HCTC 2021 Report

Letter from the Executive Director
Applying the Lessons of 2020 to Public Health Crises
Not since the Spanish Flu of 1918 has a pandemic harmed and
robbed so many lives as has COVID-19 over the past year. As its
outbreaks kindle and re-kindle through this day, trauma-informed
workers out of our North End oasis at Hartford Communities
That Care (HCTC) continue to counter this latest insult to injury,
a crisis being absorbed disproportionately by those already most
vulnerable to the public health crisis of community violence in our
neighborhoods.
At first, we were back on our heels in this new normal of threats to
residents’ jobs, schooling, health, and lives. But we quickly teamed
up with our seasoned and newest partners to make adjustments
in real time, delivering personal
protective equipment and face
masks and communicating reliable
information about COVID-19.
We used a combination of oldfashioned
sweat equity and modern
virtual technologies to continue to
serve our primary clients: the victims of gun violence and their
families and loved ones at the center of our mission for more than
two decades. We learned anew what crisis response entails.
Especially given the unpredictability of a national response more
attuned to confusing PR than infection control, with business
and school operations frequently changing, 2020 presented
an extreme test of our personal and professional capabilities
as frontline intervenors. We knew going in that our clients’
confidence in government had long since been overdrawn,
yet found that our round-the-clock resolve over the years had
built considerable public trust in preventive work. Indeed, our
Our reputation for service turned out to be
a crucial lifeline in 2020 for the unserved
and underserved families on whom the
pandemic piled unforeseen layers of risk.
reputation for service turned out to be a crucial lifeline in 2020 for
the unserved and underserved families on whom the pandemic
piled unforeseen layers of risk.
As this report details, HCTC combines uniquely local civic
engagement with expert medical, state, and national advocacy
to continuously improve our crisis response, clinical care, and
youth leadership development programs. Notably, our Hartford
Care Response Team’s crisis response partnership since 2004
with Trinity-Saint Francis Hospital was the first in the state to
join the national network of hospital-based violence intervention
programs (HVIPs) of the Health Alliance for Violence Intervention
(the HAVI) network. Augmenting
this network, the new CT HVIP
Collaborative we initiated with medical
and frontline intervenor partners
— and supportive legislators — is
working to expand and sustain HVIP
services statewide, linking prevention
to federal Victims of Crime Act and Medicaid resources.
In a real sense, the pandemic, economic, and racial justice
crises that blew up in 2020 have reinforced our motivation —
and inspiration — to fine tune our capabilities and achieve even
greater positive results in 2021 and beyond.
Andrew Woods, MSW, VPP
HCTC Executive Director
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