Hope For New Haven

Hope For New Haven We’re a Christ-centered organization helping families thrive by connecting them with support, investing in youth, and strengthening our community.

Everyone is welcome here. ❤️

Our team had a great time at the New Haven Family Stroll & Festival last month!The event brings the community together t...
06/25/2026

Our team had a great time at the New Haven Family Stroll & Festival last month!

The event brings the community together to celebrate the importance of high-quality early childhood education while raising awareness about the need for greater investment in child care and the systems that support children and families.

At HOPE, we're proud to support efforts that strengthen Connecticut's child care system and expand opportunities for children and families. Thank you to Friends Center for Children for hosting another great event and creating space for community, connection, and advocacy.

We're already looking forward to next year!

04/15/2026

What does it look like when we support children's development?

It looks like Kyle. Growing his skills, finding his path, and coming back to support others in his community. From student to mentor, he’s paying it forward and helping the next generation see what’s possible.

Rooted in faith and guided by purpose, his journey is a reminder that when we pour into our young people, something greater takes hold.

So grateful to have Kyle as part of our Hope community!

Did you know that many early childhood educators face significant challenges to their own well-being, including food ins...
04/10/2026

Did you know that many early childhood educators face significant challenges to their own well-being, including food insecurity, lack of health care, and high rates of depression?

We were grateful to join as a stakeholder participant in the 2023 Early Childhood Education Workforce Well-being Research-to-Policy Convening, hosted by Yale University School of Medicine and the Buffett Early Childhood Institute, to discuss challenges and solutions to this workforce wellbeing crisis.

A new research brief highlights the key findings and recommendations from the convening, including calls to:

✅ Investing in workforce recruitment and retention
✅ Funding rapid-cycle research focused on the most pressing challenges identified by educators themselves
✅ Exploring what's working—and what's not—to guide smarter policy over time

Explore the brief’s findings and recommendations: https://buffettinstitute.nebraska.edu/policy-research/workforce-well-being-brief

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living ho...
04/09/2026

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” — 1 Peter 1:3

This month, our Hope Child Development Center community gathered for our 2026 Resurrection of Jesus Program. In a room filled with families, educators, and loved ones, we celebrated community, belonging, and the promise of renewal

Thank you to our children, staff, and families for making this such a meaningful and joy-filled celebration 💛

We couldn’t let Women’s History Month come to a close without giving flowers to one of our own: Georgia Goldburn, Founde...
03/31/2026

We couldn’t let Women’s History Month come to a close without giving flowers to one of our own: Georgia Goldburn, Founder of CERCLE and Executive Director of Hope for New Haven 🌸

Georgia has spent her career reimagining what’s possible for children, families, and early childhood educators. From building and strengthening family child care networks to creating real pathways for providers to grow sustainable businesses, her work centers the people too often left out of the conversation.

Grounded in the understanding that the earliest years are critical to a child’s development, she has focused on building systems that support children from the very start. Through CERCLE, she has helped elevate early educators as both professionals and entrepreneurs, while advocating for policies that reflect the true value of their work. Through Hope for New Haven, she has advanced early learning as a foundation for long-term opportunity, connecting care, education, and community.

Her work is also deeply rooted in faith, guided by a commitment to service, dignity, and care for others. Values that continue to shape how she leads and shows up for her community.

From policy to practice, Georgia has helped move early childhood forward in ways that truly reflect what families and providers need. And we’re still learning from her every day.

Thank you, Georgia.

Dr. Evangeline Ward was an early childhood education leader who helped shape how educators support children and families...
03/25/2026

Dr. Evangeline Ward was an early childhood education leader who helped shape how educators support children and families today.

Born in 1920, Dr. Ward was a professor at Temple University and a prolific author whose work centered on a powerful idea: children should be treated as individuals, and families must be partners in their development.

Her leadership helped drive a shift in thinking from simply providing child care to supporting family-centered care, recognizing that parents are children’s first and most important teachers.

Ward also played a key role in advancing equity within the early childhood field. In 1969, she helped found the Black Caucus of National Association for the Education of Young Children after Black educators faced discrimination at a national conference. The organizing that followed pushed the field to confront inequities and ensure educators of color had a voice in shaping policy and practice.

Later, Ward helped develop a Code of Ethics for early childhood professionals, establishing principles that continue to guide educators today: honoring each child as an individual, recognizing each family as unique, and upholding responsibility to the profession.

As Dr. Ward once said:

“Parents are a child’s first and most continuous teachers… We who move in intermittently to foster the plan for growth have a responsibility with parents, to do so jointly.”

Her work continues to influence how educators, advocates, and communities support young children and their families.

Fannie C. Williams was a New Orleans educator whose approach reflected early progressive ideas about educating the whole...
03/20/2026

Fannie C. Williams was a New Orleans educator whose approach reflected early progressive ideas about educating the whole child.

As principal of the Valena C. Jones Jr. School for more than 30 years during segregation, Williams built a model of education that extended beyond academics. Through her holistic approach, she championed children’s health programs, organized parent study groups to support families, and ensured students saw examples of Black excellence by inviting leaders like Marian Anderson, Joe Louis, and Jesse Owens to speak at the school.

Her leadership reached across the community, helping grow NAACP membership, organizing the first African American Girl Scout troop in New Orleans, and advocating for the teaching of Black history in public schools.

Fannie C. Williams believed schools should develop confident students, strong families, and empowered communities, principles that later became central to progressive and child-centered education.

When Michelle found Hope for New Haven, her son James was just two years old. She was looking for more than childcare, s...
03/13/2026

When Michelle found Hope for New Haven, her son James was just two years old. She was looking for more than childcare, she wanted a place where her child would be seen, supported, and loved.

It became that constant, supporting James through early childhood, public school transitions, and beyond.

What she found was more than childcare, it was a community that saw her child fully, supported his needs, and helped him grow with confidence and faith.

Now 14, James is still part of the Hope family, attending summer camps and making memories Michelle knows he will never forget.

Because Hope for New Haven grows with you.

In New Haven, more than 1 in 3 children grow up below the poverty line. In Connecticut overall, it's 1 in 10.That gap is...
02/25/2026

In New Haven, more than 1 in 3 children grow up below the poverty line. In Connecticut overall, it's 1 in 10.

That gap isn't an accident—it's the result of decades of disinvestment in housing, schools, childcare, and the systems families depend on.

Hope For New Haven exists to close that gap. Through the Hope Child Development Center, we give children a strong start with high-quality early education rooted in love, faith, and academic confidence. Through CERCLE, we strengthen childcare providers across the community—because when providers thrive, families thrive.

We're not just serving families. We're building the infrastructure for generations to grow up whole.

Poverty is inherited. But so is hope—when we plant it early and tend it together.

When we invest in children, we’re investing in futures we may not see right away — but one day, they come walking back t...
02/19/2026

When we invest in children, we’re investing in futures we may not see right away — but one day, they come walking back through the same doors.

Kyle Smith grew up at Hope Child Development. He remembers the laughter. The learning. The way the staff never let him forget he used to hum when he ate. Even as a preschooler, he felt something bigger than himself — he felt like he belonged.

Hope gave him more than a head start on kindergarten. It gave him a foundation for life. A moral compass. A sense of how to treat people with respect and compassion. It gave him community.

Now, years later, Kyle returns from college as a summer counselor — not because he has to, but because it feels like home. Because he remembers what it meant to have people believe in him.

And when those children call him their big brother, that’s not just a sweet moment. That’s legacy.

At Hope for New Haven, community doesn’t end at graduation. It grows, it circles back, and it serves.

We are proud of Kyle — and of every young person who carries Hope forward.

Address

81 Olive Street
New Haven, CT
06511

Opening Hours

Monday 7:30am - 5:30pm
Tuesday 7:30am - 5:30pm
Wednesday 7:30am - 5:30pm
Thursday 7:30am - 5:30pm
Friday 7:30am - 5:30pm

Telephone

+12038654673

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Hope For New Haven posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organization

Send a message to Hope For New Haven:

Shortcuts

Share

Category