WATERBURY - Since 1964, New Opportunities has been on a mission to improve the quality of life for those in need.
The social services agency will celebrate its 60th anniversary today with a 300-person dinner at La Bella Vista. Among the honorees will be Dr. James Gatling, who led New Opportunities for 43 years before his retirement in 2021.
It was in December 1964 when a group of civic-minded individuals came together in Waterbury to incorporate New Opportunities. The headquarters have been in the city from the start at the former Waterbury Clock building, 232 North Elm St. The launch occurred just four months after the passage of the National Economic Opportunity Act, all part of President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society, a series of domestic programs designed to eliminate poverty and racial injustice.
The new law created funding across the country to support local organizations working to help the community's most vulnerable citizens. New Opportunities was one of the first community-action agencies in the United States.
"The fact they were able to incorporate so soon after the legislation was passed shows there was a lot of engagement and collaboration already in place, and they were able to get things moving very quickly to found the organization," New Opportunities CEO Bill Rybczyk said.
In those early days, New Opportunities' main efforts centered on fuel assistance and community engagement to identify needs and barriers. Over the next six decades, it expanded to offer housing assistance, emergency food pantries, shelters, weatherization-assistance programs, employment help, nutrition for seniors and child care.
In the late 1980s, New Opportunities developed a transitional housing center and halfway center for men coming out of prison.
In the late 1990s, it created the Muriel H. Moore Child Development Center, which serves 260 preschool children each year. New Opportunities also expanded coverage from its original 23 municipalities to include Meriden, Wallingford, Berlin and Southington.
In the mid 2000s, New Opportunities established the Greene-Gutridge Terrace Center on Bishop Street, a 12-unit independent living facility for those with disabilities.
In 2021, it opened the Connecticut Food For Thought hydroponic facility in Torrington, where it grows five lettuce varieties.
Today, New Opportunities is the largest community-action agency in the state, serving as many as 65,000 people each year. It also has increased its presence in Torrington, working closely with the Americans Jobs Center, state Department of Social Services, and Department of Children and Families.
"When we look at the progression, it's been geographic and an expanding of programs. ... The agency has always been at the forefront of thinking outside the box," Rybczyk said.