Lash, Alta

Alta passed away on June 16, 2022. Born on June 9, 1947, to Anna (Gorgus) and Joseph Lash, Alta was a lifelong Hartford resident. She grew up in the Frog Hollow neighborhood, where she developed her competitive spirit and won first place in many of the summer activities in Pope Park. After graduating from South Catholic High, Alta entered the Sisters of Mercy Convent. While a member of this order, she attained the Bachelor of Arts (1970) and Master's degrees (1975) at St. Joseph College and, as Sister Mary Jerome, joined the staff of South Catholic High School, teaching and later mentoring many of the future leaders in the Greater Hartford area. She was considered by former students to be a “very cool teacher.”

In 1980, the Hartford Courant published an editorial with the headline “Who elected Alta Lash?” questioning Alta's influence in Hartford. Over the next forty plus years, while Alta never held a publicly elected position, she had enormous influence not just in Hartford, but

in the entire state.

After leaving the convent, Alta began her remarkable career in Community Organizing. She served as the president of Hartford Areas Rally Together (HART). In 1979, she founded United Connecticut Action for Neighborhoods (UCAN) where she served as the Executive Director. For over 40 years, Alta worked to help communities identify their needs, set their goals, and learn to advocate for change on their own behalf.

Over the decades, UCAN spawned a number of coalitions and collaborated with dozens of community organizations to serve neighborhoods, seniors, the poor, and people with disabilities. Some of her most notable accomplishments came through United Seniors in Action, which Alta founded and spearheaded for many years. Organizing thousands of Connecticut seniors, they won important battles that saved Connecticut seniors over $40 million each year -ConnPACE, the second prescription drug assistance program in the country; ConnMAP, mandating that Connecticut physicians accept Medicare Assignments; and a law that required “Community Rating” for Medicare Supplement policies, preventing companies from charging higher rates for seniors. The group is also credited with helping to bring about a law requiring hospitals to provide Discharge Planning for all hospital patients.

Alta worked with the Community Economic Development Fund (CEDF), training community members and helping them with projects that ranged from a community butterfly garden to a community kitchen to improvements in East Hartford's Main Street. She served for many years as a CEDF Board member and as its president. Alta also worked with immigrant organizations, and coalitions of people with disabilities, always with the goal of empowering individuals and organizations.

In 1995, with a Federal HUD grant, UCAN teamed up with Trinity College to create Trinity Center for Neighborhoods, an organization designed to link the information needs of community organizations with the research and training capabilities of Trinity faculty and staff. Over 45 research projects were completed during the years of that partnership.

In 1996, at the request of U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Kennelly, Alta worked with the City of Hartford and the Hartford Police Department in the design and execution of an award-winning Comprehensive Communities Program, which ushered in an era of Community Policing and City/Neighborhood collaboration, and developed and initiated the noted Hartford Community Court.

For many years, Alta taught Community Organizing at both the University of Connecticut School of Social Work and Trinity College, working to pass to the next generations of community organizers her skills and her commitment to empowering people, neighborhoods, and community organizations. She was committed to mentoring students and young professionals, especially young women, and spent many hours helping them to realize their potential and find their voices.

At the end of her life, Alta was a resident at the St. Mary Home, a part of the Mercy Community where, as a young nun, she adopted the values of serving the poor and disadvantaged, and where she later served on the Community Health Board and the patient advocacy committee.

For those who knew her professionally, Alta will be remembered for her tenacity, intelligence, and competence, and for her many accomplishments on behalf of others. For those who were close to her, she will be remembered as a loyal and generous friend who was always ready to listen, and to think, laugh or cry along with you, as an empathetic and expressive woman – and as one of the most unique and talented persons they ever met. A memorial service to honor Alta's life will be held in the fall. In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to help attain social justice. For further information, or to leave a condolence, please visit FarleySullivan.com

Please sign guestbook at courant.com/obituaries