Asikainen steps up to lead TEEG
Eastford resident excited to serve Quiet Corner
EASTFORD — If you haven’t heard the acronym “TEEG” before, Eastford resident Carl Asikainen hopes to change that.
The Thompson Ecumenical Empowerment Group (TEEG), a "small, grassroots, non-profit social service agency, may be based in nearby North Grosvenordale, but Eastford is well within the group’s purview, and they’re here to help.
Asikainen, who has lived in Eastford for more than 20 years, was appointed as TEEG’s executive director in August 2024. With years of experience working in social service, Asikainen was uniquely qualified to lead TEEG, which started in 1985 as a group of volunteers who united to serve the Thompson community. Since then, TEEG has blossomed to serve several towns, including Brooklyn, Canterbury, Killingly, Plainfield, Pomfret, Putnam, Sterling, Thompson, Union, Woodstock — and Eastford.
Particularly in Eastford, Asikainen said TEEG provides several services to Eastford, including a children’s playgroup (at TEEG headquarters in North Grosvenordale); access to the Hand in Hand Program (support for new and expecting parents); emergency food and monthly opportunity to utilize the Mobile Food Bank at the Woodstock Town Hall; involvement through local school districts for support through the Juvenile Review Board and for Community Services; addiction group support, including for youth (at TEEG); GED support provided at TEEG by EASTCONN; pet support clinics offered by the CT Humane Society; and more!
The Communicator recently sat down with Asikainen at his office on Thatcher Road in North Grosvenordale to gain a richer understanding of what TEEG is, what it does, and how many people, including those of us in Eastford, may not understand just how needed an organization like TEEG is in our small community.
Thank you for taking the time to meet with us, Carl! For our readers who may not know what TEEG is, can you give us the 30,000-foot overview about what TEEG is and what TEEG does?
“If there is really a grassroots local service organization, this is it. We started from a small group of concerned citizens here in Grosvenordale [in 1985], and they were really concerned with young people and chronic poverty in this area. It really started [asking the question]: ‘What can we do to assist young people?’ … We started making connections to families and what we can do lift them up. From those humble beginnings, we have grown to be a really big and robust feeding program. Our emergency food program is giant. We provide for probably 60 households a week here at the TEEG building. We also are the staff for the Pomfret Senior Center and we have a pantry there two days a week. We do home [food] deliveries … We are also a mobile food pantry, once a month, at the Woodstock Town Hall, serving anyone who comes from all over, including Eastford folks — including those further away like Stafford or even in Massachusetts. We have a really big feeding program, with an emphasis on fresh food, we try to flip the script a little bit. … We partner with the Friends of Assisi in Danielson, and Interfaith Human Services of Putnam, Daily Bread Food Pantry in Putnam, Project PIN in Plainfield, and other food providers to try to lift up all the boats. Besides the feeding program, we are the youth service bureau for four towns, but also [work with] young people who may have gotten into some trouble with the law or school, and instead of the court system, we engage them in community activities here. … We do parenting work, specifically a play group that is really vibrant. There are not a lot of spaces for new and expecting parents to socialize and have support for parenting. We identify new parents and we work with them until the kids are in school. It’s not a two-month thing. We try to make sure kids are as ready as possible. The parenting and youth programs are really incredible. It’s wrap-around services that people need. It's not just one thing — we do all kinds of things to support. We help with food stamps, Medicaid, we have a CHOICES certified counselor for health care enrollment. We work with the Access Community Action Agency for fuel assistance … we do formal programs like LIHEAP [Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program]. The towns give us some support, and we administer town support to families that need assistance. It’s really important work. It’s really hard work.”
How did you get involved with TEEG? Background of how you became involved in it?
“I grew up in Pomfret. I graduated from Woodstock Academy. I did college in New England, but then I moved to Philadelphia when my bride [Sam Asikainen (neé Danielson), owner of Animal Care Experts in Thompson] got into veterinary school. When I moved to Philadelphia, I had never seen street homelessness like that. In the late 1990’s, I started doing outreach for Project Home, a really important organization. I was a part of a team of outreach workers responding to people on the sidewalk. Coming from Abington and going to street outreach was [a shock]. A lot of what I was doing was outreach with food events to engage with people living on the street. It was working in crisis housing and food blended into one thing. From there, I moved into food rescue in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and lived in Coatesville, Penn. When our daughter was born, we moved back to Connecticut and got a job with End Hunger CT. I worked in Joe Courtney’s district, working in prisons and homeless shelters, housing sites, and signing them up for our feeding program. That’s how I came to TEEG. I would plop my computer down and screen for the food stamp program, which turned into a job with TEEG. I worked nine or 10 years for End Hunger, then came here to TEEG, worked for five years around food and picked up the feeding program. I switched gears took a job back in Hartford with the Coalition to End Homelessness (CCEH). I was doing advocacy work, community impact work, working in education, training shelter staff, outreach workers, working with funding, and crisis housing work. That was a fantastic experience that prepared me for this role because I had a lot of statewide groups I sat on. … I came back and did a couple more years of food work, then the Hiring Committee hired me in July (2024) and I started in August (2024). I have a late-90’s, street-level beginning. I have never been in a director position before this. I’ve managed staff but mostly volunteers, but I’ve been preparing for this for a while, and given the background of [TEEG], it coming from a direct service background, it fits here. It’s listening to clients, neighborhoods and community needs, I have an eye on the state terrain, and I am really concerned about these communities.”
How’s it going so far?
To be honest, that’s a tough question! I’m thrilled! It’s humbling. When you look at the level of community support, we are grateful and thankful to be able to do this work. We are grateful to be able to have all this trust form the communities to do this. However, it’s also a small business. We are a small business that happens to be a non-profit, we rely on the winds blowing from federal funds, and we only get funded through discretionary funding."
How does being from a town like Eastford impact your ability to do this job?
“For this work, Eastford is beautiful! A lot of what we love about it is that it’s small and remote. It’s a rural, small community, so we know a great many people. It’s a wonderful spot to raise our kids. My wife grew up here, so it’s no mistake that we are here at all. I like it for this work in particular. … It’s understanding rural. Other nonprofits throughout the state, we are challenged here because of the rural nature of our towns. Eastford is an incredible example of this. Woodstock and Union too. We are somewhat isolated spaces. Many agencies say they will serve our towns, but it’s hard to get bodies out here to do the service. I think for me living [in Eastford], besides loving all the spaces, coming back and thinking about the challenges for people near me geographically, it’s about the services we provide. You don’t have to go far to see people struggling to pay rent or be one car breakdown away from having a crisis in their household. So, I think awareness, and thinking of the rural versus urban realities of living, it’s important to me to make sure we see people and that they are not forgotten. We’ve been here since the 1980’s in Thompson, and we have a good sense of neighborhood, and we still find people that we’ve overlooked.”
We’ve mentioned that Eastford is actually one of the towns covered by TEEG. What do you envision for TEEG’s work — specifically in Eastford?
“Our only formal connection [to Eastford] would be through local high schools. We work with United Services, which serves them, but if young people are going to a local high school, this is where we know Eastford folks through those connections. Before I was sitting in this seat, I was on the food side of things for seven years, and I know the Eastford Baptist Church has the food pantry for Eastford. … I know that I’ve delivered from here at TEEG to that pantry. Looking ahead, I’d like to do more thinking about the food needs of Eastford residents, making sure through that pantry, or through a visit to the seniors at the library, or maybe we have a case manager with some office hours to do a benefit check-up. Not everyone knows what we do. We appreciate you helping us spread the word. … I know we can do more for the town, but we are also at capacity here, too, so we will do what we can!”
Do you feel there are any misconceptions about TEEG?
“We are known in the ‘emergency food world.’ But it might fall off after that. Being here, it’s obvious I know what we do, and the people we work with are on the same page. But we are a grassroots non-profit. Awareness is still something we have to work on. Letting folks know about the important work we do, not only in food, but with parents, is important. That puts us in league with WIC (Women, Infants & Children), DCF (Department of Children and Families) and Care for Kids, and that’s a lot of circles. Community relations is important, talking about what we do, and we want to make sure as many know about it as possible.”
It's no small task. According to your Annual Report, nearly 64,000 lives were touched by something you do during your previous fiscal year. That’s a lot of good being done. People need to understand that we are talking about a much bigger scope than people realize for a such a small area.
“It’s a lot of lives touched. But I would also say, the way we continue to do the work is that we rely on some state money, a lot of small grants, some foundation money from the Eastern CT Community Foundation, but our Annual Appeal is crucial. Most of our money is small donations. It’s just how it works. We have 180 thank you letters just for people who have mailed out $5 and above just in December. It adds up. At the end of the day, this makes us the organization that we are. People know about us, trust us as stewards of these resources, and they trust us to get resources to people in a sensitive and meaningful way. I knew that most of the money came from small donations, but as I’m signing every letter saying ‘thank you,’ I realize that some people just have $10, and other people haven’t been able to donate in forever, then they get on their feet and give us hundreds of dollars and volunteer their time. There are lots of stories of people we’ve helped that want to give back after going through a hard time where we’ve helped them. It’s heavy work, because people are going through a lot.”
You are dealing many times with people that are struggling greatly. That work must get personal very quickly.
“It’s challenging, for sure. The staff are here because they are concerned. They want to do a great thing. We need them. They do such a good job, but it’s not without a heaviness. I want to make sure this is a great place to work, but we want our staff to be looking at themselves and their wellness.”
What do you see for the future of TEEG? Growth? Maintaining? What determines success for TEEG?
"Well, we’ve reached capacity in this building. It’s a good problem. It’s a beautiful building. We filled it up a little quicker than we thought. We’re going to build another building for a more robust food center. We’ll build across the street, with a loading dock, more room for food processing, space for a commercial kitchen so we can process more food, and a food pantry — our market — that serves 60 households a week. One plan is to grow a little more, our Building Committee is working on this. I want to take that ball and keep running with it. I think there are changes coming around assistance for schools and young people, mental health support, clinicians attached to schools — and behavioral health is a big deal for us. We see a lot of untreated behavioral health issues, so I think more money is not always the right answer, but you need training and people to come in and do that work. We have a basic need of people. We need more folks to want to do that. We suffer because we’re a smaller business, because we can’t pay as much as the state can pay to do similar work. We struggle to retain people, but I want to make opportunities for staff to advance, professionalizing our staff and getting them trained up. We want to make it a great place to work, but also have supports in place. We want to keep the grants going, the community listening and involvement robust. There’s room to advance, change, and pivot if we need to.
Are there volunteer opportunities available for people who might just want to help out?
“Yes! Volunteers drive the show. We need volunteers! … We have a lot of young folks. If someone is looking to spend some time with their kids, we have a community garden, day care, and lots of other opportunities. If you are looking for volunteer opportunities, check with us. Liz Perry is our volunteer coordinator. She’s very busy!”
Thank you again for spending this time with us! Final question. If you could sum up TEEG to someone who has never heard of it, what is the most important thing you would say to give them the gist of what you represent here?
“The word ‘grassroots’ is kind of overused in a lot ways. When I hear ‘grassroots,’ I’m thinking that this started as a small response to a problem. And so, we are a historical agency that is very grassroots in its nature. The funding is grassroots, the programs come from people. That’s what I would say. We are considered a mid-sized non-profit. A budget of $1.5 million is ‘middle sized,’ but we are, at heart, a grassroots agency that is here to respond to real, local community needs.”
To get involved with TEEG, call Volunteer Coordinator Liz Perry at (860) 923-3458, or visit the TEEG website contact page. For more information on giving to TEEG, visit the TEEG website giving page.
Adam Minor may be reached at [email protected].