IANH News
August 1, 2025
Thank you so much for joining us for IANH’s 75th Anniversary Celebration! It was truly a joy to see everyone in person, to reconnect, and to celebrate the incredible work happening across our community.
A special thank-you to our panelists, whose reflections were both inspiring and deeply moving. Their stories reminded us of the importance of building up our communities through service, advocacy, and intercultural exchange — values at the heart of IANH’s mission. By sharing their lived experiences, they not only honored their own journeys, but helped deepen our collective understanding of the people and cultures that shape our region. Their work — and yours — continues to make New Haven stronger, more inclusive, and more connected.
As we look ahead, we hope to continue strengthening our partnerships and expanding our impact. To that end, we’d love your input on how we can better serve your organization and others who may benefit from our support. When you have a moment, please consider completing this short survey:
Thank you again for being part of such a special evening — and for the important work you do every day. We’re grateful for your partnership and look forward to all we’ll accomplish together.
April 21, 2025
The International Association of New Haven awards Grants for 2025/2026!
The International Association of New Haven, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary, is pleased to announce the 2025/2026 grant recipients at a recent meeting. A total of $72,000 was awarded to four organizations. Each non-profit group received $18,000, after competing in a process that involved 18 groups submitting an initial short proposal and 11 being invited to submit full applications.
IRIS (Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services) received a grant to support its Youth Leadership Program, led by Associate Director of Education, Omar Yacoub. About 40 New Haven high school students who are immigrants/refugees from countries including Afghanistan, Syria, and South Sudan participate in the program. Through interactions and engagement with each other and with the community, the students receive tutoring, engage in service projects, improve social and academic skills, gain confidence and become acclimated to their new environment. About 60 volunteers are available to assist the students as needed.
Nou La Nou Pare (We Are Here We Are Ready) is a group, led by co-founder Imani Jean-Gilles, which has only been official since 2024. Their Ayisyen Cultural Heritage Initiative is a year-long series of programs and public events designed to preserve and promote the cultural heritage of Haiti and to change perceptions about Haitian culture. They are also working toward having a digital archive of stories and information about the linked history of Haiti and the United States. They partner with a Southern Connecticut State University Social Justice Collaborative group and are also involved in attending and conducting Taino language workshops.
City Seed’s Naseema Gibson recounts the history and evolution of Sanctuary Kitchen, which began in 2017. It is a six-month cultural training program for refugees and immigrants, which includes culinary ESL, culinary arts including measurements, and internships. The organization has helped participants learn to provide catering to the New Haven community and to sell products at the City Seed farmers’ markets and also to tell their personal stories. Many of the members of the first cohort have become managers by now, and more professional development is in progress to enable even more outreach and community engagement.
Vivan Las Autonomas is a group which became official in 2023, according to Director Vanesa Suarez. Members of the group work to support families impacted by a loss because of gender-based domestic violence and to raise awareness about femicide in CT, a state in which two women are murdered each month. They are addressing their mission with healing and advocacy through the arts, with small art projects involving talk and healing and through festivals and public-facing events like their Day of the Dead event honoring victims (women, children, and infants) of femicide.
We wish all of the awardees a successful completion of their programs!
April 12, 2024
We are pleased to announce this year’s recipients of IANH grants!
The Church Street Alliance for Family Engagement PTA in Hamden will conduct a week-long Multicultural Festival, during which students will be immersed with specific countries and cultures. In a schoolwide celebration, they will then pass along their learning to other students and to the families of the school. Also, during the school year, a Cultural Exposure Project will provide opportunities for student to experience history and traditions in Connecticut through a variety of focused field trips.
The Collective for Refugee and Immigrant Women’s Wellbeing has been facilitating two projects with a group of women from rural Afghanistan to provide opportunities for these women to tell their stories. In Photovoice, participants photograph, record and reflect upon their experiences. In a Fabric Arts Workshop, the group is involved in a process of developing ideas of “home” into a finished textile piece and narrative. Public exhibits of these projects in the New Haven community will offer a forum for discussion, building social connections, and enhancing intercultural understanding.
LEAP (Leadership, Education and Athletics in Partnership) will embark on a project called “Cultural Connections through Art and Music” for the 700 New Haven youth ages 7 – 12 in its summer and after-school programs. Students will have classes in enriching activities like African dance, Brazilian Capoeira (ceramics focusing on African and Asian traditions) and painting inspired by international artists. Each session will culminate in an Expo with each group of students sharing what they have learned with each other and with their families.
Music Haven will undertake a project called “Voices: Untold Stories” which will present the stories of local refugees and immigrants and their unique experiences. “Storytellers” from Iraq, Afghanistan, Republic of Congo, Mexico and Ukraine will share their stories through interactive workshops involving music shared by Music Haven’s professional musicians and their students. Audience members will also participate by sharing their own stories, which will elicit musical improvisation. Music Haven’s high school students will plan and assist with up to ten workshops, and the culmination will be a film documenting the project, which will be shared with the community.
The New Haven Symphony Orchestra will offer Free Family Concerts at the New Haven Green, the Stetson Library Branch of the New Haven Free Public Library, and the Reggie Mayo Early Learning Center. The concerts showcase diverse books and stories and provide an introduction to the orchestra and to other cultures. For example, one concert will feature the story of Anansi, the Spider, a folk tale from the Akan people of Ghana that promotes an understanding of the importance of fairness and sharing.
April 25, 2023
The International Association of New Haven is pleased to announce the 2023/24 grant recipients. A total of $65,000 was awarded to local organizations:
Arts for Learning Connecticut was awarded $10,000. They will continue their Higher Order Thinking (HOT) Schools program at Roberto Clemente in New Haven and Helen Street in Hamden in the 2023-24 school year. They will also support culturally responsive practice with the launch of Emerge, a training and mentorship program for 85 teaching artists.
Elena's Light received $15,000 to support and expand its English as a Second Language program, which pairs refugee women with volunteers in a personalized tutoring environment designed to be responsive to the needs of each client. They also have a legal advocate who coordinates training for Connecticut lawyers in immigration issues.
The International Festival of Arts and Ideas was awarded $20,000 to promote cultural understanding by bringing Garba 360, with its traditional Gujarati folk dances from India to the New Haven Green in June of 2023. The performance includes a Connecticut-based band and audience participation and will also be offered at several New Haven schools. Educational materials about the Hindu festival Navrati will also be available on the Festival’s website.
Sanctuary Kitchen received $20,000 to extend its culinary ESL and culinary arts training program to a new cohort of refugee and immigrant chefs, create a new advisory board, hold more community events, build a network of employer partners, and develop toolkits and webinars for employers interested in hiring Sanctuary Kitchen trainees.
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The International Association also sponsored Yale-China Association's Lunar New Year Parade 2023:
April 22, 2022
International Association of New Haven Awards $68,700 for Local Programs!
Leaders of six local non-profit groups met with International Association members recently to celebrate $68,700 in grant awards for refugee and immigrant education, global geography, and international arts and music. Whether it is helping young students from Afghanistan become literate in English or bringing art, music and dance from other cultures into classrooms, IANH highlights internationalism in New Haven. Each non-profit group received up to $20,000 in support.
“We are proud that our organization, founded over seventy years ago, can support programs that build respect and understanding among people in the community,” said Jane Baljevic, the International Association Grants chairperson. “We felt inspired by the contributions these groups are making.”
Arts for Learning Connecticut: The teaching artist group, Arts For Learning Connecticut, will bring workshops and performances to Roberto Clemente School to help 475 bilingual K-8 students develop HOT (Higher Order Thinking) skills through music, dance, poetry, puppet theater, and design.
Eli Whitney Museum: In a collaboration with Eli Whitney Museum, 6th grade students from King Robinson Inter-District Magnet School will create a large, wooden wall map to supplement their curriculum unit on “Movement and Migration: How Things Spread.”
IRIS: The Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services – currently working to resettle 200 newly-arrived Afghan refugee families -- will upgrade their website to provide interactive, centralized information and resources to benefit refugees and immigrants throughout Connecticut.
Music Haven: A specially commissioned work by Puerto Rican composer Luis Prado will provide a “Journey Through Music” for Music Haven students. By incorporating a composition with different levels of music for different levels of players, this series will allow young string musicians to perform folk melodies from around the world alongside professionals.
New Haven Reads: A new Saturday morning tutoring program will bring 30 recent refugee and immigrant students from Barnard and Fair Haven Schools to the New Haven Reads center to strengthen literacy skills, using special ESL phonics software. This project will expand the existing New Haven Reads 1:1 tutoring program, which already helps more than 280 New Haven K-8 students improve reading skills with after-school and online lessons.
Shubert Theatre: The National Dance Theater of Jamaica, coming to the Shubert in 2023, will give two performances for school groups through their Education and Community Outreach program which reaches over 5000 students in the area every year.
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