In the News | Backus Checkup: AOK with HHC program brings health screenings to the community

Norwich, CT (May 13, 2022) — 

Hartford HealthCare’s Community Health Office recently launched a new program called AOK with HHC in collaboration with the Covenant Soup Kitchen in Willimantic.

The program began last fall in Norwich at the St. Vincent de Paul meal center, and AOK is held monthly at the meal center. It provides various health screenings to residents.

This community health outreach program is designed to bring important health screenings to potentially at-risk individuals who may not have access to regular health care.

Run by East Region Community Health nurse Michele Brezniak, it is designed to provide anyone who wants it a free A1C screening or blood pressure check. It also offers a basic health risk assessment by asking a series of questions. Additionally, Brezniak provides education based on the assessment results, including how they can access a primary care provider or follow up care, regardless of their insurance or immigration status.

At a recent clinic in Norwich, Brezniak provided 16 individuals with diabetes and blood pressure screenings, free of charge.

Of the 16, seven had elevated blood pressure levels, and four showed higher than normal A1C levels. A1C is a blood test that is used to diagnose diabetes or prediabetes. Many of them did not realize they had a potential health issue.

The program has educational pamphlets in Creole, Mandarin, English and Spanish. Brezniak works with Hartford HealthCare’s Colleague Resource Groups to provide accurate information in multiple languages, as well as understand cultural sensitivities and protocols.

Brezniak also works with United Way of Southeastern Connecticut, Three Rivers Community College, University of Connecticut and the Health Education Center in Norwich, an organization that recruits and trains health professionals from diverse backgrounds to serve marginalized communities in Connecticut. HEC, UConn and Three Rivers are providing students to assist Brezniak at the clinics.

Prior to starting in Norwich, the program had two trial runs, at Jennings School in New London and Wequonnoc School in Taftville, both in conjunction with United Way mobile food pantries.

Moving forward, Brezniak would like to be able to provide these “pop up” type screenings at mobile food pantry sites, as a way to reach even more people.

Giving 16 people important information about their health and working with them to make sure they receive follow up care made it a “great day,” Brezniak said. “The people were grateful to have the opportunity to be screened, and it was great to connect with them.”

By Joseph Zuzek, Director of Community Health for Hartford HealthCare

The original article can be found here: “Backus Checkup: AOK with HHC program brings health screenings to the community”

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In the News | Jobs on the menu for New London high school students

New London, CT (May 13, 2022) — 

New London High School senior Tanairi Colon is working in retail at the Crystal Mall in Waterford but, with graduation around the corner, she is looking at options for the future. She’s considering Three Rivers Community College to get a start in the area of criminal justice.

Malayshia Brown, a 17-year-old junior, is the executive officer with the New London High School Navy Junior ROTC program and, while still considering her options after graduation, might be interested in a branch of the military.

The two students were among several hundred to gather on Friday for a career expo aimed at exposing students to careers and job training programs that might not require four-year college degrees. All students in the 10th through 12th grades attended.

Brown planned to peruse the tables spread out across the gymnasium that included representatives from each branch of the military. She also spoke with New London police Chief Brian Wright, whose department had several officers on hand.

There were also representatives from Lawrence + Memorial Hospital in New London, Mohegan Sun, Pfizer, Porter & Chester Institute in Stratford, Three Rivers Community College in Norwich and Ocean Beach Park in New London, among a host of others.

“I didn’t know half of this stuff was here,” said Neymari Lopez, a high school senior who plans on attending Three Rivers to pursue social work and has a job at the Groton senior center.

Electric Boat representatives Heather Lee and Willie Barber, for instance, explained to students that not only is Electric Boat hiring but there are options for free training available. The Eastern Connecticut Manufacturing Pipeline Initiative Program sponsors a program run by Three Rivers at Ella Grasso Technical High School in Groton. With no prior experience necessary, individuals can find a path to some of the many job openings at EB.

June Dunn, the school district’s career and college pathways coordinator, said the district’s mission is to provide a holistic education to all students, and career development is a big part of that.

“While preparing our students for higher education is certainly part of the mission, we are also intent on providing opportunities for those students who do not want to pursue a college degree to develop options,” Dunn said.

Maureen Bransfield, the district’s director of climate and culture, said the school district has sought to increase the number of students applying for Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, since the funds can be used for training and certification programs and two-year colleges.

In conjunction with Friday’s career expo, there will be a construction fair on Saturday sponsored by the CT State Building Trades Council, T State Building Trades Training Institute and the Greater Hartford-New Britain Building and Construction Trades Council. The fair will promote jobs available at local construction projects.

Saturday’s event is from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at New London High School and open to families, recent graduates and the general public. New London Public Schools and other employers will be present.

By Greg Smith, Day Staff Writer

The original article can be found here: “Jobs on the Menu for New London High School Students”

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In the News | Windham Tech Teacher Wins State Award

Norwich, CT (May 10, 2022) — 

During her summer breaks, Windham Technical High School science teacher Rebecca Cipriani Reyer is often engaging in professional development opportunities.

This August, for example, she will study marine acoustics with a team of female scientists and female high school students at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod.

As always, Cipriani Reyer will share that experience with her Windham Tech students and have them build hydrophones, or underwater microphones, to study whale sounds.

In recognition of her commitment to teaching, she was honored as the Connecticut Technical Education and Career System (CTECS) Teacher of the Year, which was announced on May 4.

“It’s a huge honor,” Cipriani Reyer said. “I’m appreciative of my colleagues who nominated me and my students who work with me every day.

She is now up for the Connecticut Teacher of the Year honor.

Each school district can nominate one individual for that honor, with the exception of the CTECS system, with one teacher nominated from the entire CTECS system.

“CTECS is so fortunate to have a teacher like Rebecca (Cipriani) Reyer,” CTECS Interim Superintendent Ellen Solek said in a press release. “She is tremendously passionate about science, her students’ learning and their future success. She is a shining example of teachers who go the extra mile for their students. I am honored to recognize her as the 2022 CTECS Teacher of the Year.”

Windham Tech Principal Eric Hilversum spoke highly of Cipriani Reyer in the press release. “She radiates positivity, is readily available to her colleagues and students and is committed to the mission of Connecticut’s technical high schools,” he said. “Her enthusiasm to seek our professional development in her content area and pass her knowledge on to students is unmatched. Windham Tech is proud to have her on our teaching staff.”

Cipriani Reyer said becoming a teacher was a “lifelong dream” for her, noting that a big part of the job is getting to know the students individually and figuring out how they will learn best.

She said she is “always learning” through her job and she loves to learn from her students.

Cipriani Reyer said it is not always easy to make a connection between her professional development experiences and her lesson plans.

“Sometimes, I have to be more creative,” she said.

The Windham Tech teacher has an extensive educational background, including an associate degree in nuclear engineering technology from Three Rivers Community College in Norwich; a sixth-year diploma in professional education in gifted education from the University of Connecticut; a master of arts in education degree from UConn; and a bachelor of science degree in elementary education from UConn.

She began working at Windham Tech in Sept. 2018.

“I love working with my students,” Cipriani Reyer said, adding that she loved to work in science. In addition to being a teacher, she leads the school’s Student of the Month Committee, is secretary for the Science Professional Learning Community, and is a member of the Staff Club, a member of the Health and Safety Committee and the Scheduling Committee at Windham Tech.

Cipriani Reyer was a technical training intern at Dominion Energy Millstone Power Station in Waterford in the summer of 2018 and was a teacher at Renzulli Academy in New London from Aug. 2015 to July 2017.

She has also taught at Sayles School in Sprague and Chaplin Elementary School.

 

By Michelle Warren, The Chronicle

The original article can be found here: “Windham Tech Teacher Wins State Award“

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In the News | Global City Norwich classes help the city’s aspiring entrepreneurs launch businesses. How?

Norwich, CT (May 11, 2022) — 

Eudora Poe wants to learn how to expand the marketing potential for her Connecticut-based jewelry, clothing and accessories business.

“I want to hear everyone’s ideas on how they improved their businesses, and improve my own, and maybe I can share some of my ideas I have, and we can learn from each other,” Poe said.

Poe is part of a group of entrepreneurs participating in Global City Norwich‘s Working Lab program, intended to teach entrepreneurial skills to local people. The class covers topics from how to access resources to making an interest into a business. Global City Norwich Liaison Suki Lagrito said this is the second time the class is being taught in this form.

“It’s an exploratory class, so they’re here to gain a certain skill set that’s different from college learning, because here, it’s a casual environment, where not only are the business skills being taught, we’re exploring their culture, and how that interest can be leveraged into the business world,” Lagrito said.

By culture, Lagrito doesn’t just mean race or ethnicity, but also the cultures around certain hobbies or interests, like jewelry, cat lovers, or coffee drinking.

In the class, Lagrito is also joined by Three Rivers Community College Professor Nicole Colter. She said it’s a condensed but “a really hands on, connected version” of some of the business classes at the college.

Speaking broadly, Colter said she believes there’s plenty of business opportunity in Norwich with its diversity of people and interests. However, Colter said there’s still a need to be supported, and connecting entrepreneurs with the right resources is the important part.

“They’re out there, it’s just finding them,” Colter said.

Lagrito said many students from the original class are still working on their businesses and are collaborating with businesses in the area. One of them is Jannette Velez, who owns a jewelry business and a cleaning business. Velez said the class made her get over her fears and feel comfortable reaching out for resources to help her businesses, from grants and loans to connecting to other business owners.

“I was able to build relationships and teams, and start becoming a volunteer in the community, and become more involved with what’s going on in the community,” Velez said.

Velez came back to the classes on Monday to be a mentor for the current entrepreneurs. She said she wants to show the current students that it’s not just a dream, saying owning her own businesses has given her the ability to work her own hours, and one day, the ability to provide for employees better than her own prior nine-to-five experience.

“It’s not something you want out of life, it’s something you make out of life,” Velez said.

This also includes helping out her sister, New London resident Maitee Velez. Maitee Velez wants to open a pagan-themed business. Seeing her sister’s success in the class, Maitee Velez said it makes her more confident about how the class will turn out.

“I want to build a community that could help me with anything I could possibly need, whether it’s a random, stupid question, or the next step for my business,” Maitee Velez said.

Even if a student’s career path doesn’t end with business ownership, Lagrito said the skills from the class will still serve people well, from time management and creative thinking, to building relationships.

“These are all skill sets that can be translated into real life, whether you’re an entrepreneur or not,” Lagrito said.

By Matt Grahn, Norwich Bulletin Writer

The original article can be found here: “Global City Norwich classes help the city’s aspiring entrepreneurs launch businesses. How?”

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In the News | OutCT holds first LGBTQ mental health and wellness symposium

Norwich, CT (April 29, 2022) — 

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, psychotherapist Chevelle Moss-Savage “had to provide a service that is so personal via a computer,” and she felt herself experiencing isolation and Zoom fatigue. She also recalled the “vicarious trauma” from seeing police brutality on people of color.

“I thought, if I am having issues with all of these things, other folks are as well,” said Moss-Savage, who is vice president and education committee chair of the New London-based LGBTQ nonprofit OutCT.

Hence her idea for an LGBTQIA+ — lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual — health and wellness symposium was born, which OutCT held Friday at Three Rivers Community College.

The daylong event opened with a keynote speech from Robin McHaelen, a Manchester-based consultant whose career has focused on LGBTQ youth, about engaging the mental health of people who are transgender and nonbinary, meaning people who don’t solely identify as male or female. With the words and nuances of how people identify constantly changing, McHaelen said, “we can’t keep up, but we can keep open.”

She talked about the bills introduced and passed in other states to restrict LGBTQ+ curriculum and restrict access to medical care and sports for transgender youth. But she said it’s also a Connecticut issue, pointing to the Parents Against Stupid Stuff PAC spending money trying to make transgender rights and critical race theory issues in the gubernatorial race, and to a Hartford school nurse placed on leave for social media posts about LGBTQ students.

Lindsay Gillette is someone who has worked with a lot of queer youth as co-chair of OutCT’s youth group for five years. When she first started, she anticipated she’d be talking to a lot of gay and bisexual teenagers, but it was mostly gender-nonconforming teens. She talked about her experience leading the youth group — teaching skills like self-defense, gardening, cooking and CPR, but also talking about goal-setting, social media, and biases and prejudices.

“My goal was to create the most well-rounded individuals,” she said. The group has gone on trips to places like a ropes course, escape rooms and Mystic Aquarium. At the annual Pride event held at Ocean Beach Park in New London, she had a separate youth space, with activities like a photo scavenger hunt, ice cream social and blacklight dance party.

Gillette came up with a phrase: “Pride for a day, proud for life.”

Other workshop topics included family building options, stress relief, financial freedom, fair housing, and trauma.

The topic of religion had come up earlier, with McHaelen commenting, “Every single religion in the universe has both love and judgment in their tenets, and what supportive families have managed to do is privilege love over judgment.”

In the second keynote address, Inclusive Education LLC founder Elijah Manning talked about how being an ally is a verb, not a noun. The difference, he said, is about being there to help rather than trying to make yourself look good by helping.

“Don’t perform. You’re not putting on a show. You’re not a peacock,” Manning said. He added that communities have been working on problems facing them for years, and “they don’t need you to come in and tell them how to do things. They need you to come in and support them.”

 

By Erica Moser, Day Staff Writer

The original article can be found here: “OutCT holds first LGBTQ mental health and wellness symposium“

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