2025-11-12T14:56:13-07:00 2024-12-31 990 2024-01-01 475322239 WHITNEYVILLE CULTURAL COMMONS INC WHIT 2037808890 1253 Whitney Avenue Hamden CT 06517 Robert Sheiman Strategic Director 2037808890 2025-11-14 1 2024 2025-03-06 01:10:19Z WCC Robert Sheiman 14 Webb Street Hamden CT 06517 411421 0 X www.whitneyvilleculturalcommons.org X 2015 CT We preserve and enhance places of communal and historic value by providing public spaces, tools, and knowledge as shared resources to support a thriving community socially, culturally, and economically. We envision a future where every community has valuable resources preserved for perpetual public use, with just and equitable access to enhance the quality of life for all. We: Preserve Historic Places: Steward historic properties in our trust with a commitment to preserving buildings and natural environments as part of the cultural landscape of the site. Develop Social Capital: Nuture communal relationships as host to diverse civic forums, public and private social events, and spiritual and cultural traditions. Champion Artistic Creation: Cultivate, celebrate and showcase artistic endeavors of all kings. Stimulate Economic Opportunity: Develop local organizations, individuals, and start-ups through coworking opportunities and the provision of shared information, materials and services. 7 7 5 45 0 0 37769 42913 340552 368508 0 0 0 0 378321 411421 0 5067 0 0 124674 172970 0 0 0 493148 115973 617822 294010 -239501 117411 1111933 1162645 957460 890761 154473 271884 Our mission is to preserve and enhance places of communal and historic value by providing public spaces, tools, and knowledge as shared resources to support a thriving community - socially, culturally, and economically. We envision a future where every community has valuable resources preserved for perpetual public use, with just and equitable access to enhance the quality of life for all. We: Preserve Historic Places: Steward historic properties in our trust with a commitment to preserving buildings and natural environments as part of the cultural landscape of the site. Develop Social Capital: Nurture communal relationships as host to diverse civic forums, public and private social events, and spiritual and cultural traditions. Champion Artistic Creation: Cultivate, celebrate, and showcase artistic endeavors of all kinds. Stimulate Economic Opportunity: Develop local organizations and individuals through co-working opportunities and the provision of shared info, material, and service. 0 0 117351 988 9098 As part of our historic preservation program, we own, maintain, and preserve 1247-1253 Whitney Avenue, Hamden, CT, 06517, a National Historic Landmark, which includes the Whitneyville United Church of Christ built in 1834 and its Church House built in 1924, and continue its legacy as a house of worship while continuing to adapt its use to a broader Community Resources Center and the facility in which we run some of our other programs. We completed an electrical upgrade and HVAC installation to 1247 Whitney Avenue, the historic church building, allowing us to operate a contemporary HVAC system to maintain heating, cooling, and moisture in the building in a more effective manner, thus allowing us to preserve it more easily, and adapt it to contemporary expectations. We have been assisting the First Church of Christ Woodbridge with the adaptation of its facilities for broader community use, while preserving the historic features of the buildings and property, helping them to develop plans for the inclusion of a day care within their facilities in a way which abides by the historic preservation requirements of their Preservation Easement and their Historic District requirements. 57038 584 94089 Our Materials and Information Library program allows us to offer a curated repository of items and information for managed public use, both onsite and offsite. It includes books, tables, chairs, multi-media equipment, office supplies, kitchen tools, lawn care tools, and more. It also includes our databases of information about the historic property, Whitneyville, and Greater New Haven, allowing us to slowly build a representation of our community that can let us help people find services and resources that they need that we don't provide. We also document our successes and failures as a social enterprise nonprofit transforming communal, historic space from just its traditional uses to alternative, expanded, and inclusive uses that conserve and preserve the traditional uses and spirit of those uses, while also including new styles of use -- the documenting of this material has allowed us to grow partnerships with organizations around Connecticut where we help them adapt our successes to their own situations, avoid our failures in those situations, and assist them with implementing the adapted plans so their institutions and facilities can serve flourishing community. This year we provided information curation services around nonprofit formation and development to The People's Place of Waterbury, a nonprofit community resources center. Helping them find their first physical location for establishing the physical plant of their community resources center, and helped them launch programs like ours, as well as adapting them to serve their community in novel ways. We are also developing a shared library of documentation of this process, so that both organizations can continue to share with others the successes and failures of the social enterprises. We also provided information curation services around historic property adaptation to First Church of Christ Woodbridge, the sister church of our property, constructed by the same builders from the same plans in 1832. We assisted them with the adaptation of the historic day care operating in their Parish House, developing plans and strategies for expanding it from 32 to 96 children, and finding a daycare partner to help them operate it, such that their historic property can become accessible and sustainable into the future. 54171 613 140160 Our assembly space program continued to allow use of the historic properties in our trust for broad use for community events, nonprofits, and social gatherings. The Red Cross of America ran Mobile Blood Drives, weekly and without fail, at our facilities throughout the year -- we serve as the New Haven Chapter House of the Red Cross. Social gathering incrementally grew from the previous year, but continued to be our most requested program service proving the vital necessity of social infrastructure for our community through high demand. We hosted roughly two thousand community, nonprofit, and social gatherings during 2024. 28490 317 69113 Our Coworking Program provides a dynamic shared and private working environment that brings together startups, seasoned professionals, remote researches, freelancers, and solopreneurs, in a public space where they interact more regularly with each other and their community with lower overhead to insure viability of their small businesses, and to give new entrepreneurs a chance to make it in and a reason to stay in our local economy. Our Partner Coworking Organizations: CEIO, Public Allies CT, Black Infinity Collective, Prison2Public Policy, Students for Educational Justice, Real Clear Foundation, Stop Solitary, Interfaith Volunteer Caregivers, and our solo-preneurs, did coworking actiivities in our facilities utilizing both communal spaces and private offices. We also hosted many daytime seminars and presentations from organizations needing short term large spaces to supplement their small offices or work from home teams. 18126 210 51303 Our Arts and Culture Program provides studio space for artists, venues for performances and showcases and cultural events, space for arts classes and rehearsals, and tools for artistic productions, produced both in partnership with artists and offering our services as tools for artists to produce their own events. It also provides home for culturally significant programming from sub-cultures across Connecticut, including Christian worship & artistic services across denominations, including Pentecostals, UCCs, Episcopalians, Evangelicals, Roman Catholics, and more, and other significant worship and cultural services from across faith and traditional backgrounds. This year, both our churches and arts programming exceeded pre-pandemic levels proving the vital necessity of social infrastructure for arts & culture in GNH. 18783 162 4746 We produce, on our own and in partnership with members of the community and other organizations, a small number of classes and workshops designed to offering education to the community at large, in any topic or area of interest that serves the benefit of our community members. And we added on incubation and acceleration services for nonprofit development, utilizing our vast experience with many kinds of organizations through coworking, our partnerships with other organizations, and by collecting and synthesizing our own lessons learned as a startup nonprofit social enterprise, to help other individuals and organizations starting and operating nonprofit projects to benefit from the lessons of our coworkers -- we've been doing this in partnership with The People's Place in Waterbury to provide these services directly to their fiscal sponsees at TPP. Additionally, one of our sponsored projects, The Winnett Food Forest, became a free standing 501c3 organization and we regranted its remaining assets on our books to it. 65399 689 125162 293959 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 5 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 X 7 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 CT X X Robert Sheiman 2037808890 1253 Whitney Ave Hamden CT 06517 X Rebecca Mandell President and Member of the Board of Directors 1 X X 0 0 0 Andrew Marchant-Shapiro Secretary and Member of the Board of Directors 1 X X 0 0 0 Addys Castillo Member of the Board of Directors 1 X 0 0 0 Denya McGee Member of the Board of Directors 1 X 0 0 0 Brendan Smith Vice President and Member of the Board of Directors 1 X X 0 0 0 Roslyn Sotero Member of the Board of Directors 1 X 0 0 0 David Brancati Treasurer and Member of the Board of Directors 1 X X 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 42913 0 42913 368508 368508 0 0 368508 0 0 0 0 0 0 411421 368508 0 0 5067 5067 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 159385 159385 0 0 0 0 13585 13585 0 0 5100 5100 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 540 540 4118 4067 51 13946 13946 0 0 9930 9930 0 0 0 0 0 0 34066 34066 0 0 17609 17609 30114 30114 Taxes & Licenses 550 550 0 0 0 0 0 0 294010 293959 51 0 178779 161277 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1135823 134455 933154 1001368 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1111933 1162645 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 575888 511971 372200 370123 0 0 9372 8667 957460 890761 X 0 0 0 0 154473 271884 154473 271884 1111933 1162645 117411 0 0 0 0 0 X 0 0 0 X 43834 283659 16357 90510 45696 480056 147367 285589 281350 287812 365724 1367842 191201 569248 297707 378322 411420 1847898 1847898 191201 569248 297707 378322 411420 1847898 1 1 0 0 X RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED 399000 0 399000 736823 0 134455 602368 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1001368 760 CT Income Tax 476 CT Paid Family and Medical Leave 219 CT Unemployment Tax 42 Deposits 7170 8667 1 Winnett Food Forest 189 Treadwell Street Hamden CT 06517 880758119 501(c)(3) 5067 Remaining balance of the Claire C. Bennitt Watershed Fund Grant received and disbursed on behalf of Winnett Food Farm prior to their incorporation and determination as a 501c3. Claire C. Bennitt Watershed Fund Grant was for providing education in the appreciation of and preservation of our environment, with particular emphasis on the understanding of our water resources, the negative impacts of development and other activities on water quality, and the benefits to water quality and the environment of preserving watershed land as open space. 1 0 Schedule I, Part I, Line 2 A fiscally sponsored project of the WCC, the Winnett Food Forest, became a free standing CT Nonstock Corporation and obtained a letter of determination as a 501c3. WCC obtained a copy of its letter of determination, verified the mission and purposes of the fiscally sponsored project remained consistent with the newly formed entity, and regranted the remaining assets of the Winnett Food Forest that WCC had on its books to the free standing nonprofit organization that it became. During the fiscally sponsored portion of the use of funds, WCC maintain records for all expenditures associated with the grant. 1253 Whitney LLC Business Owner was previous board member Mortgage X 693519 511971 0 1 1 511971 Form 990, Part VI, Section B, Line 11b Board members were emailed a drafted copy of the finalized version of the 990 and asked to review the documents for correctness. They were given a week to give reviews and corrections, after which all corrections and edits were adopted, and the 990 was submitted. Form 990, Part VI, Section B, Line 12c At the annual meeting in February, board members were asked to fill out a conflict of interest form, and those forms were collected. Additionally, in November, updates and resubmission of the conflict of interest forms were asked for. Conflict of interest forms are reviewed by the President, and any conflicts that matter in the course of business result in the board member being asked to recuse themselves. Form 990, Part VI, Section C, Line 19 These are available upon direct request to WCC staff or board via email or phone call.