North Hartford, a 3.11-square-mile community that includes the neighborhoods of Clay Arsenal, Northeast, and Upper Albany, serves as a primary entry corridor into the capital city of Hartford, CT. Its 24,463 residents are predominantly Black and Hispanic, including African Americans and people with West Indian/Caribbean and Puerto Rican ancestry. An urban core community with a mix of historic and multi-family homes, small retail and service businesses, North Hartford also has diverse social, cultural, and recreational organizations, and encompasses much of Keney Park, designed by famed landscape architectural firm Olmsted, Olmsted and Eliot.
Once a center of manufacturing and other industries, the community faced a sharp socio-economic decline following a number of seminal events, such as the construction of Interstate 84 in the 1960s, which isolated North Hartford from the economic activity of downtown. More recently, however, North Hartford’s 2015 designation as a federal Promise Zone has mobilized a renewed spirit of collaboration to create a healthy and equitable community for all.
Wellville advisor Rick Brush supports the work in North Hartford, primarily through the North Hartford Triple Aim Collaborative (NHTAC). Launched in 2017, the NHTAC brings together residents, city leaders and local organizations to improve equitable health and wellbeing. With backbone support from the United Way of Central and Northeastern Connecticut, the NHTAC focuses on policy, systems and environmental change, while partnering with community members, on-the-ground providers, institutions and policymakers at the city, region and state levels. The NHTAC also serves as the designated lead for national initiatives such as Trinity Health’s Transforming Communities Initiative, Invest Health, and Wellville.
The North Hartford Triple Aim Collaborative (NHTAC) aspires to achieve the community “triple aim”:
Community-Centered Response & Recovery: Coordinating health and community partners to fight COVID-19 and its related impacts, while building networks of trust and collective capacity that will endure beyond the pandemic.
Equitable & Inclusive Development: Focusing economic and community development on resident priorities (including a full-service grocery store and related redevelopment) by bringing together community advocates, institutions and investors.
North Hartford Ascend Pipeline: Ensuring cradle-to-career success by creating an integrated system of supports for North Hartford children and families.
Racial Justice Implementation Team: Centering racial justice through meaningful engagement of residents and community-based organizations as members and partners of the NHTAC.
Health Enhancement Communities: Advancing a statewide system of regional collaboratives, sustainable financing, policies and infrastructure (e.g., data) to improve health and equity in all CT communities.
The Hartford City Council passed the CROWN Act, which prohibits the denial of employment and educational opportunities because of hair texture or protective hairstyles including braids, locks, twists or bantu knots. The bill was introduced to the Council by students in Advocacy to Legacy, a nonprofit organization that teaches individuals and communities how to advocate for themselves.
There is so much in our hearts and minds following these tumultuous past few months and intense past few days. This is a moment to consider the causes of the consequences that are now on full display. It’s time to call out what led to such health disparities and what will it take to improve outcomes for all.
When Covid-19 hit the US, we asked ourselves: Now that everyone is just trying to stay alive and save jobs, is Wellville just a distraction? We can’t just preach about the long term and what people want to achieve by the end of the Wellville project while they are busy responding to the short term. Instead, we tried a different question: How can we build a better long-term future even as we address current needs?
The data below represent an overall picture of health and wellbeing in North Hartford – a realtime snapshot, if you will. For data that’s tied to the specific work we’re doing, see above and in the stories we share.
Population: 24,329
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Land area (sq. mi): 3.11
Median age: 30.7
Median household income
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2019 data
Poverty rate
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2019 data
High school graduation rate
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2019 data
Insurance sources
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2019 data
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