Repurposed Schools

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A page for up-to-date information about the repurposing of Nathan Hale, Washington, and Robertson schools and everything you need to know about how to get involved in the community engagement process.


Join Us for Our Final Findings Presentation to the Board of Directors

January 3rd at the Board of Directors meeting and check out the final report in the Documents section or by clicking here.



Previous Events:

Town Halls:

  • 5/30 6:30PM Meet Meraj Consulting and Process Overview
  • 8/30 6:30PM Coffee and Coversation for our closed schools

Coffee Hours

  • 8/18 3PM-5PM (English and Spanish)
  • 8/23 6PM-8PM Virtual
  • 9/1 3PM-5PM (English and Spanish)
  • 9/16 1PM-4PM

Community Events

  • Hispanic Heritage Month- September 24th
  • Sprout Street Farmers Market- June 15th
  • Squire Village Juneteenth- June 17th
  • Manchester Juneteenth Celebration- June 19th

A page for up-to-date information about the repurposing of Nathan Hale, Washington, and Robertson schools and everything you need to know about how to get involved in the community engagement process.


Join Us for Our Final Findings Presentation to the Board of Directors

January 3rd at the Board of Directors meeting and check out the final report in the Documents section or by clicking here.



Previous Events:

Town Halls:

  • 5/30 6:30PM Meet Meraj Consulting and Process Overview
  • 8/30 6:30PM Coffee and Coversation for our closed schools

Coffee Hours

  • 8/18 3PM-5PM (English and Spanish)
  • 8/23 6PM-8PM Virtual
  • 9/1 3PM-5PM (English and Spanish)
  • 9/16 1PM-4PM

Community Events

  • Hispanic Heritage Month- September 24th
  • Sprout Street Farmers Market- June 15th
  • Squire Village Juneteenth- June 17th
  • Manchester Juneteenth Celebration- June 19th
  • Manchester Community Transformation: Repurposed Schools

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    Meraj Consulting will lead a community engagement process to capture input for effectively repurposing three decommissioned schools (Nathan Hale, Washington, and Robertson). We aim to capture this input through equitable and co-created processes that center the most marginalized and representative voices and invest in the three school neighborhoods and the larger Manchester community.

    Based on initial feedback from community members in these three neighborhoods we will be utilizing the following approach:

    • Surveys and larger event participation to broadly capture community voices
    • Host events that center and invest in the most marginalized communities in Manchester:
      1. 3+ events hosted in Spanish and Bangla to ensure language justice within the process
      2. 3+ events that are hosted by and for Black community members
      3. 1+ event that is hosted by and for BIPOC Queer and Trans voices within the community
    • 1 on 1 conversation through coffee hours, during community events, zoom, in person, or various other forms
    • Virtual and in-person community forums hosted by the Board of Directors
    • Other approaches as directed by community members

    To ensure this work is equitable, all of our work is built on the following principles:

    Language Justice

    • Hosting events in Spanish and Bangla, and ASL for web-based programming
    • Translating all materials into Spanish and Bangla, and any other requested languages

    Intersectionality and Assemblies

    Every event recognizes the existence of intersections between all identities, including but not limited to:

    • Race
    • Gender
    • Orientation
    • Ability
    • Age
    • Class
    • Education

    For more information about intersectionality please watch the following video by Dre. Kimberlé Crenshaw, who coined the term about its use and what it means. The video is available with English and Spanish subtitles.

    Economic Justice

    To honor community voices and show our appreciation for your contributions we will be enacting the following compensation pathways:

    Stipends and/or consultant exchange for community leader/organization support

    • 1 in 3 raffle for all survey participants to win gift cards from local businesses
    • Stipends for event participants to cover attendance expenses
    • Coffee and snack on us during coffee hours

    To learn more about our principles and approach please refer to our presentation made to the Repurposing School Committee during the hiring process here.

  • What are Coffee Hours?

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    Coffee hours are times when we hang out at a local coffee shop and you can sign up for a time to come and join us for coffee (on us) and have a one-on-one conversation with Yaffa and Nika to tell us about the community's needs, what you’d like to see happen with the schools, etc. We will be announcing coffee hours here at least one week in advance. If you would like to join us for any of the below sessions please fill out the form here.

    https://yourvoicemattersmanchesterct.com/embeds/projects/16135/survey-tools/13705

    Upcoming Dates

    8/18 3PM-5PM (English and Spanish)

    8/23 6PM-8PM Virtual

    9/1 3PM-5PM (English and Spanish)

    9/15 10AM-1PM

    Previous Dates

    7/20 Silk City Coffee 10AM-2PM

    6/16 Silk City Coffee 10AM-2PM


  • What is a consultant service exchange?

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    In exchange for community leader and organization support, we would like to offer you our services free of charge for your support. Our firm, Meraj Consulting, can help you with strategic planning and vision building, program brainstorming, financial planning, and much more.

Page last updated: 04 Jan 2023, 07:46 PM