Environment

City of New Haven City Plan Department

City Plan works to improve the well-being of all residents in New Haven by creating safe, equitable, healthful, economically vibrant and attractive places. Planners engage with residents, community leaders, and elected officials to guide the development of physical spaces and develop frameworks for the long-term sustainable growth and development of the city. City Plan is the regulatory body for land use development in the city through the City Plan Commission, the Board of Zoning Appeals and the Historic District Commission.  TheFellow will gain substantial experience with the regulatory roles of the City Plan Department with particular focus on sustainability and regulation of projects in the State’s Coastal Management Area. 

Click here to read the agency’s placement proposal

Agency website: newhavenct.gov/government/departments-divisions/city-plan


 City of New Haven Office of Climate and Sustainability

The Office of Climate and Sustainability works with City departments, community organizations, and New Haven residents to advance and coordinate city-wide climate and environmental sustainability policies, practices, and initiatives. The Office seeks to implement climate mitigation and adaptation solutions that intersect with and address the immediate challenges facing New Haven residents: from finding safe and affordable housing, to accessing quality employment opportunities, to improving air quality and respiratory health. 

The Fellow will assist in organizing the City’s community outreach and education campaign regarding residential energy efficiency and home electrification. Tasks would include organizing meetings with community groups, managing teams of volunteers and participating in neighborhood-level canvasses, designing communications materials, and launching a community ambassador program that can carry on the Fellow’s work after the end of the Fellow’s term.

Click here to read the agency’s placement proposal

Agency website: newhavenct.gov/climate


Common Ground High School, Urban Farm, and Environmental Education Center

Common Ground is a center for learning and leadership, inviting people across ages and identities to connect to their urban environment, build community, grow into their full potential, and contribute to a just and sustainable world. 

Placement 1:  Green Jobs Corps Farm Crew-the Fellow will provide hands-on support growing vegetables, maintaining Common Ground’s compost system and caring for animals on Common Ground’s one-acre urban farm alongside its farm team and summer young adult interns. The Fellow will also provide support through the organization’s mobile farm stand, which visits New Haven neighborhoods and senior centers with fresh, affordable vegetables.

Click here to read the agency’s proposal for the Green Jobs Corps Farm Crew

Placement 2: Summer Camp-the Fellow will participate in direct service with children as a leader and mentor, helping to care for campers as they cook, play, hike, garden, build forts, make nature art, care for animals, play games, enjoy campfires, and make summer memories.

Click here to read the agency’s proposal for Summer Camp

Agency website: commongroundct.org


Gather New Haven

Gather New Haven is a nonprofit committed to social and environmental justice. The organization promotes health, equity and justice for people and the environment by cultivating connections and access to lands and waters and by inspiring local residents to care for the health of the community and environment. Gather runs a young environmental entrepreneurs program and a summer camp as well. 

The Fellow can work on one of two projects: assist in organizing a BIPOC Growers Conference for underrepresented farmers and gardeners. The Fellow would be responsible for handling logistics for this event; or create a marketing strategy for each of Gather New Haven’s programs for social media

Click here to read the agency’s placement proposal

Agency website: gathernewhaven.org


Haven’s Harvest

Haven’s Harvest is an environmental food recovery organization that directs food to communities experiencing food insecurity–daycare centers, schools, health clinics, methadone clinics, subsidized housing sites. 

The Fellow will engage in community outreach activities and will spend time in the warehouse meeting partners and volunteers to accept and share food; use social media; and perform data collection and management activities at community at events or by surveying partners to update information.

Click here to read the agency’s placement proposal

Agency website: havensharvest.org 


New Haven Urban Resources Initiative

The New Haven Urban Resources Initiative (URI) is a nonprofit Yale School of the Environment partnership that empowers and supports communities in the restoration, stewardship and enjoyment of the urban forest and nature in New Haven. URI hires community forestry interns for its Community Greenspace program each summer.  Through this program, URI community foresters work with about forty community groups in middle- and low-income neighborhoods to reclaim, restore, and replant parks, vacant lots, and streetscapes while revitalizing New Haven communities. URI community foresters receive training in urban forestry, project planning, site assessment, social forestry, and research techniques, and gain experience working with community groups, city officials, and nonprofit agencies. 

As a community forester, the Fellow will provide technical and material support to six or seven community groups engaged in environmental rehabilitation projects, such as tree planting, vacant lot restoration, or invasive species removal.

Click here to read the agency’s placement proposal

Agency website: uri.yale.edu


Solar Youth

Solar Youth is a community organization that empowers Black and Brown youth from New Haven’s systematically marginalized neighborhoods to achieve lifelong success, and nothing less. Its mission is to provide opportunities for young people to develop a positive sense of self, connection and commitment to community, and respect and appreciation for their natural environment. 

The Fellow will conduct seamless processes for outreach and enrollment before and during Solar Youth’s 2024 Summer Camp. As Enrollment & Outreach Coordinator, the Fellow will recruit families and youth through various methods of communication, maintain highly organized records of all enrollment documents and medical forms, and resolve any conflicts or difficulties families experience when submitting their documents.

Click here to read the agency’s placement proposal

Agency website: solaryouth.org


Yale Urban Design Workshop (YUDW)  and Yale Center on Climate Change and Health (CCCH)

The Yale Urban Design Workshop (YUDW) is a community design center affiliated with the Yale School of Architecture. Since its founding in 1992, the YUDW has worked with communities across the state of Connecticut and around the world, providing planning and design assistance on projects ranging from comprehensive plans, economic development strategies and community visions to the design of public spaces, streetscapes, and individual community facilities. YUDW has worked with New Haven’s Dwight neighborhood since 1995. The Yale Center on Climate Change and Health (CCCH) utilizes research, education, public health practice, and service to help achieve a world with a stable and safe climate; one in which the public’s health and diverse ecosystems can thrive.

Under the supervision of the principal investigators from the School of Architecture and the School of Public Health, the Fellow will manage, support, coordinate, and execute summer 2024 activities of the community-based research project “Addressing Urban Heat in the Dwight Neighborhood of New Haven: A Prototype for Neighborhood-Level Planning,” building on work completed in 2023 under a grant from the Climate Innovation Fund of the Yale Planetary Solutions Project.

Click here to read the agency’s placement proposal

Agency websites: udw.architecture.yale.eduysph.yale.edu