Blood Drive - American Red Cross at Yale
2023-01-23 12:00 - 2023-01-27 17:00 (America/New_York) | Dwight Hall at Yale, 67 High St, New Haven, CT, 06511, United States
To register visit: www.redcrossblood.org [Enter Zip Code “06511” or “DwightYale”, Select an Appointment Time, Create an Account … DONE!]

YPEI Research Request Network — New Volunteer Orientation
2023-01-23 16:00
If you are interested in getting involved with the Research Request Network, which provides library support for incarcerated students enrolled in the Yale Prison Education Initiative’s college program, please join the upcoming new volunteer orientation on 1/23/23 at 4PM on Zoom at this link. The RRN provides crucial student support by facilitating research by proxy utilizing on-campus library resources — and you can participate in its work of the Research Request Network without ever leaving your room! Attending an orientation session is required to participate in the RRN. Please reach out to Emily.horning@yale.edu with any questions.

Volunteer with Sunrise Cafe - Spring 2023 Service Series
2023-01-25 06:00 - 09:00
Full event information can be found here.

Start your morning off on a great note! Join Dwight Hall Wednesday mornings to volunteer at Sunrise Cafe. Volunteers will meet in front of Dwight Hall at 6:00am, walk together to Sunrise Cafe, and will return to campus by 9:00am.

Volunteers are strongly encouraged to wear N95 masks during service.

Sunrise Cafe has been serving breakfast without charge to New Haven’s homeless and hungry since 2015. Each weekday morning, the Cafe welcomes guests to the undercroft of St. Paul and St. James, near Wooster Square and three blocks south of the New Haven Green with white tablecloths, flowers and a rotating menu of fresh, warm, nutritious home-cooked food. Your generosity opens our doors.

Cheerful volunteers take each order individually, deliver the breakfast to our guest and help our paid chef in the kitchen. Thelma Ragsdale, Operations Manager, and our volunteers ensure every guest is warmly welcomed.

Sunrise Cafe is uniquely welcoming and secure, based on trust and mutual respect, and the rapport built between the volunteer servers and our guests. With a warm welcome and just two rules – no drugs on the premises and no arguments – Sunrise has become a community center for the homeless, a place to come every weekday morning and gather with friends.

Hungry friends come for the home-cooked, nourishing breakfast and stay for simple medical services offered by the Cornell Scott Health Center and access to support from social services to find housing.

Sunrise provides a unique opportunity to bridge New Haven’s inequalities that separate us from one another. Volunteers come once and become regulars. Guests and volunteers become friends and greet one another on the street.

Having Courageous Conversations Equity Challenge
2023-01-25 15:30 - 17:00
United Way of Greater New Haven is preparing to launch its 5th Equity Challenge with the theme, “Having Courageous Conversations.” Join us virtually on January 25th (3:30pm- 5:00pm) for a Challenge Kickoff Panel with local GNH leaders who will share their experience having challenging conversations in their work and personal lives for the pursuit and promotion of equity. Participants will leave inspired with actionable, concrete ways to achieve this in our everyday lives.

Be a part of the challenge by registering here. Closed captioning and Spanish translation will be available.

The UWGNH 5-Day Equity Challenge begins Monday, January 30th. Participants receive daily emails with community curated resources – articles, videos, podcasts, and ways to take action to build a more equitable and anti-racist community.

NEW OFFERING! Take your impact to the next level and sign up to be a Community Conversation Facilitator. This is a new training offered in partnership with the Integrated Justice and Social Change Collaborative at Southern Connecticut State University. On January 27th from 1:00pm-3:00pm, attend an interactive virtual workshop & community building conversation to equip you with the tools to hold conversations around equity in your own circles – your workplace, place of worship, family, neighborhood, academic department, etc. Encourage others to sign up for the Equity Challenge with you and build your skills to hold a conversation afterwards to process and continue the learning. Open to any level of experience. After the end of the Equity Challenge, Community Conversation Facilitators are encouraged to hold their own community conversations and will be invited to a virtual debrief meeting in February (Date TBD). Sign up to be a facilitator by indicating your interest via the registration link.

Startup Yale 2023 Info Session
2023-01-25 16:00 - 17:00
Come learn about Startup Yale 2023, taking place in person at Tsai CITY on Thursday, March 30, and Friday, March 31. At this orientation, you will learn about the application process and all the different prizes! The Startup Yale team will be available to answer all your questions related to the application or the event itself. Come prepared with questions and big ideas! Refreshments will be provided.

REGISTER

Dwight Hall at Yale sponsors the New Haven Civic Innovation Prize as part of Startup Yale.

The New Haven Civic Innovation Prize awards up to $10,000 to the best student- or community-led venture or project focused on benefiting the City of New Haven.

The Prize aims to catalyze student- and community-led innovations that address, and are informed by, community priorities. Community members, students, or teams of students and community members who are working on projects in key areas of community development, particularly related to recovery from the health and economic crises causes by the COVID-19 pandemic, are welcome to apply.

Please see this page for more information.

"Innovations at Higher Education Institutions" YANA Tea with David Van Zandt
2023-01-25 18:30
Register here.

YANA Tea with David Van Zandt LAW ’81, Global General Counsel, Invus; Former President, The New School; Former Dean, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law

Join us for this intimate conversation with David Van Zandt LAW ‘81, a legendary academic and inspiring innovative leader at some of the country’s top academic institutions of higher education. We’ll discuss his life, career, what he’s learned, and what he would impart to other leaders at nonprofits.

Please indicate whether you will be attending virtually, or in-person at the Yale Club of NYC (50 Vanderbilt Ave).

Lunarfest: Year of the Rabbit
2023-01-28 10:00
Join us on January 28 at 10 am on Whitney Avenue to ring in the New Year with our lion dance parade. Participate in free, family-friendly activities after the parade at our partner locations. See full schedule here.

Lunarfest is Connecticut’s largest annual Lunar New Year celebration. Featuring a traditional lion dance troupe, local artists, and local organizations, the annual festivities are full of learning, culture, arts, and fun. In 2021, Lunarfest went fully virtual, but we are back in person.

A huge thank you to our sponsors and partners.

Join us for our first year back fully in person since 2020!

New Haven Civic Innovation Prize Technical Assistance Session
2023-02-02 17:30 - 18:30, 2023-02-08 10:00 - 11:00 | Dwight Hall at Yale Common Room, 67 High Street, New Haven, Connecticut, 06511
Join us for an Information and Technical Assistance session for the New Haven Civic Innovation Prize! This session will review the criteria for the Prize and we will answer any questions you have about the application due February 12.

This is a hybrid event that will be broadcast from the Dwight Hall Common Room. If you would like to participate via Zoom, please register here for a link.

The New Haven Civic Innovation Prize awards up to $10,000 to the best student- or community-led venture or project focused on benefiting the City of New Haven.

The Prize aims to catalyze student- and community-led innovations that address, and are informed by, community priorities. Community members, students, or teams of students and community members who are working on projects in key areas of community development, particularly related to recovery from the health and economic crises causes by the COVID-19 pandemic, are welcome to apply.

The competition provides participants with constructive feedback from experienced professionals, mentorship from relevant experts, and chances to meet social entrepreneurs and civic leaders. The judges will award a total of $10,000 in prizes and may elect to allocate the prize amount to a single winner, or between two teams.

Learn more:

Further information including Prize criteria and links to the application can be found at http://dwighthall.org/civicinnovationprize

A Beginner's Guide to America with author Roya Hakakian
2023-02-03 19:00 - 20:30
Register here.

At a time when America seems more divided than ever, Roya Hakakian, a naturalized immigrant shares her American experience, and tells others what it took to fall in love with America, despite its flaws. A Beginner’s Guide to America: For the Immigrant and the Curious (Knopf) exemplifies how one immigrant wishes to do her part to heal our national wounds and enable the native-born to see what they can’t see.

While it disguises itself as a manual for newcomers to America, it is truly Roya’s way of talking to the native-born Americans and reminding them of the significance of their racial multiplicity, founding ideals, and democratic principles, not only for the sake of America herself, but for all others who have known and are fighting totalitarianism.

As shifting demographics and our divided political culture make anti-immigrant backlash stronger than ever, it’s all the more important that all Americans hear Roya’s story and those by others included in the book.

Sanctuary Kitchen will be offering a special menu for this event. Registered participants for this event will be given the option to purchase a meal between Tuesday, January 24th and Monday, January 30th with a curbside pickup time of Friday, February 3rd from 4 to 6pm – in time to pickup and be ready to join the virtual event at 7pm. We will offer two pick up locations: Yale’s OISS Office (421 Temple Street, New Haven, CT 06511) and at Sanctuary Kitchen (109 Legion Avenue, New Haven, CT 06519).

Please note that this event Is private, and the zoom link is reserved only for ticket holders. The book is available for purchase online, as well as at local New Haven bookstores.

We are honored to host this event with our partners at the Yale University Office of International Students and Scholars, Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, The MacMillan Center at Yale University, and Dwight Hall at Yale University.

A﻿bout Roya: ROYA HAKAKIAN is the author of Assassins of the Turquoise Palace and Journey from the Land of No, and has published two collections of poetry in Persian. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and on NPR’s All Things Considered. She has collaborated on programming for leading journalism units in network television, including 60 Minutes. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and served on the editorial board of World Affairs. Since 2015, she has taught at THREAD, a writing workshop at Yale, and is a fellow at the Davenport College at Yale. She lives in Connecticut.

A﻿bout Carlos: Carlos Eire, who received his PhD from Yale in 1979, specializes in the social, intellectual, religious, and cultural history of late medieval and early modern Europe, with a focus on both the Protestant and Catholic Reformations; the history of popular piety; and the history of the supernatural, and the history of death. Before joining the Yale faculty in 1996, he taught at St. John’s University in Minnesota and the University of Virginia, and was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton for two years. He is the author of War Against the Idols: The Reformation of Worship From Erasmus to Calvin (1986); From Madrid to Purgatory: The Art and Craft of Dying in Sixteenth Century Spain (1995); A Very Brief History of Eternity (2010); Reformations: The Early Modern World (2016); and The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila: A Biography (2019). And he is co-author of Jews, Christians, Muslims: An Introduction to Monotheistic Religions (1997). He has also ventured into the twentieth century and the Cuban Revolution in the memoir Waiting for Snow in Havana (2003), which won the National Book Award in Nonfiction in the United States and has been translated into more than a dozen languages. His second memoir, Learning to Die in Miami (2010), explores the exile experience. A past president of the Society for Reformation Research, he is currently researching attitudes toward miracles in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. His recent book Reformations won the R.R.Hawkins Prize for Best Book of the Year from the American Publishers Association, as well as the award for Best Book in the Humanities. It was also awarded the Jaroslav Pelikan Prize by Yale University Press. All of his books are banned in Cuba, where he has been proclaimed an enemy of the state – a distinction he regards as the highest of all honors.

A﻿bout Sanctuary Kitchen: At Sanctuary Kitchen, we partner with immigrants and refugees to build economic opportunity and authentic connections through food. Through our culinary training program and social enterprise, Sanctuary Kitchen provides professional development and employment at an above-market wage for immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in the Greater New Haven area. Currently, 100% of Sanctuary Kitchen chefs are women. Sanctuary Kitchen chefs have reported reduced social isolation, increased financial stability, improved English language skills, professional culinary skills, and new relationships and networks that provide sustained holistic support.

Volunteer at the First Northeast Disability and Agriculture Conference Presented By Healing By Growing Farms - Spring 2023 Service Series
2023-02-04 07:00 - 18:00
https://cglink.me/2dA/r1993243

Volunteers are needed to support this landmark conference being held in Connecticut. Dwight Hall will assist in facilitating transportation to and from the conference. Volunteers are asked to register both on this Yale Connect page and via the conference registration page (more info below).

About the Conference:

The Northeast Disability and Agriculture Conference is a first-time regional event designed to educate and empower the agricultural community. Through workshops and presentations, farmer attendees will learn how to better advocate for themselves, and service provider attendees will learn how to identify potential distress risks within the community. Together attendees will learn how to build a network sharing skills and resources to improve accessibility and reduce industry incidents of suicide.

About Healing by Growing Farms:

The conference is presented by Healing by Growing Farms, a community that fosters a holistic healing approach that reconnects trauma survivors to themselves, nature, and the environment. We seek to empower individuals to engage in sustainable and regenerative permaculture.

Information for Volunteers:

This will be an amazing educational and life experience for volunteers as they engage and interact with attendees from over 7 states and with a community of people with ALL abilities from all walks of life from food justice to food growers to environmental justice to forestry, fishery and mental health to name a few.

Responsibilities: Will include but are not limited to the following as other needs may come up on the day of the event.

* Set-up/Tear-down

Chairs, tables, a podium, microphones, etc. are all a big part of our conference. Rooms have to be put together with adequate seating for attendees and often, this involves a quick change to the room layout for another session. Volunteers help to quickly get these spaces set-up and then dismantled again are vital.

* Coat Check

People don’t really like walking around conferences with their coats and bulky belongings. Most sessions have chairs packed-in pretty close and there’s not a whole lot of room for people to be lugging around a lot of stuff especially when they have physical limitations. Having a few volunteers that will work at an area specifically designed for people to leave and then later pick-up their coats is vital to our event.

* Greeters/Ushers

Helping to fill rooms in a systematic way. For the large sessions, it’s important to evenly fill the space. Having ushers to show people to a specific seat is definitely helpful. Even if we aren’t ushering people, just having a greeter to help attendees know where to go or just verify that they are at the “right place” is a necessary service.

* Parking Attendants: As this is an ALL-ABILITIES EVENT and over 40% of the survey respondents reported having some type of limitation

Parking space is always a huge concern and having people that will direct cars will make the most of our available space. It’s one of the more labor-intensive jobs at the conference, but one of the most important given all the potential limitations attendees may have and the weather.

* Runners

Miscellaneous needs pop-up at a moment’s notice. Something may be needed in one of the breakout session rooms, or a message needs to get posted that a session is going to be in a different location. When things like this happen, having someone that can quickly attend to it is crucial. These runners keep the pace of the conference moving and help keep our event host and volunteer manager on the know with happenings.

* Meals/Coffee/Water Station

Keeping everyone hydrated and fueled at the conference is important. Having someone help set up the meals (breakfast and lunch) and monitor the snacks/coffee and/or water for attendees is really important especially when done with a smile.

* Information Table Attendant

There’s plenty happening during a conference and attendees will frequently have questions. They’ll need location information, time information and sometimes just a little help to find the best session for them, the healthcare room and the resources room.

* Registration Desk

Having people to get attendees registered and off on their way at the conference is a very important first point of contact. Smiling volunteers that help people get started at the conference is as important as the front desk clerk at a hotel.

Help with displaying event signage, giving badges, life saver cards, signing attendees out at the end of the event and sending them to get their stipends, as well as monitoring the virtual attendance; tracking and recording for all (4) sessions will be vital to ensure we capture all our numbers for funder reporting purposes after the event.

* Workshop Monitors

Sometimes called “presiders,” these volunteers stay in the workshop rooms to make sure everything is running smoothly. They attend to anything the presider may need during the session and act as an official from the conference.

* Copywriter

After the event we will need at least one volunteer to help us develop communications including: Content on website, Resources Library on website (we are collecting virtual resources) and the creation of an online and print Newsletter with post conference highlights, pictures, stories and the such.

* Wayfinding and support

Volunteers to provide assistance to guests throughout the conference including connecting with the Mental Health Triage Licensed Professional who will be available for attendees at the event.

* Audience Q&A

During the conference we may need to facilitate Q&A with the audience which may involve roving microphones. The volunteer will aid with the distribution of microphones amongst the audience as needed.

* Social Media

Volunteer to run our social media accounts for the day featuring live stories, interviews and photos to make our event engaging from start to finish. We already have a pre-conference event consent attendees completed as part of their registration process allowing us to use their audio, pics, etc.

* Raffles & Fundraisers

Dedicated volunteers roam throughout the conference to engage with attendees and sell tickets for our social impact cause at Healing By Growing Farms.

How to Sign Up:1. Volunteers should register on the Yale Connect event page.

2. Volunteers should also register at the conference page located here:https://forms.gle/jCui5va7KLwBFz526

Students for Sensible Drug Policy NightCap Event
2023-02-06 19:00 - 21:00 | Dwight Hall at Yale Common Room, 67 High Street, New Haven, Connecticut, 06511
Want to talk about partying and drink spiking? Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP @ Yale) is looking for 300 Yale students (18-23) to participate in a study introducing NightCaps, a reusable cup lid that helps to prevent drink spiking. The launch event will take place at Dwight Hall on Monday, February 6th at 7 pm and will include pizza and refreshments. Upon completion of a quick ~5-minute survey, all students will receive a FREE Yale-branded NightCap to keep and use. The first 150 students to sign up will receive a FREE metal straw along with their NightCap.

Please see the flyer below, and sign up here: https://cglink.me/2dA/r1973774. DM @SSDPYale on Instagram or email amanda.ivatorov@yale.edu with questions or if you want to participate but that day/time doesn’t work for you!

Back in FOCUS Information Session for leaders
2023-02-08 20:00 - 22:00
For years, FOCUS on New Haven has invited first-years, sophomores, transfers, and Eli Whitney students to engage in meaningful community service, learn more about Yale and about New Haven, and meet a wonderful community of FOCUS leaders and participants. And right now, the program is accepting applications for board and group leaders! You do not need to have any prior experience with FOCUS — just a passion for service and a desire to help to introduce students to the New Haven community.

On February 8th from 8pm-10pm FOCUS directors Emma and Arielle will be hosting an information session in the Dwight Hall common room (along with snacks)! They will be there to answer any and all questions about the application process as well as listen to your feedback or suggestions for the program or anything else. We look forward to seeing you there!

About FOCUS leadership roles

Leaders will be paired with a co-leader, and lead a team of first-years through thoughtful conversations and service in support of New Haven. Applications will be due Friday, February 24th, and can be found here.

Meanwhile, our board will help run everything from coordinating food to creating programming to running our social media. Attached is a document with more information about specific board positions and their responsibilities, but all of them will require weekly meetings with the rest of the board this semester, as well as remote work over the summer prior to the start of FOCUS. You do not have to have been a FOCUS leader in the past to apply for a board position, and first-years are encouraged to apply! Board applications will be due Friday, February 17th, and can be found here.

Yale Economic Development Symposium
2023-02-10 09:00 - 17:30
Registration for the 2023 Yale Economic Development Symposium on “Building Resilient Communities” is now open! For the first time in 3 years, this year’s event will be held in person at the Yale School of Management on February 10th, 2023 to explore the role of economic development in driving long-term sustainability and resiliency of local as well as global communities. The symposium will feature several networking opportunities, two incredible keynote speakers from the domestic and international development space, and panels encompassing fintech and financial inclusion, the energy transition in rural communities, economic equity through food entrepreneurship, and community-led development. More information and registration can be found here: https://www.yaleeconomicdevelopment.com/

Summer Public Service Fellowships Information Session
2023-02-10 13:00 - 14:15 | Dwight Hall at Yale Common Room, 67 High Street, New Haven, Connecticut, 06511
RSVP here. Webinar link: https://yale.zoom.us/j/95543597530

Are you looking for a summer fellowship opportunity in New Haven, Washington DC, or beyond? Join Dwight Hall, the Yale Office of Career Strategy, and the Office of Fellowships and Funding for a hybrid information session surrounding summer public service fellowships and guidance for summer fellowship applications.

Lunch will be provided.

The panelists include:

Mark Fopeano, Director of Programming and Evaluation at Dwight Hall at Yale

Robyn Acampora, Director of Strategic Initiatives and Public Service Careers at the Yale Office of Career Strategy

Emma Rose, Associate Director of Fellowships at the Center for International and Professional Experience

The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp - Summer Opportunities Info Session
2023-02-13 10:00 - 12:00 | Dwight Hall at Yale Common Room, 67 High Street, New Haven, Connecticut, 06511
Drop in to the Dwight Hall Common Room to learn about Summer 2023 Volunteer and Employment opportunities at The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp.

Enjoy refreshments, meet camp Nursing Director, Emily Ring, and Program Team Associate, Jeff Litterst.

Founded in 1988 by Paul Newman, The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp provides “a different kind of healing” to more than 20,000 seriously ill children and family members annually – all completely free of charge. For many of these children and families, Hole in the Wall provides multiple Camp experiences throughout the year at the facility in Ashford, Connecticut, in more than 40 hospitals and clinics, directly in camper homes and communities, and through other outreach activities across the Northeast.

Spirituality & Social Justice Reading Circle 2023 - February 16th
2023-02-16 19:00 - 20:00
Thursdays at Dwight Hall Library from 7:00-8:00 pm. Please register your interest at: https://bit.ly/SSJ2023

In conjunction with the Yale Black Muslim Students Association, The Muslim Leadership Lab at Dwight Hall at Yale is convening a Spirituality & Social Justice Reading Circle.

We will be reading West African Islamic Spiritual Texts focusing on spiritual self-development. How do we prepare ourselves to be a means for Divine mercy, justice, and compassion in the world? This convening will aim to answer this question – and more.

The sessions will be participatory and engaging. Personal reflection and active engagement with the texts and each other will be encouraged. Open to all – people of all faiths and none.

The program will be facilitated by MLL convener Abdul-Rehman Malik (abdul-rehman.malik@yale.edu).

Texts will be provided as PDFs by email.

Office Hours and Workshop with Summer Fellows Coordinator
2023-02-20 19:00 - 20:00 | Dwight Hall at Yale, 67 High St, New Haven, CT, 06511, United States
Thinking of working in the social sector this summer? Not sure where to start? Meet with the Dwight Hall Summer Fellows Student Coordinator before applications are due!

If you would like to meet with the Student Coordinator individually, sign up for a slot here.

If you would like to meet with a Dwight Hall staff member individually, sign up for a slot here.

View the 2023 Dwight Hall Summer Fellows application and guidance here.

Honoring Dr. Betty Shabazz & Malcolm X El Hajj Malik El Shabazz: A Gravesite Gathering of Prayer and Reflection
2023-02-21 09:00 - 13:00
Register at: https://tinyurl.com/mxziyara

In conjunction with the Muslim Life Program at the Yale Chaplain’s Office, the Muslim Leadership Lab at Dwight Hall is organizing a special visit to honor El Hajj Malik El Shabazz and Dr. Betty Shabazz on the 58th anniversary of Brother Malcolm’s martyrdom.

Buses will leave at 9:00 am from Phelps Gate to travel to Ferncliff Cemetery and return to Yale Campus for approximately 1:00 pm.

There will be communal recitation of sacred texts, spiritual reminders, remembrances, and communal prayer. There will be time for personal reflection and prayer. The visit is open to all students – of all faiths and none.

Please register your interest above so we can determine the best travel arrangements. Seats are limited so please reserve only if you are able to make it.

Advocating for Refugees in our Community: Civic Allyship Workshop featuring IRIS
2023-02-23 17:30 - 19:00 | Dwight Hall at Yale Common Room, 67 High Street, New Haven, Connecticut, 06511
Dwight Hall Civic Allyship workshop featuring IRIS: Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services. This workshop will feature an overview of IRIS’s programs and discuss the experience of refugee families resettling in the United States. Attendees will also hear about upcoming advocacy opportunities including a virtual border crossing.

This hybrid event is open to the public. Visitors to campus must comply with Yale COVID-19 Visitor Policy as described at: https://covid19.yale.edu/visitors-policy. The zoom event is part of the Journeys Toward Justice series, a multi-college collaboration spotlighting changemakers across the country who are driving justice and equity forward. Please register here to attend virtually.

About IRIS:

Refugee families who arrive from overseas come to the U.S. with virtually no material possessions. They have lost homes, friends, family, country, culture, and jobs. Most do not speak any English. They have no income, and many are victims of trauma, with physical or mental health needs. As great as their initial needs are, their potential to enrich our community is even greater.

Asylum seekers, asylees, and other immigrant families who seek assistance stabilizing their family situation often have many of the same needs as refugees coming from overseas. However, since they are already in the U.S., it is often the case that they have some limited resources or extended support network that can be built upon with the help of IRIS.

IRIS provides targeted wrap-around services for all clients, using a strength-based assessment model, that offers long-term support for successful integration.

Debra Riding brings over 3 decades of experience in New Haven’s public, charter, and independent schools to her role as Director of Education at IRIS. As an educator, she prioritizes cross-cultural understanding, experiential learning, student empowerment, and social justice. Debra has degrees from Yale and Quinnipiac.

Born in Kabul, Afghanistan, and resettled in New Haven in 2016, Hossna Samadi has passionately devoted the past five years to advocating for and serving refugees and immigrants in New Haven in many different capacities. Having experienced the challenges of being a refugee firsthand, she is passionate about supporting, assisting and amplifying their voices, particularly Afghan women. In her volunteer work with Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services (IRIS), she serves as a member of the Cultural Companion Ally Team and as an Ambassador, speaking to a wide range of audiences. Samadi is the co-founder of the Collective for Refugee and Immigrant Women’s Wellbeing, whose grant-sponsored pilot project partners with Yale University’s Program on Recovery and Health in the Community. She is a Program Associate at Sanctuary Kitchen by CitySeed.

About the Dwight Hall Civic Allyship Initiative:

Dwight Hall’s Civic Allyship Initiative is elevating the existing work of community organizers in New Haven and beyond. The program confronts complex social challenges, convening criminal justice advocates, grassroots activists, currently and formerly incarcerated people, students, and professors in equitable relationships through workshops, trainings, and research. Together, these allies are utilizing new grassroots organizing strategies, developing opportunities for underrepresented populations in civic leadership, and laying the groundwork for substantive policy reforms.

Cook for Chapel on the Green!
2023-02-25 12:30 - 15:30
https://cglink.me/2dA/r2049996

Share love through food this February.

Are you passionate about community engagement and food justice?

Dwight Hall is seeking 5-7 volunteers to menu-plan and cook a meal for the un-housed and housing insecure inhabitants of the New Haven Green. Interested? Please register here.

Contact Kaley Casenhiser | Dwight Hall Magee Fellow kaley.casenhiser@yale.edu

Volunteer on the Green!
2023-02-26 13:00 - 15:00
https://cglink.me/2dA/r2050960

Serve Food with Community for the Unhoused Community.In partnership with Chapel on the Green, Dwight Hall is seeking 5-7 volunteers to serve food to the housing insecure and unhoused members of the New Haven Green. This is a great opportunity to support food justice pathways in New Haven and connect more deeply with those experiencing housing and food insecurity in our local community.

Meet @ Dwight Hall at 1:00 pm. February 26th.

Contact Kaley Casenhiser | Dwight Hall Magee Fellow kaley.casenhiser@yale.edu

The Current State of Waste and Race in North Carolina - Journeys Toward Justice
2023-03-02 12:00
Hosted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel HillFeaturing Professor Courtney WoodsRSVP at https://heellife.unc.edu/event/8650771.

This session examines the historical and contemporary impacts that solid waste facilities have on communities of color in North Carolina and reflect on the 40-year history of environmental justice organizing around waste facilities in the United States. Courtney Woods is an associate professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she leads the Environmental Justice Action Research Clinic, which provides technical assistance for residents facing urgent environmental health threats. Woods also is a founding member of Earthseed Land Collective.

Carolina Engagement Week 2023 is your chance to explore the impact of community-driven partnerships powered by state and local community leaders and Carolina researchers. By attending one or more sessions, you’ll walk away with a deeper understanding of the methods and collaborative approaches that are working effectively throughout different parts of North Carolina. You can also identify new opportunities to engage in community initiatives around the state designed to create social and economic impact. This event is open to the public and is part of the Journeys Toward Justice series, a multi-college collaborative series spotlighting changemakers across the country who are driving justice and equity forward.

Volunteer at the Eli Whitney Museum and Workshop - Spring 2023 Service Series
2023-03-03 12:45 - 15:45
https://cglink.me/2dA/r1997767

Support education and recreational programs at this treasured historic site!

Volunteers will meet at Dwight Hall promptly at 12:45pm and travel together via CT Transit bus to the site.

Volunteers will work indoors and outdoors to prepare and package STEAM learning kits used in schools across Connecticut and to maintain trails and natural areas surrounding the Museum at the edge of East Rock Park.

Volunteers must wear close-toed shoes and hair must be tied up.

About Eli Whitney Museum and Workshop:The Museum preserves the site on which Eli Whitney constructed the first American factory in 1798. Today, it is a dynamic community hub providing workshops, apprenticeship opportunities, exhibits, and recreational opportunities for the public.

Timeless: Telling Our Neighborhood Stories; Chapter 1: Constance Baker Motley
2023-03-04 13:00 - 16:00
All are welcome and no registration is required.

This new exhibit is organized by Frank Mitchell with Constance Royster and showcases vital stories of the Q House, Dixwell, Judge Motley, community memory, and family archives.

This Q House exhibit follows on and draws inspiration from the magnificent exhibit last spring 2022, Constance Baker Motley: Lady of the Law, originated by Jordan Jefferson, Marinda Monfilston, and Fallon Thomas and curated with Kathryn James at the Lillian Goldman Law Library at Yale.

Timeless: Telling Our Neighborhood Stories; Chapter 1: Constance Baker Motley will also be a catalyst for generating and sharing more stories of the Q House, which celebrates next year the centennial of its original opening in 1924.

The Q House and its History Committee will be posting more soon about the times the exhibit will be open to the public over the coming months, as well as related programming.

GOD OVER GAME: Faith, Sports and the Fight for Justice - YDS Breakfast with Activist & Former NBA Star Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf
2023-03-06 08:00 - 09:00
Register here: https://cglink.me/2dA/r2045040

Before Kaepernick, there was basketball star Abdul-Rauf.

More than two decades after leaving the NBA for his stand against racial injustice and oppression, he continues to teach the necessity of protest.

Join us for this special breakfast conversation hosted by the YDS’s Office for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging about faith, sports, and the courage to speak out.

Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf is the 2023 Dr. Betty Shabazz and Malcolm X Memorial Lecturer. The event is organized by Yale Divinity School Office of Diversity Equity Inclusion & Belonging, Dwight Hall at Yale’s Muslim Leadership Lab, with the Yale Chaplain’s Office.

Making it Plain: Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf and The Stand for Justice (The 2023 Dr. Betty Shabazz & Malcolm X Memorial Lecture)
2023-03-06 18:30 - 21:00
Register here: https://cglink.me/2dA/r2040582

Before Kaepernick, there was rising basketball star Abdul-Rauf. More than two decades after leaving the NBA for his stand against racial injustice and oppression, he continues to teach the necessity of protest. Join us for this special conversation about faith, sports, and the courage to speak out. Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf is the 2023 Dr. Betty Shabazz and Malcolm X Memorial Lecturer.

The event is organized by Dwight Hall at Yale’s Muslim Leadership Lab, with the Yale Chaplain’s Office and the Yale Divinity School Office of Diversity Equity Inclusion & Belonging.

https://conferencesandevents.yale.edu/campus/venues/sheffield-sterling-strathcona-hall-0

Office Hours and Workshop with Summer Fellows Student Coordinator
2023-03-06 19:00 - 20:00 | Dwight Hall at Yale, 67 High St, New Haven, CT, 06511, United States

New Haven Childcare Rally on the Green
2023-03-08 08:00 - 09:00
Location: New Haven Green: Across the City Hall, 165 Church St. New Haven, CT

On the morning of Wednesday, March 8, there will be a big rally and sing-a-long taking place on the New Haven Green from 8:00-9:00am, as a follow-up to last year’s Morning Without Child Care, which was very successful in pushing for early childhood funding in this year’s state budget. This year’s rally is being planned by Child Care for Connecticut’s Future, which is a coalition of parents, providers, and advocates working to secure strong, long-term investments in our state’s early learning system, and it is one of several rallies happening around the state on that day. March 8 is also International Women’s Day, which is significant since the vast majority of childcare workers are women.

Rebellious Lawyering Conference at Yale Law School
2023-03-11 09:00 - 20:00
Registration is now open here for the March 11th event.

The Rebellious Lawyering conference brings together practitioners, law students, and community activists from around the country to discuss innovative, progressive approaches to law and social change. The conference, grounded in the spirit of Gerald Lopez’s Rebellious Lawyering, seeks to build a community of law students, practitioners, and activists seeking to work in the service of social change movements and to challenge hierarchies of race, wealth, gender, and expertise within legal practice and education.

This year’s conference will be a smaller version of the Rebellious Lawyering conferences of the past. As we re-ground and organize around this important, nurturing tradition, we are deeply grateful to you for being a part of the Rebellious Lawyering community and for sharing your time, knowledge, and reflections with us.
