"You always want to leave every person you interact with believing the world's a better place."
Every person joins The Connecticut Project with something in common: an interest in making a change for our state. Jaylen Daniels, canvassing lead on the Waterbury action team, has spent years organizing for Connecticut residents. They’re driven by the motivation to create a better future that centers people and community.
Jaylen was born in Connecticut and raised between Derby and Ansonia. Jaylen joined the organizing world by immersing themself in student groups before working with organizations focused on education, workers’ rights, and community advocacy. There have been opportunities elsewhere, but Connecticut has always meant home for Jaylen.
Brianna: What keeps you here in Connecticut?
Jaylen: I love Connecticut. I love the Valley in particular. It has so much potential—not really even just economic potential but, I mean, like potential for diversity and community. I think Connecticut is a beautiful state, and I really do love it.
Jaylen’s organizing journey began with paying attention.
Brianna: What was your first introduction to advocacy or community organizing?
Jaylen: Growing up, I was relatively politically minded after Trayvon Martin got killed. And I seen for the first time how people were like articulating this young kid getting murdered. I seen how rapidly they diagnosed this guy as an ill-intentioned, ne'er-do-well. And he was just a kid, just like me. And I seen it again with Tamir Rice, a kid who was just like me.
Learning about the deaths of both boys shaped Jaylen’s understanding of justice and political power. Those moments stayed with them, and eventually led to organizing in college, internships, labor campaigns, and community advocacy before arriving at The Connecticut Project. These experiences also pushed Jaylen to pursue public office in Ansonia, where they were elected as an alder.
Brianna: How has your experience led you to wanting to be part of the decision-making in your state—in terms of becoming an alder?
Jaylen: I wanted to run mostly in Ansonia because the community in which I live... is primarily renters. And if not renters, folks are living in multi-family or generational houses. We're all struggling. A lot of folks tend to look at it as an internal failing. In reality, it's an external one of the surrounding community. That's why I wanted to run. I wanted to finally be an individual that could at least point folks in the direction of “change is possible.” You just have to have the will and political willpower to do so.
Joining The Connecticut Project wasn’t originally part of the plan. Their first introduction to the organization came through community leader David Morgan. Morgan encouraged them to attend a canvassing training led by The Connecticut Project’s Director of Engagement Mathias Burner. Jaylen wasn’t sure they needed another training, but they went anyways. “I ended up going; Mathias did his version of the canvassing, and it was really good,” Jaylen says.
After being laid off from their job, navigating the end of a relationship, and experiencing financial hardship, Jaylen was searching for stability while continuing to do community organizing whenever possible. Morgan reached out to Mathias and recommended Jaylen for a canvassing role at The Connecticut Project.
Brianna: What was your first introduction to TCP?
Jaylen: I was skeptical of The Connecticut Project... But finally joining and participating, I realized the people they're bringing in are actual everyday people off the street. Many of these individuals are affected by the issues they're canvassing for. It put me at great ease knowing this organization actually had the best outlook for people who would've never been introduced to organizing or canvassing otherwise.
The Connecticut Project believes that organizing should reflect the communities they canvass. Jaylen saw an organization creating opportunities for people who may never have imagined themselves participating in civic life.
Our canvassers have experienced the issues that they’re talking to neighbors about every day. Challenges that arise when systems leave too many families fighting to stay afloat while the cost of living continues to rise.
Brianna: Is there a campaign that’s resonated with you the most?
Jaylen: Surprisingly... the HUSKY and SNAP [Fight for Our Care] campaign has been very, very easy to talk about. I'm 26 years old. I will probably not be on SNAP much longer or HUSKY much longer. But growing up with my family, we needed SNAP. My mom was single. She was essentially recently disabled. She was originally a nurse or an aide, and she tore up her back by having to pick patients up and down all the time. So, she had to get multiple surgeries... she needed that extra assistance. The fact that programs like that were able to help is beautiful. The fact that it's getting attacked by forces outside of our organization is ridiculous.
Policies should center the people they impact. Behind every issue and statistic is a person, a family, and a community carrying a story. Canvassers listen to stories about unaffordable rents, medical debt, food insecurity, and people struggling to survive. Jaylen finds hope in the people behind every conversation.
Jaylen hopes for a better future across the state of Connecticut, but their motivation hits a little closer to home.
Jaylen: The person who probably gives me the most hope… would probably be my little brother. [K]nowing that in a stroke of violence something can happen to my little brother because they think that he's something that he's not. I want to make sure that the world's a good place so that he's at least equipped for it.
Jaylen believes in a world where their brother has more opportunities, more security, and more reasons to believe in the future. That hope is what fuels their motivation to do the work.
Brianna: What message do you have for people about community organizing, advocacy, or hope?
Jaylen: You cannot change the world in a day. It's impossible. But you can change someone's world of perspective in that time. You always want to leave every person you interact with believing the world's a better place. You can't do it with everybody—you will mess up—but at least you can know you gave a genuine, honest day's work trying to make the world better.
Organizing helps neighbors recognize their own power and reminds them that they deserve a better Connecticut. Let’s turn that hope into a reality. Join your local Community Action Team and be part of the movement to make Connecticut work for working class people.
