is for the city itself.

So in general, this is a piece of the process, what we're doing tonight.

The process is one that started in January and goes all the way through May.

It used to go through June, but in fact, it turns out that it's more codified by law to actually end this process in a timely way so that we can begin these grants and get them funded and often running in a timely way.

So that we have foreshortened the process.

We are funded by four for four of HUD programs, the CDBG, which we talk about tonight, HAPWA, which is housing for people living with HIV AIDS, emergency shelter, which is for people who are homeless, and home investment partnership program, which is home, and that is housed within the development services.

We go through a process every five years to decide and determine what are the priorities for the city of Hartford, and then once we have done that, and that was done last year, for the next four years, we roll it out with little tweaks and revisions to modify it within the context of what was approved for the consolidated plan.

The process is that there's an overview of what we are going to do, what the needs are of the community, what the requirements are, and what the timeline is.

We're given resources, that's what HUD allots us.

Uh last year it came in a little late.

This year we already have it, so we are on the road to go in a more timely fashion.

Um it speaks to how much we have that we can work with.

And then the final piece of it is the resident input.

It is the most important part.

It is hearing from the community on what they see are their priority needs and making sure that they are heard in this report.

So it's a collaborative effort amongst a lot of different agencies within the city, outside of um within the within the city and outside in the community.

Um the planning process consists of public meetings like this one, and then there's another one at the end of the month, April 29th.

Um, we consult with stakeholders, a variety of them, and uh we review existing plans and relevant uh statistical data.

So comments, we we ask for comments, and those comments are included.

We're in the comment period.

There's a month that that is opened up for comments.

We have a draft plan which will get altered based upon meetings like this, based upon hearing from people, based upon any time any community member wishes to say something to that plan, we accept it and we include it in the plan as it is published and sent to HUD.

The next public comment period as mentioned is April 29th.

We're in year two of this called an annual action plan.

We're year two of the consolidated plan.

The timely submission, what I talked about a few minutes ago, is that if we can get this report in in May, when it is required, um, because the date is set relative to our start date for our fiscal year, so it's 45 days before.

If we can get it in, they will give us our money sooner.

If we if they give us our money sooner, we can start our project sooner, we can get our contracts out, and people can begin the process of operating the programs that they have proposed.

So to be eligible, you all should know about this.

Most of most of the time, what we're acting on is benefiting low and moderate income persons and households.

The categories in which we do this are a little bit overlapping, but basically they fall into about six areas.

The most prominent one is housing.

Okay.

HUD is a housing agency.

That's what it's for.

We do some things with housing, but we do other things which are subsidiary to housing, which promote us and and are effects of promoting affordable housing through providing other services that help, like if we provide homeowner guidance, if we provide guidance for people who who are looking to purchase a home.

So there's housing, and you can see the categories underneath that.

I'm not going to state what they are.

You can read them and you can see them on the online, but this is what we use to decide whether or not a program that is presented presented to us is an appropriate program for HUD.

It has to fall into one of these categories.

Most of you are here for public services.

Interestingly enough, that category has the least amount of money in it by law.

We can only use 15%, maximum 15% of all the allocation that we get for that.

And so we kind of go under it a little bit so that we don't jeopardize a program because we've inadvertently gone over the line.

But there's also public facilities and infrastructure, public parks and open spaces, and these are all things that we look to do based upon what the citizenry of the city want and desire and need.

Okay, in order to do this, we have an application.

People are asked and given instructions.

We have a TA about that those applications and how to perform and how to submit them in the best possible way.

We are available throughout that period to help with any questions that people have.

And we also then evaluate them.

And we evaluate them internally.

We actually had a conversation about this at a uh one of the other meetings, our budget meeting, and we talked about who we use for that review committee, and this is a little summary of that.

We use people who are chosen for their understanding of the subject matter.

We choose people with their knowledge and background related to the service delivery of it, whether it be academic or people who have run agencies similar to this.

They're drawn from the community, from the academic community, from the working applied community, uh agencies and interested Hartford residents.

In the review process for the last fiscal years, we they have included a number of people, and that's what we search for.

We try to get a diversity of people on these panels and work with them.

Uh we are there as well to, because obviously we run the program so we know whether or not something that's being given to us is appropriate or perhaps need they need some guidance and better understanding what the question is asking.

This year, uh 62% of the 16 reviewers were Hartford residents.

Okay, in that evaluation criteria and scoring, um, the city is responsible for selecting subrecipients that align with national objectives and deliver effective programs to their communities.

Um agencies that efficiently manage their funds and submit timely documentation and that shows stewardship for of HUD's resources are programs that we prioritize.

They help us to help the community.

The city is at risk of losing present and future funding when subrecipients do not have administrative and fiscal capacity to execute and deliver on their programs.

This includes having inadequate or inaccurate documentation of expenditures, incomplete beneficiary data and accomplishments.

We look at this, we run the risk all the time of HUD reviewing our records and basically saying to us we cannot fund that program even though you have funded them, and then we owe this the we owe HUD back that money.

And that has happened in the past.

We try to avoid it with all of our input and working with the agencies to make sure that they're that their materials that they are working with and that they are responding to and providing us are all of these things accurate in compliance and working to help the help to assist the community to gain its goals to reach its goals.

So this time in the application process, we added, we always add a little something different to tweak it to see if we weren't doing it well last time to make it better this time.

This time we included an assessment of the past performance to assess that compliance risk.

It included five components.

That the contract of those people were executed in reasonable time, that the drawdowns that we were given were done on a quarterly or regular basis, that the subrecipients in our interactions with them followed direct directions and had accurate documents, that the accomplishments reflected the goals that were stated in the application that they wanted to achieve, and that the final reporting is within one month of year's end.

This is just a chart really quickly of the annual entitlements that we have gotten for all of the programs that we serve.

What you can note is in the bottom that from the year 2023 to 26 funding has gone down.

It has gone down mostly and heavily for the home program.

And part of that, by the way, is because the home program is a difficult program to administer.

It takes a long time to do the kind of construction work that's involved in that, and as a result of that, they are not spending in a timely way.

HUD looks at that, has seen that, has responded to that by decreasing the amount of funds available for that program.

The rest of the funding has really decreased about 4% or so, and the Hoppe program is perhaps the anomaly, and it was decreased minimally.

It's the CDB allocation for the last two years, and you can see that from a 25, it went up a tiny tiny bit.

We thought we were going to be cut, but we weren't, which was a good thing.

The C D BG funding, we're able to put in those people who don't spend all their funds.

We many times take that money back or they give it back to us, and then what we do is we recycle it.

We bring it back again and we use it in the next year.

So we were able to add $62,000 into that bucket of money so that we could spend a little bit more on only the economic development activities.

We cannot add it to public service.

It doesn't count there.

Okay, if you look at this, it shows you what we are suggesting this year for internal departments, which have needs and have requested very specifically some of the things that they have done in the past that they are in a sense relying on going forward, and um and some things where we have not had to fund them this year because there was monies left over last year, and so they will be using those.

As a result of that, um it turns out that we had about sixty thousand dollars additional to give to external subrecipients more than we gave last year.

So we were actually giving more money to that group of applicants this year than we did last year.

Um each one of these has been divided up with very specific applications with very specific needs and with very specific outcomes of what they are attempting to do.

And this has gone already through not only our vetting but the vetting by the mayor.

Summary of what we've done.

We we had a total of 31 public service applications and 12 external non public service, which are called economic development activities.

Um the request was for public service 1,167, but we only really have about 496,000.

So basically, we were being asked to fund 2.4 times more than we actually had.

So you can imagine how difficult that is, and no matter what we do, somebody has to get cut.

We cannot afford, and I'll mention in a minute why, to fund everybody at the levels that they are requesting.

The non-public service requests were 3.5 times the amount that was available.

Um that was largely due to one organization who gave a really uh outrageous, I have to say, um, request at something on the on the order of 2.5 million.

So we only get 3.5 million total.

Okay, so the past strategy, what we've done is we decrease the awards, but HUD says please don't fund anything that isn't effective.

You know, if you give somebody a thousand dollars, they can't do anything, and so you cannot give an agency that's proposing a uh to do a project a thousand dollars.

We have decided internally from what we have seen that ten thousand dollars is probably the lower limit of what makes sense for any project.

So we tried to make sure that anybody that was a quality proposal that had a good score received at least ten thousand, no matter what they had asked for.

They would not get more than ten thousand if they only asked for ten thousand.

That just makes that clear.

Okay, so that's basically the um the presentation for everything.

What I just wanted to point out, and I ask for everybody to read through these things.

Um it just is a little bit more of the process of what we have to do.

It's about our monitoring where we have to read and and look at things in order to make sure that we are in compliance.

Um, this last page uh goes through some of the changes.

Last year we were in much more dire straits than we are now because a lot of things were being proposed, a lot of restrictions were coming at us, and we were unclear as to how much we would have to document for them.

It turns out that the worst one, which was the verification of citizen status, is on hold.

So that's a fortunate outcome, and we're in a way happy uh that at this point in time we do not have to register every single person who comes through who registers for a program onto the SAVE program.

Um they are now in the process of working with a with trying to loosen up what's called the BABA regulations.

Baba regulations are build America buy America, any construction project would have had to buy American products, steel, concrete, whatever it is, and um it holds people back, especially with the tariffs.

That's now being promoted as a way of of loosening those regulations.

Okay, so um read through those.

There's uh links to to finding out more about it.

Um, and I think I will just um at this point turn the the turn the mic over to um council president.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Um just some additional information that uh I need to read before we call on our speakers.

Um this is the annual action plan which addresses the intended use of HUD supported entitlement grant funds under the four formula programs covered in the city's five-year consolidated plan, community development block grant, housing opportunities for persons with AIDS, HAPWA emergency solutions grant, ESG, and the housing investment partnership program, which is called home.

The City of Hartford requests the public input on 2026 annual action plan for their 2025 to 2029 five-year consolidated plan that will be submitted to the U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development on or about as Cheryl mentioned uh May 15th.

A draft of the city's action plan, annual action plan will be posted on the Central Gramps Departmental website with a link to the City of Harvard's uh public notices home.

The City of Hartford and will be available for at least 30 days for review and comment, uh which is up until May 14th.

This plan also will be available at the Harvard Public Library, Park Street, and Albany branches.

The consolidated plan addresses the attended use of HUD supported entitlement grant funds under the four formula programs covered in the city's five-year consolidated plan once again.

And if you have any uh questions, please reach out to uh the central grants office and they will be able to uh help you with your questions.

Uh Cheryl, do you know when the administration will be submitting the uh mayor's recommended allocations to the council?

So you're you're asking when we submit the final I stand corrected.

The score sheets.

Do you know when the score sheets are going to be provided to us?

Um I didn't understand.

The score sheets.

Oh, the score sheets.

Um it's on the spreadsheet that um Noelli, Noelia has given to everybody or we have available.

There's also two additional pieces.

One is that we gave you access, you have access to reviewers.

We we um anonymitize them, but you have access to reviewer comments, and also there are the folders just like last year.

That if you want access to any folder, um just let Noelia know, and I will um open up the access to that so you can go in and see all of the applications themselves and read through those applications.

Okay, thank you.

Uh, our first person that we're going to be uh calling uh is Nilda Morales.

Please remember we have a lot of speakers, so please limit your comments to five minutes.

Thank you very much.

Good afternoon.

My name is Nilda Morales, and I'm the director of the Central at the Institute for the Hispanic Family Catholic Charity located in here in Hartford.

I am here today because our community needs help.

Right now we are saving more than 700 individuals every single month through our food pantry.

And even with the support of Connecticut for shear and the Midwest food ban is not nearly enough.

Our food pantry is run by dedicated volunteers who show up because they care, and that we provide scone far on behind food.

We provide stability, we provide guidance, we help families apply for SNAP, we help them to find housing, we connecting them to education and employment opportunity.

But at the end of the day, the most fasting need is still the most important one.

Food.

That means the pressure of our proof food pantry will increase even more.

With all the changes happening across our states and our country, families are facing uncertain, and we want to be part of the solution.

We want to continue making a difference in our community.

Every day we serve families.

We are doing everything that they can to survive, but it's still for sure.

One family that they stay with me in a mother is a mother of three children.

She comes to us every month, and each time she says, anything you have, we help me to give something to my children.

She wore her, she showed up, she doesn't everything she can, but she does not qualify for food stand.

The income she earned is simple not enough to provide adequate food for her family.

Desperate her efforts, she must rely on community support just to make sure her children don't go hungry.

And her story is not unique.

There are many more families like her that we even see every single day.

Parents who are working, contribute and doing the best.

Yes, they're still facing impossible choice between rent, utility, and food.

I could stand here or night sharing stories like this because this is the reality in our community.

These are no insulated cases.

This is a growing need, and it requires urgent attention and support.

But we cannot do any alone.

Today I respectfully asking your support us by approving all our full funding required for $35,000.

Because this is not just about food.

It's about supporting family, it's about dignity, it's about making sure no one in our communities go without the business.

They need to live.

Thank you for your time and for your commitment to our community.

Any questions?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Ibelise Acevedo.

Before she speaks, we want to acknowledge our council colleagues who are joined on online is Councilman Mitchum, Josh Mitcham, Councilman Alex Thomas, Majority Leader Kelly Bill, and Councilwoman Melly Rosado.

Good afternoon.

My name is Eva Lisa Sevedo, and I have been with Catholic Charities going on 10 years this year, specifically with our Boost program for five years.

Boost is a trauma-informed workforce readiness program that helps individuals overcome barriers to employment.

We assist people meet their immediate workforce need while creating goals on upskilling into higher paid wages and obtaining sustainability for themselves and their families.

In addition, we connect individuals to resources such as mental health services, housing, state and federal assistance, and food pantries.

We serve about 60 families annually, mostly parents with children and young adults looking for support and navigating their post-secondary goals.

Today we will have clients that will be giving their testimony and I urge to vote for CDBG funds to provide to be provided for us.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Marlon Bellow.

Hi, good afternoon.

I just want to share my personal history being in the booths programs almost four years.

We all family support.

So somebody brought me to the program.

I was so happy to get a lot of help with my baby.

So and they helped me to put me in the school, back to school.

So I just gave my certificate, community health worker certificate.

And also they brought me to the St.

Francis Hasbro to meet more community health workers there.

So finally I just got two years hided.

So now I have my community her workers set.

I am community helpers certified to the Connecticut State, being so happy.

So helping family, connecting people, with resources at the community.

So it's been beautiful doing this job because you don't know how many people need in the community.

So it's helpful when you can help people, families, to connect them at the community with a lot of resources depending on the family need.

So I just wanted you guys to keep in mind that putting more people going back to school is very is making a lot of difference in that community.

So to keep taking people out from the street, the jump people, um, so you know how everything is going through.

Um so the program is very helpful.

So I just love it, and I recommend them to anyone who wanna join into the program.

It's easy, it's fast, and they connect you whatever you need.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Annley.

Thank you.

I wasn't going to butcher your last name.

Thank you.

Um, so my name is Ann Lee.

I'm here to speak on behalf of the Booze program.

Um, I've been in the Boost program and with Catholic Charity since 2021.

Um I first went into the program, I was like five months pregnant.

Um I received rental assistance, uh, a doula as well as mental health um assistance, like getting a uh therapist.

Um now I'm in for uh enrolled in the work readiness program.

Um where I'm employed right now.

I was also I got help from Boost to get my job, and I'm looking to further my career as well.

Um so I just wanted to give my testimony so I can hopefully uh influence you guys on considering to help with the funds.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Uh Destiny Perez.

Okay.

Next speaker is Harris.

Sorry.

Good evening, everyone.

Uh my name is Harris Isabonaye, and I am the program manager for Upper Albany Main Street.

And um we are a primary resource, uh business resource for the city of Cartford.

As the program manager, I have a unique and direct experience with a lot of the business owners in the area, and I wanted to share some testimonials here today.

That's okay with everyone.

So the first one is from Mr.

Grafton Jones.

He is a business owner of a non-profit called um Hope Home City.

So UAMS has played a critical role in my business journey.

After retiring in 2022, I became fully engaged with their services from digital literacy training, which introduced me to Canva to the business incubation program that gave me a formal office space.

This incubation has allowed me to host student interns, meet clients, and operate professionally outside of my home office.

What I value most is the relationship.

The support from Miss Beverly Redd, the UAMS staff, and the wider network of business leaders has been phenomenal.

UAMS brings in people and opportunities I would never have accessed on my own.

They continue to shed light on what's happening in Hartford and have their finger on the pulse of the community.

I wholeheartedly recommend Upper Albany Main Street to any business owner.

They're not just a resource, they're a partner, a connector, and a powerful force for community-driven success.

She's a business owner for Cheetah Toys and more.

She's uh being part a part of Upper Albany, Upper Albany Merchants Association since 2019 has been a real blessing for my business.

From the incubator and working with students at the University of Hartford, Barney Schools of Business to the most recent digital and tech digital and technology training.

I've gained tools that continue to shape how I grow and adapt.

Just as valuable as well, it has been just as valuable.

Um just as valuable as been the friendship and support among fellow merchants and having a space where we can come together to learn, share, and build each other up.

Thank you, Upper Albany Main Street for being an asset to my company.

Um I also wanted to introduce some of the business owners next that also wanted to talk about their experience with Upper Albany Main Street as well.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Beverly Red.

Good evening to the court comments, City of Hartford.

I am Beverly Redd.

I reside at 1114 Pakwanic Avenue in Windsor, Connecticut.

I work in the City of Hartford as the executive director for Upper Albany Main Street.

Upper Hall Albany has been in existence for the last maybe 2002 with a focus of economic development for the small business community with a focus on micro business community.

We provide service not only for startup operation, but also establish.

We do an end-to-end in terms of supporting the small business community.

We, in addition to that, we provide digital and technology service.

One of the major focus right now is to close the divide for the small business community so that they can be competitive in the e-commerce marketplace.

And with that, I want to say we have been extremely dependent upon the community development black grant that has been supporting us in this initiative, at least maybe as long as we have been in existence.

But I know for the over the last 10 years, we are doing a lot of metrics for the City of Hartford at this point so that we can demonstrate the impact for every dollars that we're getting.

So we're asking for your support so that we can continue to provide this service to the city of Hartford small business community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Marvin Dale.

Good afternoon.

My name is Marvin Dale, and I'm a local business owner here in the Upper Albany community.

I am proud to be part of the Upper Albany Main Street, and I'm an owner.

I'm the owner of Dale Renovations.

I'm here today to speak in support of the continued funding for Upper Albany Main Street, particularly through the community development block grant or CDBG, which supports the microincubator program that I participate in.

Since joining the program at Upper Albany Main Street, I've received meaningful practical support that has helped my business grow and operate more professionally.

Through the digital literary program, I was able to gain essential knowledge and tools that many small business owners struggle to access.

I also receive assistance with obtaining my sum ID and participating in the minor minority business initiative program, both of which are opened doors and new opportunities and help me better navigate the business landscape.

In addition to receive, in addition, I received hands-on knowledge and help creating a pricey menu that allows me to make remain competitive in my industry while running a sustainable business.

Programs like the one offered by Upper Albany Main Street do more than support individual businesses.

They strengthen the entire neighborhood.

The support provided provided through CDBG funding has made a real difference in my experience as a business owner, and I'm standing here today because of that support.

I am asking you to continue investing in Upper Albany Main Street so that your other entrepreneurs can have the same opportunity, opportunity to grow and succeed in their in bed in their endeavors.

Sorry.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you.

Yeah, Wolvie Simplini.

Good evening, everybody.

Thank you for the opportunity.

My name is Yao Vini.

I'm owner and operator of Togo Spice Kitchen, Yellow Food Truck.

I'm actually parked right here on Prospect, right next to the City Council.

I'm open between uh Wednesday to Saturday if anybody wants to come join some African food.

All right.

Um I'm speaking on behalf of uh International Hartford.

I just want to talk about my personal journey and how they helped me as an entrepreneur and business owner.

Um the process started in the early 2000s.

I'm a cordon blue grad.

Cooking is uh is a very strong passion for me, and I was looking for a way to start.

Uh funding is a big thing in the community where I come from.

And through meetings with Art, who was one of the prior presidents, um, I got introduced to International Hartford.

They were able to point me towards the right lenders for my financial situation, which helped me gain access to getting my own custom food truck built by myself.

That was a big step.

I never thought that was possible for somebody like me.

You know, it's good to dream, but it's good to have people who can actually back your dream or practical steps.

By those practical steps, I mean I was able to meet with Erwin Hurst where I sat with him and did my business plan, blueprinting out.

And these are a small fraction of what CE um International Hartford had offered.

They were also able to place me with the Hartford Hospital, where I was I had some vending opportunities as well as some other vending up personal vending opportunities in the city.

I continue to this day to still work with International Hartford.

I have recommended international Hartford for other business owners and any like-minded person who's looking for community resources to help them achieve their goal.

Other than that, I would say that International Hartford is a staple.

Um they've opened a lot of doors.

I have another business per uh business owner that I know personally who's come through International Hartford and gotten their staple.

So funding International Hartford is a big thing for me, and I think it would help open other doors to like-minded young individuals and young entrepreneurs like myself.

Again, my name is Yahovi Sampini, owner and operator of Togo Spice Kitchen, West African food, one of the only kind in Harvard.

I'm operating Wednesday through Saturday, Prospect Street.

You can come and see me and see what International Harvard had done for me.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Adrian Dennis.

Good evening, everyone.

My name is Adrian Dennis.

I'm the owner of Jamdung Supermarket, located at 651 Albany Avenue.

I'm open from Monday to Sunday, 7 a.m.

to 9 p.m.

And Sunday, 7 a.m.

to 8 p.m.

I'm here to um speak on behalf of Upper Albany.

What they um I've been there going there for two years now.

So my journey when I first um purchase um the supermarket where I refurbish, uh rebuild it from growing up at 651 Albany Avenue, Upper Main Street been the biggest support for me.

When I was starting out flyers, information, there they stopped there.

They were there to support mature the process to make it easier for a young man like me coming up in the city.

Now I'm currently open for one month now, and with the merchants and the small business on the community behind me, it's been with Upper Albany and everyone that comes there.

It's been so good that the community falls right behind me, and we're growing together, and we just want to be a community supermarket.

And with Upper Main Street, the support that they gave to us, it's it's beyond amazing.

And we just want to say thank to Upper Main Street.

I want to thank the city of Hartford for I want to thank the city of Hartford so much because uh throughout the process, I've learned so much with permitting inspection and doing things the right way in the city.

And for a young man like me that came from nothing, came from Jamaica and to come in this city and could work from the bottom up.

I just want to say thanks to the city of Hartford and Upper Albany, been the strongest support behind me.

And we just want to say, let's continue to support them.

Let's kind of fund them because there's a lot of people that behind me that want to want to do business in Hartford and who want to do good to the community.

And we just want to continue to make Hartford a safe place, and we just want to work good with each other and make it a community thing, and we just want to grow together.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Samantha Dale, which is joined.

Good evening, uh Council President, Council members.

Uh, my name is Dr.

William Clark Council members.

Uh, my name is Dr.

William Clark, and I serve as the executive director of International Hartford.

Wanted to thank you all for the opportunity to speak today.

I just wanted to share just uh a little bit about uh International Harvard and the basic business truth in Harvard.

Uh, over our 14 years of existence, we've learned that uh entrepreneurs that we serve in Harvard are not lacking effort or they're not lacking ideas or they're not lacking commitment.

Rather, a number of the businesses that we serve, uh, we notice that they're lacking access.

They're lacking access to systems and guidance and resources that uh make it hard for them to develop sustainable income for their families.

Uh at International Hartford, we work primarily with micro business owners, many of whom who are immigrants, first generation entrepreneurs.

You heard from Yewovi, you'll hear from Samantha uh shortly.

And uh some of our clients are low-income moderate uh uh earners in our community.

And these individuals, they are already operating businesses or they're looking to grow their businesses, but they're stuck in between uh this number of five thousand dollars and twenty-five thousand dollars in revenue.

Uh as they're growing their businesses, they're trying to navigate a number of things, including pricing and sales, financing, and growth opportunities.

And because of that, uh many of these businesses do remain stuck and they're working hard to try to figure out how to move forward.

The work at International Harvard is designed to change that.

Through our micro business accelerator program, we provide structured accountability, uh, training, coaching for these businesses so that they can build the right systems inside their businesses so they can grow.

And so this means that these entrepreneurs are not just learning, but they're producing.

They're creating financial tracking systems, they're building pricing models, they're completing compliance requirements, they're developing clear revenue strategies, and they're figuring out the right next step for their business.

Uh, this is not a passive experience for the business owners that work with us, as you heard from you, Wolfie, but it's more of a disciplined, measurable, progressive learning environment for these business owners.

Combined with the support that we offer, we see and help entrepreneurs move from informal to more formal operations, uh separating their business from personal finances, uh, becoming eligible for financing and capital, and increasing their ability to generate consistent income.

And we do think this is critical uh for the city of Hartford as uh we see the benefit of more businesses that are on payroll or pay themselves and adds to the tax base uh in the city.

But I want to make sure that we don't miss the big picture, and that is uh these individuals are not just individual businesses, but these are businesses that impact family, impact neighborhoods, it impact the local economy, and it impacts the city.

And when we develop stable businesses that impact all of these stakeholders, that we are impacting our broader community.

Every time that we open up a class, which is actually happening right now, our courses fill up.

And every time that we engage our community, we discover more entrepreneurs who want to step forward and figure out how to become more sustainable and have more impact in their community.

So as I close my testimony, my ask is that uh this council considers increasing our support so we can serve more businesses in our city.

Historically, this council has supported this administration, supported uh our organization.

We're very grateful, and we look forward to continuing that work, but we uh would like to see increased support so we can serve more businesses in our city.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

Thank you, Dr.

Clark.

Uh, we're gonna go back to Samantha Dale.

Hi, good evening, everyone.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Okay, I'm sorry for the video, but I'm gonna continue with the audio here since everyone can hear me.

Good evening.

My name is Samantha, and I'm a small business owner here in Hartford.

I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak today and share how organizations like International Hartford have directly impacted my journey as an entrepreneur.

Before connecting with International Hartford, I had a vision to grow my business beyond just an idea.

I wanted to expand it into my own restaurant space and develop a food spice line.

But like many business owners, especially as someone navigating this process without deep access to capital or networks.

I faced significant challenges.

Accessing funding, understanding the process, and knowing where to begin left overwhelming.

International Hartford provided me with the support, guidance, and resources I needed to move forward.

Through their coaching and programming, I was able to clarify my business model, strengthen my plans, and take real steps toward growth.

They also connected me to a microgrant opportunity that helped me push my business into its next phase.

Because of that support, I am now actively developing my restaurant space and expanding my spice line.

What once felt out of reach is now becoming a reality for me.

Programs like International Hartford are critical because they don't just give advice, they provide access, structure, and opportunity.

Continued funding ensures that more entrepreneurs like myself can build sustainable businesses, create jobs, and contribute to Hartford's economy.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much.

Miguel DeVell.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Good evening, good evening.

See you.

Good evening, councilwomen, councilmen and women, members of the committee.

I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight.

Bear with me when I'm trying to turn on my camera here.

There we go.

Sorry about that.

Good evening, everyone.

My name is Miguel Dalvalli.

I am founder and executive director of a nonprofit barber shop that aims to evolve into a full-blown approved Barber Academy.

Hopefully by the end of summer here.

And what just began as you know, a young man coming to Hartford with a dream of opening a business.

Without knowledge that there would be support from the city.

And quickly, we realized the space meant so much institution.

Today we have roughly 18 chairs and two studios.

One studio actually occupied by a youth that we got from uh Ready CT workforce development program.

Um this young lady is now a full-blown male tech and is well on the way to earning six figures and starting her own LLC.

And so we've been very, very impactful over the years, and we ask um for your support in the community development block grant, um, that you fund us fully because this is not just about us, this is about all the impact that we've been able to have.

We've been operating on the bare minimum, and we have still been very, very impactful in the community.

And so with your support, I firmly believe that we can be even more impactful, more intentional in the city.

We've partnered up with some of the biggest names in the city.

I'm not even sure I should mention them.

Um, you know, but just people who service the youth, organizations that service the underprivileged, the underserved, of course, the neighbors.

We've um partnered with colleges to you know develop a pipeline for like workforce development, re-entry community programs, you name it, the list goes on, and I just want to say that this is a result of what investment in our people in our city looks like.

I I stand firm on that.

Um, some of the council members um very much know me.

Um I've I've been doing community work since the second we opened our doors, since the very moment that um, you know, the the department of of permits and licenses gave us the green light to open the doors.

We've been um, you know, just creating impact in our community, giving free haircuts to those who can't afford it, and then those who are paying, we've created a program called Fade It Forward, where those who can afford a haircut not only are paying for their haircut, but paying for those who can't afford it in advance.

Um I would say just I'm here speaking on behalf of the organization.

We appreciate your support and feel that if you guys support us further, we can be more impactful.

Um, we aim to deepen it our our reach and workforce development, training opportunities, and reach even more youth, um, offering a pathway to economic stability for themselves, you know, create it um small business owners uh in the beauty industry.

Um we've shown what we can do with very little, and so I I ask that you guys just kind of use your imagination on where we can go if we if we get your support.

This is much bigger than me.

Um, I'm simply just you know, doing the Lord's work in my community.

Um, I think now is the perfect time that um you know we we get funding and we get serious about what the next five years for scissor society looks like as we evolve into a full-blown nonprofit barber academy.

I think that this will lead to licensure opportunities for those who may be operating um, you know, kind of in the shadows in our city.

Uh, we all know, you know, the black eye that the barber industry has, and um I aim to change all that.

I aim to change all that with your support.

Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Um, the next speaker is Dave Laurie.

Just as a reminder, when you come up, can you just please announce your organization you're representing Dave Lowry?

No?

All right.

Um Dr.

Jackie Phillips.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for your time.

Good afternoon to the council.

My name is Dr.

Jackie Evans Phillips.

I um the owner of the nonprofit, the Dream Big College and the Emerald House.

And we are located at 1443 Albany Avenue.

We've been in business for the past 10 years.

And with the purchase of the new building, it gave us an opportunity of expansion.

And one of the things that we've been doing, having our students over the past years with summer employment, we realized that there was a need where we can really help many of our students and young people in the city of Hartford with job preparedness skills, life skills development.

So over the past year, we've started the change maker project.

We have some of our students there with us where we take them through our process of for 20 weeks.

They go through a um job preparedness, life skill developmental wellness.

And our goal is to bring a 100 students through that program every quarter.

We have many community partners as well as we get a lot of referrals from DCF and many other organizations in the community.

And so we have some of the students here going to say a few words, and I would like to thank you in advance for your continued funding of this program.

Thank you.

Hello, I'm Susanna Anani.

I just started being a participant at the Emerald House for the Changemaker program.

This is an opportunity for me to build my career outside of like studying uh in college.

And is this a safe space for to grow yourself and your identity and to build a vision for yourself?

And I'm greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Omari Williams, and I first started this program last in the in the summer of 2025.

And it helped me um it helps me figure out like what I wanted to do after high school and how I was going to get to that goal.

And even now it's helping me focus on what things I need that things that I needed to focus on beforehand that I didn't start focusing on.

And it helps me good get through my senior year of high school without burnout, and I could I got to take the time to like lock in.

Offer its final um consideration uh in preparation for the May 15th uh deadline.

Uh so thank you very much, and this public hearing is now adjourned.