Interfaith Cooperative Ministries records

This collection provides valuable documentation of ecumenical activities in the New Haven area, the development of social service agencies for the homeless, poor, disenfranchised, and elderly, and religious advocacy for social justice between 1970 and 2015. The role of religious organizations in the establishment of social service agencies and efforts to effect social change is documented in a detailed way. It is likely that these archives provide historical documentation of various New Haven agencies and programs that does not exist elsewhere. The waning of the influence of mainline religious communities and of the ecumenical impulse in general is reflected in the devolution of the ICM, leading to its dissolution in 2015. The amount and completeness of records varies over the years as some of the Coordinators in charge of the DCM/ICM operations were better recordkeepers than others. There is a considerable gap in documentation for the years 1998-2004.