So now what have you been up to? I know you give $200 microgrants if you want to do a block party or something in your neighborhood, right?

Yep.

Yeah, that's right.

So Civic Works is an organization that's built by a growing coalition of neighbors in the city with the goal of increasing civic participation, increasing volunteerism, and increasing service in our beloved city of New Haven.

And we have a number of different programs to start.

One is the Know Your Neighbors Fund, which is $200 microgrants.

Know Your Neighbors.

So Caroline, is there a vision of how these people, do they become some kind of cohort or something?

What kind of patterns have you seen as these entrepreneurs are trying to share and communicate their idea?

I think a couple of things come to mind.

I think one is that a big part of our curriculum and the way that we teach entrepreneurs is about confidence building.

And it's about entrepreneurs leaving the experience of the program, centering their own experience, and realizing how much that they have to offer.

And so one thing I notice in pitches And in communication for some of our entrepreneurs, we really try to say, hey, you bring a lot of expertise to the table.

You know more about your customers, about their needs and their wants than a lot of the audience members that are listening to you pitch.

And so bring that level of confidence to the table when you're pitching.

Tell us how you developed your communications plan and what role it played over the years and how it's evolved.