The Human Capital Plan

The Lebron administration is committed to investing in Hartford’s strongest asset: its people. Too many residents across the city lack access to gainful employment, quality housing, and the support resources needed to thrive in our city.

Our Human Capital Plan makes the necessary investments in Hartford’s future to meet the needs of our residents and generate wealth within our neighborhoods to create a more vibrant and sustainable city.

Establishing “The Bridge” Center at City Hall

Too often, our city hall is seen as a center for bureaucracy, where residents sometimes only visit to pay taxes or apply for a permit.

We need to open up city hall to the people, where residents can walk in and receive the resources and services they need to succeed in this city.

“The Bridge” Center at City Hall will do that by:

• Creating a Directory for Social Support Services: Our city is home to a number of social support service agencies and organizations that help meet the needs of our residents. Whether that be access to mental health services, workforce training services, or more, residents will be able to visit city hall and receive referrals to the appropriate agencies to help meet their needs.

• Establishing a Career Pipeline Center: where residents can walk in and be connected with hundreds of employers across the city. By establishing a career pipeline with employers in our city, we can make sure that residents have the networks and the opportunity to work in good-paying jobs across Hartford.

• Small Business Support Center: Our small businesses are the backbone of our community. Too often, they don’t have access to the resources they need. By establishing a small business support center, our small business community will have coordinated direct access to the support they need.

• Dedicated Spanish & Languages Support Center: Hartford is a diverse city with over sixty languages spoken within our city lines. Spanish is by far the second most spoken language in our city and still many of our residents cannot access the support services they need because of language barriers. By creating a dedicated Spanish and Languages Support center, we ensure no resident is left behind simply because they do not speak english.

“ A city that is unified, safe, and economically thriving for all”

Unified:

Too often our city is divided. We’re too small of a city to be fragmented, and our strength is in our unity.

We need to reconnect our city and it’s neighborhoods, to truly create one Hartford:

• Investing in our city’s infrastructure to reconnect our neighborhoods: City-wide streetscape improvement program, improving lighting on our streets, implementing traffic calming measures, and creating paths to reconnect our city and get rid of the physical barriers that divide us.

• Launching a fare-free shuttle: that travels across the city and into all of our neighborhoods, helping people to visit their neighbors, play basketball with friends across the city, or attend a city-sponsored festival.

Safe:

Look, there’s one thing we know. We can’t arrest our way out of these problems. While we need to make sure our police department has the proper support and resources to do their jobs… It’s time we start swimming ‘upstream’ and look towards holistics solutions to stop crimes from happening in the first place. That means:

• Creating school-based youth apprenticeship programs: that will help our young people learn skills early and create career pathways. Whether they want to work at one of our fortune 500 insurance companies, or are interested in a career working for our incredible public works department, we’re going to make those opportunities available for them.

• Bringing on a Chief Violence Prevention Officer: To help create a strategic and coordinated effort alongside the many groups who are on the frontlines helping to prevent murders and other violent crimes.

• Incentivizing Hartford residents to join the police force: Create a pipeline that prepares Hartford natives to be recruited to serve their city as police officers so that our police force reflects our city. Create incentives for home ownership for resident officers to become homeowners, and to encourage non-resident officers to set roots in the communities they serve.

Economically Thriving for All:

The cycle of poverty has plagued Hartford for too long. It’s time to start investing in Hartford’s people and give them the resources they need to create wealth within their own neighborhoods and put an end to generational poverty. That starts with:

• Increasing home ownership across the city: Creating a dedicated fund to help residents with down payments and closing costs on their first homes.

• Incentivizing Hartford employers to hire Hartford residents: Creating partnerships and incentives with city employers to raise employment and incomes across Hartford.

• Creating apprenticeship programs with Hartford employers: so that Hartford residents have access to the proper training and experience necessary to attain employment with Hartford employers.