Wider City Parish Records

The records provide valuable documentation of a locally operated and supported nondenominational Christian social service agency during a period of rapid urban change and upheaval in New Haven. Urban problems of housing, education, crime, racism, and immigration were addressed by the Parish, led by Yale Divinity School graduate Robert Forsberg.

Series I, Legal Documents, traces the formation of the Oak Street Christian Parish and its change of name to the Wider City Parish. The reports and minutes of Series II, provide documentation of the development of the organization, its operations, and its changing program emphases. The Files of Robert Forsberg, Executive Director, in Series III complement the more systematic records of Series II, and illustrate the processes of networking and support-gathering that sustained the Wider City Parish.

The Programs and Projects of Series IV are those sponsored by the Wider City Parish, or in which they were partners with other organizations. Most substantial of these programs were summer programs for children, including the Friendly Town program that paired inner-city children with suburban families, and community support programs, including a library, at the Elm Haven housing project. Documentation of the organization in New Haven for the 1963 March on Washington, and interactions with the New Haven grassroots group, the Union of Indigent People, provide vivid illustration of the role of a Christian service agency in the struggle to improve urban conditions.

The Publications of Series V include Wider City Parish newsletters dating from 1952 to 1987, which provide an excellent overview of the program emphases of the Parish and its efforts to garner support from city and suburban congregations in the New Haven area. Many of the photographs in Series VI were used in its publications. Series VII, Collected Material and Related Organizations, documents the Wider City Parish's place in the wider network of social service agencies and programs. There is some overlap between this series and Series III and IV, but, in general, the documentation of Series VII is of programs in which the Wider City Parish was not a direct participant. The Financial Records of Series VIII, include financial records of the Wider City Parish's three decades of service in New Haven.