The head of a nonprofit organization that serves people with developmental disabilities said his agency will only start operating out of The Hub in downtown New Canaan under the board now in charge of the facility if that group somehow achieves financial viability.
New Canaan resident Dennis Perry, president and CEO of Greenwich-based Abilis, said his organization’s first priority is to avoid doing “anything that puts the population we serve at risk.”
“I will not open up and find the facility that we are operating in is not financially viable, and then have to shut down,” Perry said when asked about the prospect of operating out of the lower level of The Hub, as per a Memo of Understanding now in place. “The discontinuity that would create for these individuals who do not transition well—we would be irresponsible to do that.”
The comments come as questions surround The Hub’s ability to make money and self-sustain—a challenge that the building’s former operator, the Outback Teen Center, was unable to overcome, ultimately closing for good last summer.
Inchoate plans for a catch-all community center appear to have garnered little support.
An online campaign seeking to raise $25,000 in support of The Hub has banked just $2,320 in two weeks—with more than a quarter of that from board members themselves—raising questions about the community’s interest in the broad program that’s been proposed for the facility.
Despite recent pleas for financial help reminiscent of its failed predecessor—pleas that followed a funding decision from the town—those in charge of The Hub knew four months ago that the town would not put $50,000 of taxpayers’ money toward the private nonprofit organization, according to correspondence obtained by NewCanaanite.com.
In an Oct. 9 email, Hub board president Bob Albus said he and fellow board members were “very taken aback by what [First Selectman Rob Mallozzi] said about not supporting a $50,000 funding request for The Hub [in 2016].”
Yet Mallozzi and the full Board of Selectmen in early budget discussions on Jan. 20 said that they’d seek to set aside $10,000 for The Hub if Albus and the board could demonstrate that their program will succeed (Outback received zero taxpayer funding last year).
In the wake of that, beyond the online fundraising page, the board hastily launched a “Save The Hub” effort calling for community support, arranged a pair of Open Houses so that locals could learn about the Hub’s “history, value and potential” and even encouraged a legacy media letter-writing campaign.
Though the board in its “Save The Hub” materials refers to its “sustainable financial model,” it also calls for “immediate funding” from others. Though in an interview with NewCanaanite.com introducing the concept of The Hub, Albus describes revenue-generating activities such as tutoring and babysitting, board members also are calling for residents’ ideas on how their cavernous building may be used. Though the board has made much of Abilis as a prospective anchor tenant, its “plan” calls for no rental fees.
“The new Board of Directors has inherited a near zero budget,” according to a memo issued under Save The Hub. “In order to keep the lights on and bills paid while planning the programming that you would like to see, we need your support.”
Last year, after the former Outback board found itself unable to self-sustain despite diligent fundraising, it ultimately proposed re-branding to serve a wider demographic (as The Hub has) and that the town support its operations with some $83,000 per year—when the town didn’t agree, the Teen Center closed.
The Hub’s board in its promotional “Save The Hub” materials refers to the some of the very same fundraising efforts that the former Teen Center had operated: “The Board has developed a sustainable financial model for The Hub that includes proven annual fundraising efforts (e.g. Hoops Harlem Rockets event at NCHS), but we are urgently in need of immediate funding to cover basic overhead costs to keep this dream for New Canaan alive.”
It isn’t clear whether or just how The Hub intends to finance itself or if there’s a business plan in the works substantially different from what the now-defunct Outback board had proposed.
It also isn’t clear to what extent the failed online fundraising campaign prompted the new “Save The Hub” effort, or what those in charge of The Hub make of New Canaanites’ apparent overall lack of interest in their vision for using the facility.
Albus could not be reached for comment.
Other board members include Carrie Christer, Kerry Connell, Ken Eldred and Sonia Skindrud. Connell declined to comment when reached by New Canaanite.
Members of the Health and Human Services Commission said during a budget presentation before the Board of Finance Wednesday night that serving special needs adults is a very real need in New Canaan. Commission Chairman Judy Dunn said that Abilis “would be a good service to the town.”
Perry said he is eager to open a physical location for Abilis here, and that local families have expressed “significant demand” for the organization’s services.
“And by the way, I do like The Hub because it is centrally located, “ Perry said. “If you know anything about the population of people with special needs, the last thing they need is ‘van therapy’—riding around in a van all day. They need access to the community, to learn a job skill and develop their interests, get into the bigger world.”
Katie Banzhaf, executive director of STAR, a Norwalk-based nonprofit agency that also serves people with developmental disabilities, echoed much of what Perry said regarding the advantages of a physical location near clients’ homes.
STAR’s board includes New Canaan residents and the organization serves between eight and 12 adults in New Canaan through its day programs, jobs and community activities, “but the families have expressed to us that they would like to have their children spend more time in the New Canaan community and less time on a bus,” she said.
The organization has been looking for a location in New Canaan “and we have not at this point found the space that we think would work best for us,” Banzhaf said.
Asked whether it would make a difference to Abilis if The Hub building was operated by a board or another agency—for example, the town—Perry said: “What is important to us is that our community-based program provides easy access to the town we serve. The Hub provides that. Does it have to be through the current board, or could it be through the town if it reverts? Sure. Our focus is The Hub and sustainability, not who the landlord is.”