In the spring of 2006, a group of neighbors in the East Rock area of New Haven got together to talk about a feature article in The New York Times about Beacon Hill Village in Boston. “We want this!” we said. A few of us took a field trip to Boston to learn more,and returned with an enormously helpful handbook. We set to work, and East Rock Village in New Haven opened in the fall of 2010 with members from East Rock and several contiguous neighborhoods. Word spread and the idea caught fire.
By the beginning of 2012, East Rock Village had members from Hamden, North Haven, Westville, downtown New Haven, Wooster Square, West Haven,and Orange, with inquiries from Woodbridge and Milford. Some of those neighborhoods began to look like villages themselves, and the name "East Rock Village" did not seem to apply to them.
With input from members, in 2014 East Rock Village changed its name to the more community focused HomeHaven, an umbrella organization supporting five participating villages. We have been nationally recognized as an exemplary “hub and spoke” village model, which promises to be a sustainable way to support seniors as they age in place.
We believe that HomeHaven bridges two complementary goals: (1) developing community, neighborliness, and intimacy where friends help friends and (2) building an organization that is efficient, accountable, and keeps costs low.
If you want to read a more detailed account of the HomeHaven history, you are invited to read the full pamphlet of our history, HomeHaven: The First Ten Years, written by Jane Jervis, c. 2021. Contact the office (203-776-7378) for a printed version or download the pdf version HERE.