Our work in the community

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POLICE TRANSPARENCY & ACCOUNTABILITY LISTENING SESSIONS The Police Transparency and Accountability Task Force needs to hear from you! We will be reporting recommendations to the legislature and Governor and we need your input to make sure we represent all Connecticut voices. Come share your testimony with the Task Force in one of our upcoming virtual listening sessions.

Thanks to a generous donation  from the Haymarket  People's Fund we were able to supply over 50 backs transportation tickets and immediate essentials  to return citizens , many whom were  released from incarceration due to the  COVID 19 epidemic  and were  homeless.

New London residents we have heard your struggles. COVID-19 has made it hard to feed our families. Let us help you with one box of food per family. Each box contains: 20 lbs of fresh produce, fruits veggies, meats, &milk

We were able to give away 4500 individual boxes of  food to families in need. 

Formerly Inc hosts community dialogues around anti-racist practices using documentaries like “13th”, a 2016 American documentary film by director Ava DuVernay. The film explores the "intersection of race, justice, and mass incarceration in the United States; it is titled after the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, adopted in 1865, which abolished slavery throughout the United States and ended involuntary servitude except as a punishment for conviction of a crime. 

We also use other resources that tend to spark deep conversations among participants: 

“White Supremacy Culture” by Tema Okun, “White Fragility” by Robin DiAngelo and “Racial Microaggressions in Everyday Life” by Derald Wing Sue, Christina M. Capodilupo, et al. 

Formerly Inc staff are trained to use their lived experiences to facilitate constructive dialogues around systemic racism and anti-racist practices that are deeply ingrained in the criminal justice system and within many law enforcement structures. 

The goal of these structured dialogues is to increase participants’ understanding of implicit bias and race-based trauma, which exist like a cancerous cell here in the United States.  These dialogues will also educate participants as to how microaggressions inflict harm, without the perpetrator even knowing it. 

These dialogues can be facilitated as an overview conversation or as an ongoing community activity that will seek to identify issues and make changes in their community.