NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — A non-profit that offers New Haven youth summer and after-school programs received nearly $2 million in federal funding.
Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-3rd District) presented the big check at LEAP’s headquarters on Jefferson Street. The money will be used to improve the building.
“Make it greener, more accessible, provide more opportunities for children and families,” DeLauro said.
Starting with the floor in the gym where that check presentation took place. It is warped with age and water leaks. Same thing with the floor in the dance studio. They will renovate the stage in that room into a real performance space. A new lift will go right in the middle of the stairwell.
LEAP stands for Leadership, Education, and Athletics in Partnership. It has helped thousands of New Haven kids. Some stuck around, like Nikilia Reid, who is now the director of programming.
“I’m excited to be here again today because we get an opportunity to see this place grow into something else, to be a bit better for what we want,” Reid said. “And making sure the place is what we want for our kids and for our youth.”
The building LEAP is in is about 100 years old. DeLauro remembers her father saying he used to come back when it was the Boy’s Club of New Haven. LEAP was founded in 1992 and later took over the building.
“The people didn’t know what this could be all those years ago, but they had a sense of what difference it could make,” DeLauro said.
For years, we’ve been showing you the summer programs LEAP provides for more than a thousand kids a year. The new money will also help renovate the pool and locker rooms. Maybe most importantly, LEAP helps educate kids all year round.
“It will give our young people the opportunities that allow them to grow into the leaders that we know they can be,” DeLauro said. “All they need is that opportunity to do that.”
DeLauro, who secured the federal funding last year when she was chair of the appropriations committee, said it would help the LEAP building last another hundred years.
