Developers broke ground last month one of the biggest elements of the Promise Zone plan, revitalizing the long-vacant M. Swift & Sons factory to create an employment and training hub for residents of the 3-square-mile area, which encompasses the Clay Arsenal, Northeast and Upper Albany neighborhoods.
That project is led by Elliott, director of the North Hartford Partnership of New Haven-based Community Solutions. Now, she’s looking for her team’s next project in the neighborhood by tracking evictions and abandoned buildings, 911 calls and housing code violations.
She’s been regularly breaking down data from the census, city and courts to try to pinpoint ways Community Solutions can help. Elliott says the new Opportunity Atlas, which allows people to both download its data and upload their own, will make that job much easier.
“We are very excited for tools like this,” she said. “We like to have data like this inform our work and start helping us really map out and plan out interventions for the neighborhood.”
