New London – A resurrected community booster program aims to give residents the tools to “take ownership of their neighborhoods.”

The five-week Neighborhood Academy program ― which has already enrolled its limit of 25 attendees ― will feature a series of interactive forums with various city department heads discussing everything from how to obtain a birth certificate to where to report blight.

Yamilla Mateo, a former recreation department program assistant hired in January as New London’s newest neighborhood coordinator, said she envisions the academy as a force-multiplying initiative.

“We don’t just want people coming to these forums to get information for themselves,” she said. “We want them to take what they’ve heard to their neighborhoods and share it.”

The academy begins on June 5 and will close with a July 10 graduation ceremony. Sessions, open to city residents, property and business owners, will take place at various city locations, including fire department headquarters and City Hall.

Each weekly, three-hour session will include municipal and regional guest speakers, from Mayor Michael Passero and police Chief Brian Wright, to finance, public works and human services officials.

“Maybe you want to know how to get a permit for a fence or how to take an adult education class,” Mateo said. “But we’ll also have speakers from the Ledge Light Health District and the New London Board of Education.”

The academy initiative, funded by a combination of grant and sponsorship money, began in 2005 but paused in 2016 due to a lack of a program runner, said Felix Reyes, director of economic planning and development.

Reyes said reintroducing the academy dovetails with Passero’s plan to put a renewed focus on neighborhood issues during the next four years.

He said the academy is a tool to identify and create those neighborhood leaders that serve as a “voice” for their communities and the hyper-local issues ― public safety, trash pick-up ― that can vary from street to street.

“It can be difficult sometimes to figure out who exactly we might need to talk to about an issue facing a neighborhood,” Reyes said. “But if we know there are those two or three people familiar with those kinds of issues, we can bring them into the conversation.”

Mateo said she’s sure, based on how quickly class slots filled up, there’s a hunger for back-and-forth conversations between residents and the city officials tasked with serving them.

“I’d love to expand the academy enrollment to 50 people next time,” she said. “This is more than just an education program ― it's a platform for residents to get involved and mobilize for a better New London.”

j.penney@theday.com