In 2003, Marilyn Rossetti received a neighborhood service award along with nine other volunteers at SINA’s 13th annual neighborhood service awards ceremony. At the time, Marilyn was an outgoing two-term councilwoman and Executive Director of Hartford Area’s Rally Together (HART). The Hartford Courant article covering the event credited her with pushing for initiatives that improved job training and job placement at both HART and the Hartford construction Jobs Initiative Program.

HART was a community organizing group founded in the 1970s. They used organizing principles and techniques to address quality-of-life issues residents were facing in the south end of Hartford. Every year HART would hold an annual Congress convening residents, elected officials, and other stakeholders. Residents would discuss what they saw as the biggest issues facing the neighborhood for the year and present elected officials with their demands. Issues varied – from rats,  to schools, to public safety and many other concerns. HART also coordinated problem solving committees throughout the year where residents would actively work to address those concerns. 

Marilyn remembers such a time in 2003 when there was a sense the neighborhood was in the middle of significant change. There was a growing movement to focus on immigrant rights. People were observing an increase in the number of immigrants arriving from Bosnia, Africa, Central and South America, and other parts of the world. At City Hall, however, these new residents could not receive services in their language. 

In response, HART organized a group of 50 residents who marched to City Hall and entered the tax office. A man who spoke Dinka (a language of South Sudan) stepped up to the counter and asked for service in his native language. “Does anyone speak Dinka here?” the supervisor of the office loudly asked all the employees, knowing very well the answer he would receive. No, there was no one present who could speak with the man at the counter. HART had made their point. 

Shortly after, in response to this event, a language line was installed at City Hall to be used for city services. HART’s activism had been successful. This is an example of purposeful activism, a group of people strategically acting together to make a change. “Purposeful activism is a beautiful thing”, said Marilyn during my interview with her, “It is so needed.”   

While needed, it can be in short supply.  In the early 2000s many groups in Hartford like HART shut their doors. At the time, the consistent political pressure and confrontational strategies developed by HART created some detractors. Today, some of those same detractors miss the benefits that came with it, as inconvenient and stressful as it might have been at the time. Clear neighborhood demands, sustained communication and organized accountability are good for everyone. 

So where is she now?

Today, Marilyn is serving as the Executive Director for The Open Hearth, a nonprofit that serves men experiencing homelessness. She has served in that position since 2009. Since she started at the Open Hearth Marilyn has continued the work of putting people to work. She developed the Working Man’s Center that helps men in the shelter to prepare for, apply, and obtain employment. She also started a social enterprise called Open Hearth Works (work crew pictured below). They contract with businesses for labor related to maintenance, trash removal, parking, concessions, snow removal, and yard clean up. Anyone interested in hiring Open Hearth Works can click here. 

Marilyn is passionate about dispelling the myth of who a homeless man is. Many in society already have a picture in their head of what homelessness is, how someone got there, and what they need to get out of it. These mental pictures don’t always align with reality. In Marilyn’s experience, it is simple. “People need a chance,” she said. Time and time again she has seen what a difference a chance can make.

Some things haven’t changed for Marilyn from 2009- she is back on City Council.  While she is 13 years removed from working at HART, she has not forgotten her organizing roots. She is still a fan of purposeful activism. When Marilyn recently saw a group of residents come to city council to voice their concerns about housing conditions, she could only smile and wanted to burst into applause. She knows the difference that kind of organized effort can make in the lives of individuals and a community and how electrifying it is to be a part of it.  “The feeling that you’re going to make a change and then you actually do- it’s amazing,” she said.  There’s nothing like it.”