Now that adult-use cannabis is legal in the state, the Social Equity Council is eyeing the revenue.
Cannabis sales have increased month over month since January, with$1 million in growth each month since March, topping out at $12 million in June.
The council gets 65% of retail sales tax to help those most affected by the war on drugs.
“So, we take our operating expenses and then we take the rest and reinvest it into the community,” said Ginne-Rae Clay, the SEC executive director.
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The group announced on Friday that The Prosperity Foundation in New Haven is one of six organizations across the state tasked with handing out $1 million in grants to area nonprofits that are focused on children and prison re-entry.
“We’re excited for the work of the SEC we’re also excited for what we can do in New Haven and the grassroots organizations that already have boots on the ground who have been doing this work,” said SEC member Kevin Walton.
“The community needs it,” said Ann Abraham, who runs Abraham’s Promise, a youth organization in the city. “We are an educational program in which we teach STEM, life skills and sports.”
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She was among several community groups at Friday's announcement with plans to apply for a grant.
Sean Reeves started Community Economic Development Partnership focused on the Newhallville and Dixwell neighborhoods.
“We’re really intentional about a bottom up approach getting residents, business owners and youth from the local community more involved in creating a plan for their own success," Reeves said.
He described the impact of the war on drugs to illustrate why programs are needed.
“Families were broken apart; fathers and mothers were taken from their children. Children being raised in single parent households or by their grandparents without any economic stability, trauma supports or resources to ensure that children and families were going to be okay,” Reeves said.
And Reverend Steven Cousin shared how community programs, mental health and substance use help is needed. He referred to a police standoff the night before at the corner of his church, Bethel A.M.E.
“And the family told me if he received the help back then, maybe we wouldn’t be in this position right now,” Cousin said.
Grants will be awarded in New Haven, Hartford, New London, Stamford, Bridgeport and Waterbury, each with one organization overseeing the grant program.
In New Haven, The Prosperity Foundation grant application is open, and the deadline is Aug. 31.
Reeves has youth organizations that could fit the application criteria. He said the money would help keep more young people off the street.
“We need facilities that we can actually enter into, Monday through Saturday, after school until maybe seven or eight o’clock. We need transportation for these students - a number of things. So, these funds, it’s a start," he said.
