Interview with Jay Williams
IntervieweeInterview with
Jay Williams
InterviewerInterviewed by
Samariya Smith
InterviewerInterviewed by
Felicia Pilewski
Date2023 February 27
Mediumborn digital audio file
DimensionsDuration: 45 Minutes
ClassificationsInformation Artifacts
Credit LineCommunity History Project Collection
Object number2022.20.57a-c
Description(a) Audio file of interview with Jay Williams. He was interviewed by Samariya Smith and Felicia Pilewski on February 27, 2023 over Zoom. (b) Photograph of Jay Williams taken at his interview. (c) Video file of interview with Jay Williams. He was interviewed as part of the Connecticut Historical Society's Community History Project discussing his experience during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Jay Williams is the President and CEO of the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.
Jay Williams spoke about the suddenness of the onset of the pandemic - how quickly Covid went from something on the news to something they should plan for to everyone is staying home and not coming into the office and they will just have to figure out how things will work. He discusses the challenges of running an organization at a time when information was shifting, and no one was certain how long it would last. He discusses the importance of being transparent with staff, with donors, and with other organizations. He addresses how the organization changed and ultimately became stronger because they had to do so.
As a Black man, he has thought part of the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving’s job is to address inequity and systemic racism. Williams described Covid as one pandemic and systemic racism as another, and that the Black Lives Matter protests demonstrated how the two were intertwined.
The election of 2020 and the U.S. Capitol Insurrection of January 6, 2021 led the Foundation to hold conversations, internally and externally, about democracy and civil society and the foundation’s place in a way that was not partisan but involved an awareness of how they connected to issues of inequity.
Williams ultimately took away from the pandemic an appreciation for his colleagues, and how important it has been to trust and rely on them and caused him to focus on improving his own mental and physical health. And that in the future, he may be forgotten, but the organization will have helped to play a role in building a more just and more equitable society.
Jay Williams spoke about the suddenness of the onset of the pandemic - how quickly Covid went from something on the news to something they should plan for to everyone is staying home and not coming into the office and they will just have to figure out how things will work. He discusses the challenges of running an organization at a time when information was shifting, and no one was certain how long it would last. He discusses the importance of being transparent with staff, with donors, and with other organizations. He addresses how the organization changed and ultimately became stronger because they had to do so.
As a Black man, he has thought part of the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving’s job is to address inequity and systemic racism. Williams described Covid as one pandemic and systemic racism as another, and that the Black Lives Matter protests demonstrated how the two were intertwined.
The election of 2020 and the U.S. Capitol Insurrection of January 6, 2021 led the Foundation to hold conversations, internally and externally, about democracy and civil society and the foundation’s place in a way that was not partisan but involved an awareness of how they connected to issues of inequity.
Williams ultimately took away from the pandemic an appreciation for his colleagues, and how important it has been to trust and rely on them and caused him to focus on improving his own mental and physical health. And that in the future, he may be forgotten, but the organization will have helped to play a role in building a more just and more equitable society.
Label TextListen to interview at http://hdl.handle.net/11134/40002:19646608
NotesSubject Note: The Connecticut Historical Society’s Community History Project (CHP) is a public-facing initiative, focused on contemporary collecting, gathering items of the recent past as well as from events happening today. This program developed community historians to identify, document, and preserve their experiences as residents of Connecticut, and to share these experiences during a series of community presentations. The project focused on the impact of Covid-19 on Connecticans, particularly on Black and Brown communities, funeral homes, and on nursing home and elder care populations.Cataloging Note: This cataloging project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-249472-OMS-21.
Status
Not on view
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