The New Haven PAUSE Project

As a rising second-year student at the Yale School of Public Health, Ashton Gores was deeply moved by an experience that she had while working as a coordinator at the Neighborhood Health Project one rainy Saturday morning in July. The Neighborhood Health Project (NHP) is a free health screening clinic operated by students from the Yale Health Professional Schools that runs every Saturday morning in the basement of the Episcopal Church of St. Paul & St. James from 9-10:30 AM. NHP is setup alongside Loaves & Fishes, the largest weekend food pantry and clothes closet available to the homeless and less fortunate of New Haven, Connecticut, serving nearly 400 persons each Saturday. In July 2017, a homeless man, badly beaten after sleeping in a bus stop that he preferred to local shelters asked Ashton to look at his feet before setting out to walk to the hospital due to the limited treatment capacity of NHP. He was insistent on walking because of an unpleasant past experience in which he lost a portion of one of his fingers in an ambulance, and he refused to take a taxi. His shoes, far too large, created perfect irritation with damp socks from recent rain. He likely had not taken his socks and shoes off for weeks to months. His feet were badly infected and the only available solution was to offer a clean pair of socks from the clothes closet. When Ashton went to the back of Loaves & Fishes, however, she was shook to find that the clothes closet that serves 400, had only 12 socks. Not 12 pairs of socks, 12 individual socks. As she left that day, she left heartbroken; yet, determined to do more. Since that day in July, Ashton has set out on a mission to bring together members of both the Yale and New Haven communities to provide footwear and foot care to the homeless and less fortunate of New Haven. A current and growing list of partners of The New Haven PAUSE Project, formerly the New Haven PAWS Project, include:

Soles4Souls, Nonprofit Partner
New Haven Christ Presbyterian Church, Nonprofit Sponsor
The Episcopal Church of St. James
Sunrise Cafe, Homeless Outreach Provider
The Yale Hunger & Homelessness Action Project
Yale Athletes in Action
The Yale School of Public Health