Over the past 11 weeks, interns have worked alongside DESK’s development director, Luis Olmo-Rivera, to create DESK’s annual report. The work included designing the publication’s graphics, interviewing clients and stakeholders, and compiling data and success stories to share with funders and the broader community. Luis explained, “It’s been an honor and privilege to have worked with this group of future leaders this past summer.”
They also worked alongside DESK’s community engagement specialist, Stefano Mancini, to deploy DESK’s new volunteer management system CERVIS, which included back-end testing, beta testing with current volunteers, and overall platform testing to ensure it was user-friendly from day one. “DESK is proud to be a place where students across the world can put their skills to service for our guests,” explained Stefano.
Shujin Zhang, a Master of Divinity student at Yale Divinity School, excelled in the client-facing work that will inform her future career in chaplaincy. Shujin noted about her experience that ”I have witnessed struggles and moments of despair, but I have also been continually inspired by the compassion, dedication, and hope demonstrated through my colleagues’ frontline service.”
Anthony Arcangelo, a rising sophomore at Yale studying Economics, came to DESK as a President’s Public Service Fellow through Yale’s Office of New Haven Affairs. While DESK has hosted several outstanding PPSF fellows in the past, we were particularly excited this year to have a fellow who is local, from East Haven! Reflecting on his work, Anthony stated that “Working at DESK has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. A key theme that stood out to me during my time at DESK was the genuine care and compassion shared across the organization. Everyone—administrators, staff, volunteers, and donors—truly cares about the well-being of the community, which is hard to find in any other environment.”
Ashvin van Bladel, a rising senior at Hopkins School, thrived helping with DESK’s annual report! Ashvin said about his time at DESK that “Having worked here, I can say with certainty that homelessness is not something that anyone should go through alone, and I believe that DESK is making sure that our clients feel seen, heard, and part of a community.”
Elyssa Power, a rising junior at Hopkins School, was one of DESK’s youngest-ever interns, but rose to the occasion with excellent work. Elyssa shared that “One of the most meaningful parts of my experience was interacting with clients and seeing firsthand the positive impact that kindness and consistency can have on someone’s life.”
DESK is very grateful for our cohort of four Development interns this summer who helped DESK make crucial connections with the New Haven community and communicate our mission to our team of supporters.
Are you interested in joining Shujin, Anthony, Ashvin, and Elyssa in serving over 5,000 community members across all our programs each year? Sign up at deskct.org/signup.
As a member of the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, DESK helps lead statewide conversations with policymakers about how we can best serve our guests. In fact, our Client Engagement Specialist, Claudette Kidd, spoke at the Capitol this February with CCEH! This year, we have budget and non-budget requests for the session that will end on May 6.
We are making several policy requests so that the state has a more robust response, including:
SB 364: A mandate for the state to establish stable, year-round extreme weather protocols (so we don’t keep getting caught off-guard every time it snows or is hot!) taking effect in October 2026 in preparation for next winter.
HB 5260: Anti-criminalization legislation, requiring municipalities to prioritize a services-based response to people in crisis, as opposed to a law enforcement response, also taking effect by October 2026.
Budget requests go in front of the state’s Appropriations Committee. This year, we are asking for:
$10 million annually to provide services that prevent people from slipping into homelessness in the first place — Prevention.
$12.3 million annually for emergency shelter and warming/cooling centers during extreme weather conditions — Response.
$15.8 million annually to pay for the people who are staffing outreach, drop-in centers, diversion, intake, and shelter — Response.
$32.3 million to fund case management for people who have been housed through the state Rental Assistance Program — House.
Interested in getting involved?
Find out who your state representative and your state senator are. Go here and enter your address.
Figure out if your state representative or senator serves on the Appropriations Committee by going here: click on the “Committee Membership” bar at the top, and look at the list of names.
If your state representative or senator is on the committee, that means they’re powerful! They decide what goes into the budget. So you should call them up. Find their phone number by navigating to their webpage from the list of House members or Senate members. Here’s a phone script you can use. (You’ll probably just get a staffer or an answering machine — but that’s OK! Leave your message regardless.)
If they are not on the Appropriations Committee, they still hold some influence over their colleagues who are on the committee. You should feel free to call them (using the same details above), or you can send them an email. Find their email address by navigating to their webpage from the list of House members or Senate members. Here’s an email template you can use.
Spread the word to colleagues, friends, family, or anyone else who (a) lives in Connecticut, (b) wants to do more for their community, and (c) thinks we don’t do enough to end homelessness in our state. April showers are going to bring May flowers sooner than we think – don’t wait to raise your voice for our neighbors.
Our policy work amplifies the work that we – and our 3,000 yearly volunteers – do on the ground, every day. Join in the solution on the ground by volunteering, hosting a drive, or donating.
And we don’t speak alone. As a member of the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness and the Statewide Harm Reduction Partnership, we add our voice to an array of service providers, policymakers, and people with lived and living experience.
Among those voices is Claudette Kidd, DESK’s Client Engagement Specialist. On top of her day-to-day duties at DESK, Claudette serves alongside advocates and legislators as a member of the End Homelessness Caucus. Last month, as they prepared for the start of the legislative session, Claudette joined the Caucus for a press conference in Hartford, in which she spoke about her lived experience in shelters and how that experience has helped her better engage with her clients, meet them where they are, and connect them to services and resources to improve their lives and overall wellbeing.
With the statewide Cold Weather Emergency on everyone’s mind, Claudette took the opportunity to underscore the dire need to get all unhoused individuals inside. She advocated for $12.3 million in Extreme Weather Life-Saving Funding through the state budget and through S.B. 364, An Act Concerning Extreme Weather Protocols, which would meet the recent rise in unsheltered homelessness with 24-hour low-barrier operations in every community across the state, transportation, warming capacity, and heat response. She says that “the need for support does not stop at 5:00 PM when my shift ends, and staff in this field often work beyond scheduled hours to accommodate the urgent needs of clients who are trying to find a safe and warm place to stay.” Claudette spoke while she also was managing a complex multi-medical client case all day (and she had forgotten her glasses at home!). We are proud of her and grateful for her work at DESK to support and advocate for our guests. With this legislative session only lasting until May, the time to advocate is right now. The bill received a favorable report from the Joint Committee on Public Health and will be taken up soon by the full Senate, while the state budget cycle continues marching forward – making it crucial that DESK’s network of advocates makes their voice heard.
If you’re hanging out in New Haven, you’ve probably felt like there are more people sleeping on the streets than in the past. Your perception reflects reality, and not just for our city, but all across the state, and indeed the country. There are currently 405 individuals and eight families in Greater New Haven who are on the waitlist to get into shelter. Even during the coldest months of the year, we continue to have too few options for people to get in off the streets and find warmth and safety. Faced with federal cuts to the proven practices of reducing homelessness by providing unhoused people with housing, we are anticipating these numbers to nearly double this winter, as DESK’s services for unsheltered people become a matter of life and death. Meanwhile, cities nationwide have seen stepped up aggression toward unhoused people. Despite the evidence that strategies rooted in compassion have greater success of getting people housed, many municipalities have been opting for law enforcement approaches, emboldened by last year’s Supreme Court ruling in Grants Pass v. Johnson.
Public health is getting worse
Connecticut generally and New Haven specifically have a long history of providing proven, best-practice services to people who use drugs. In the 1990s, New Haven piloted one of the first syringe service programs as a highly effective means of reducing rates of infectious disease (particularly HIV) and creating pathways to trust, treatment, and recovery. Now those harm reduction models are under attack by federal authorities who reject science and seek to reinvigorate the “war on drugs” policies that targeted our Black and brown communities and failed all of us. Because of these cooperative, responsible, and well-funded services, New Haven has seen falling rates of fatal overdoses in the last five years. But despite the ample evidence, public funders are now shying away from what we know works for political reasons. As these funding sources disappear, it will be up to community-based organizations like DESK to ensure that people get the services they need to remain safe and healthy.
So what do we do?
For almost 40 years, DESK has been fighting an uphill battle against homelessness and poverty. We do this because we believe that we, as a community, can do better. We haven’t always been on the same page as our political leaders. Some-times, our elected officials have turned away from the compassionate approaches and best practices that we know work. When that happens, we look toward community—our neighbors—to step up.
Your support is critical to ensuring that everyone in New Haven has the opportunity to access basic needs.
Join me today in giving to DESK. Step up to the need that is facing us on our streets. Together, we can ensure that we will someday end hunger and homelessness with compassionate and proven strategies. Donate online at deskct.org/stepup.
And thank you as always!
Yours in service,
P.S. Are you in a position to give through retirement savings, securities, or planned giving? Learn more about how you can be part of DESK’s Legacy Society at deskct.org/legacy.
This year’s Breaking Bread Dinner brought together 175 guests from across Greater New Haven, including elected officials, business leaders, community partners, volunteers, staff, clients, and Board members. The event served to celebrate the community-based organization’s recent accomplishments while raising critical funds, the importance of which has been underscored by federal cuts to social services and public health programs that threaten to worsen the housing crisis, widespread food insecurity, and ongoing opioid crisis, as highlighted throughout the evening
For over 30 years, DESK has partnered with Yale Hospitality to provide food for their dinner program year-round and support the annual Thanksgiving for All program. In 2017, Yale Hospitality began hosting the Breaking Bread Dinner; together, they have built up and expanded the event, culminating this year with the most dollars raised to date. Today, proceeds from the fundraiser account for about ten percent of DESK’s total annual budget.
“We are so grateful to Yale Hospitality and Yale’s Divinity School for hosting Breaking Bread this year,” said DESK’s Executive Director Steve Werlin. “It is precisely these sorts of committed, long-term relationships between Yale and community-based organizations that generate real, added value to New Haven and support those who are most in need at the grassroots level.”
This year also marked the first time the event was held at the Old Refectory and highlighted the long-time partnership between Yale’s Divinity School and DESK, who has hosted YDS interns for the past six years. Dean Gregory E. Sterling delivered the welcoming address and led attendees in the ceremonial breaking of the bread. “Community-based organizations like DESK play a critical role in training the next generation of civic and faith leaders,” said Sterling, highlighting the natural connection between the divinity school’s public service component and DESK’s values.
Bruce Barber of WNPR and WNHU, the master of ceremonies, kept the evening light and entertaining. Sommelier James Todeasa and Yale Hospitality’s Executive Chef and Director of Culinary Excellence James Benson described the efforts and considerations that went into creating the dinner experience in great detail.
Additionally, DESK’s Executive Director thanked guests, volunteers, clients, and Board members in attendance and highlighted Center Church on the Green’s support of DESK over the past 38 years. “This past year, DESK left the nest. When we finished the renovations at 266 State Street, we moved out of Center Church’s Parish House altogether, but they continue to honor and support our longstanding partnership.” To commemorate their support, the Ladies Home Missionary Society of Center Church on the Green matched all donations received during the event dollar-for-dollar up to $20,000. The match was met and surpassed before the evening was over.
As social service providers face unprecedented defunding to critical programs at the federal level, DESK is calling upon all members of our community to support grassroots organizations like DESK that are serving our neighbors who are most in need. Those who can support DESK should visit deskct.org/financial-contributions, or sign up to volunteer at deskct.org/volunteer.
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Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen (DESK) is a New Haven-based nonprofit that serves people experiencing homelessness and living in poverty by providing food assistance and services that promote health, community, and equity. Since 1987, (DESK) has supported people experiencing homelessness in New Haven by providing meals and other basic needs. Over the last 38 years, we have expanded continually to meet the growing need in New Haven.
In April 2021, DESK opened New Haven’s first low-barrier Downtown Drop-in & Resource Center, where our staff and volunteers connect unhoused people with not only basic needs, but also additional support services — like shelter, housing, medical care, mental health and addiction services, and employment — designed to move them beyond homelessness and poverty.
In 2024, we further expanded by adding peer-supported outreach staff who can literally meet people where they are, physically and emotionally. DESK’s growth in recent years reflects both the overwhelming need in our community, as well as our determination to fulfill our mission by addressing the changing needs of those we serve in creative, progressive, and high-impact ways.
