On October 1, 2016, North Hartford, CT officially started on its Way to Wellville, becoming the fifth Wellville community. In some important respects North Hartford is different from our other communities; because of that, we think what we learn here will benefit all of Wellville.
The most obvious difference is that North Hartford is an urban community. Comprising three neighborhoods with 24,000 people, it is part of Hartford, the capital of Connecticut, with a total population of 125,000 people.
Also, differently from the other Wellville communities, the work in North Hartford is being led by an outside entity – the New York-based non-profit Community Solutions, which in 2010 launched a partnership and opened a local office to “help a once thriving community stage a healthy comeback.” Currently half of North Hartford’s residents live in poverty, life expectancy of those calling North Hartford home is 11 years less than in surrounding communities, and unemployment is 27%.
