Pam Lewis
Pam performing at Connect-Us’ annual MLK Day Show, Bridgeport Has a Dream, at The Klein in Bridgeport
Connect-Us founder and executive director Pam Lewis has led a life of creating innovative and developmental afterschool programs for urban youth.
Her work as a preeminent youth organizer began in 1984 as a political activist and producer of grassroots community talent shows in New York City. The talent show initiative, which began in a church basement, quickly grew to eventually span the entire city, and became a staple of urban youth culture during the golden age of Hip-Hop and at the height of the crack epidemic. Over the years, thousands of people from New York’s most underserved neighborhoods came out for these talent shows to perform together, support one another, and celebrate the young people in their communities.
Throughout her decades-long career, Pam has worked with tens of thousands of young people to create new performances in their lives. Pam has built hundreds of partnerships with business leaders who have supported these new performances by providing mentorship, training, and paid internships. Pam’s work has taken her all over the U.S. and the globe – from New York City to Los Angeles, from Ferguson to Chicago, from South America to South Africa, and beyond. Her mantra is: “If you can perform on stage, you can perform in life.”
In her role as Vice President of Youth Programs at the All Stars Project, where she worked for over 30 years, Pam played a leading role in driving the nationwide impact of efforts to engage poverty through an innovative performance-based approach. In 2017, Pam founded the Bridgeport-based nonprofit Connect-Us with the mission to connect suburban and urban neighbors in Fairfield County and beyond.
Pam has received numerous honors and accolades for her work in Bridgeport:
Arthur & Gladys Lunin Humanitarian Award, Bridgeport Public Education Fund
Connect Award, Horizons at Sacred Heart University
Arts & Culture Empowerment (ACE) Educator Award, Cultural Alliance of Fairfield County
Community Impact Award, Fairfield County’s Community Foundation, with Moffly Media
Berry Gordy Artistic Award, Bridgeport NAACP
Community Person of the Year, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity
Community Service Award, Yale-Bridgeport Gear Up
Gala Honoree, Park City Regional Development Corporation and All Stars Project
Pam has been featured on NPR, News-12 Connecticut, and two PBS documentaries: America Beyond the Color Line, produced and hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and The Promise of Play, produced by the Institute for Play. Additionally, she serves on the NY Board for Covenant House.
Email: plewis@connectusct.org
