Founding the NVP

“I thought it sounded like a good idea, but it sounded pretty unrealistic.  I kind of laughed and said, that sounds good but it will never happen.”
    - Rev. Tim Benson, Seymour Congregational Church

Seth Thomas was only one of dozens of plant closings in the clock, brass, rubber, and other industries of the Naugatuck Valley.

Thousands more plants were closing throughout America.

Leaders of local religious congregations, unions, and community groups saw their members devastated by the plant closings.  With the help of an experienced community organizer, they formed the Naugatuck Valley Project.  Its goal was to help the region’s hard-hit residents use the techniques of community organization, citizen action, and democratic economic development to address their economic devastation. 

“The church ends up dealing with a lot of the refuse of economic turmoil: unemployed people, people who are laid off.  We in the churches are running food banks, emergency shelters, and what have you to get these people by until they get settled again.  I’d rather give them a steady job than have to keep dealing with these situations.”

     - Rev. Tim Benson, Seymour Congregational Church

"The idea of the Project is that if you bring together the diverse groups in the community that are hit by these decisions made far away, and if you teach them how to organize, how to focus on an issue, how to bring their full pressure to bear, you can get those other people to sit down with you and start making decisions that you want."

     - NVP founding organizer Ken Galdston