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Greater Hartford Reentry Welcome Center: Year Three Evaluation September 17, 2020-September 17, 2021

September 22, 2022

This is the third in a series of evaluation reports for a three-year formative evaluation of the Greater Hartford Reentry Welcome Center (GH-RWC) comprising both process and outcome findings. The purpose of this formative evaluation is to identify what is and what is not working well and to provide strategic recommendations for areas needing improvement and to leverage emergent promising practices. This Year Three report provides the data and findings from CPA's RWC database, observations, surveys, and interviews for the period starting September 17, 2020 through September 17, 2021. The report also includes supplemental findings for the first two quarters of 2022, as the GH-RWC administration began to expand staffing and programming, and to prepare for moving to a new location that could accommodate the growth of the Center. The challenges that were experienced in Years Two and Three are being actively addressed by CPA, so many of the recommendations listed in the Year Three evaluation are already underway in Year Four.

Opportunity + Equity: A Time of Transformation

May 9, 2022

The two crisis years of the COVID-19 pandemic have brought dizzying changes, not only to how we all live and work but also to what we need to do to build the community of opportunity and equity that we envision.Great thinkers and leaders from Albert Einstein to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King have long emphasized that crisis can and must be the impetus for positive change. Surely, this is true of our time. In 2020-22, amidst tragic losses and glaringly revealed inequities, our deep social and racial divisions have been so inescapable as to lead many to commit to do more and to do things differently.This can be a time of transformation. Whether we all make it so here in Greater New Haven will determine much about the future of our community. For The Foundation, these last two yearshave been about transforming what we do and how we do it, both to continue to address the urgent needs and deep inequities stemming from COVID-19 and to more fully "inspire, support, inform, listen to and collaborate with the people and organizations of Greater New Haven" in the words of our mission statement.Transformation means many things at The Foundation. We are centering racial equity across all of our work. We are advancing economic as well as social solutions to the community's challenges. We are engaging community members more broadly and deeply, listening in new ways to those close to the issues we seek to address and empowering them with the authority and resources to act on their ideas.We are building a culture that embraces innovation so we can respond better to the rapidly changing dynamics in our community. The many ways in which these changes are reflected in our work are described throughout this annual report. At the same time, the pages that follow detail how The Foundation is building on our proud 94-year legacy of work with local donors and nonprofits, including receiving the largest gift in The Foundation's history this past year for the benefit of four vitally important local organizations.In addition to doing things differently, we are doing more. With the continuing extraordinary support of our donors and the unprecedented supplemental extraction from certain of our endowments under our Stepping Forward initiative, The Foundation will have an incremental $15 million in discretionary resources in 2021-23 to address the impacts of COVID-19 and to advance racial equity. Stepping Forward launched in early 2021. Its impact is reflected in all that is described in the pages of this annual report as well.In 2022, The Foundation is reviewing our plans and strategies and considering adjustments we may need to make in order to most effectively support meaningful transformation in our community going forward.As we do so, we see clear signs of genuine and important transformation. This annual report details three examples:While New Haven has long taken justifiable pride in the theatrical, musical, artistic and historic assets that make our area the cultural capital of Connecticut, the focus is shifting today. A movement to prioritize artists, creatives and different cultural traditions is beginning to transform how we think about our cultural life. Today, our community is increasingly about "cultural equity."A new generation of leadership voices is emerging in our community. Bringing diverse perspectives and new ideas about what equity really looks like, these changemakers are challenging traditional ways of thinking and beginning to set a new agenda.With New Haven growing and private investment increasing, the public/ private agenda in our community is increasingly focused on ensuring that the benefits of our growth are widely shared. "Inclusive growth" is beginning to replace "economic development" on the short list of our community's major priorities.

Understanding vaccine hesitancy through communities of place

November 19, 2021

This UK-US collaborative study examining vaccine engagement highlights the importance of tapping into local knowledge and leadership in efforts to improve Covid-19 vaccine take-up. It explores levels of vaccine engagement in four locations: Oldham and Tower Hamlets in the UK, and the cities of Boston and Hartford in the US.

Greater Hartford Reentry Welcome Center: Year Two Evaluation September 17, 2019-September 17, 2020

September 22, 2021

The Greater Hartford Reentry Welcome Center (GH-RWC), located at Hartford City Hall, serves as a centralized hub for anyone with a history of incarceration to receive basic information and assistance, and referrals to other essential services in the Greater Hartford region. The Reentry Welcome Center Program prioritizes care continuity and ongoing case management services for people who are released from prison or jail at the end of their sentence. The goals of this process evaluation report are to document the successes and challenges of implementing the GH-RWC in its second year of operation from September 17, 2019 to September 17, 2020.

Connecticut Town Equity Reports

September 9, 2021

This series of reports is designed to inform local-level efforts to improve community well-being and racial equity. These reports disaggregate data from the 2020 Census, American Community Survey microdata files, DataHaven Community Wellbeing Survey record-level files, and other federal and state sources to create relevant town-level information that is not typically available from standard public databases.DataHaven has published a town equity report for all 169 towns in Connecticut. We have also created these reports on request for custom-defined geographic regions, such as agency service areas.

Greater Hartford Reentry Welcome Center: Year One Evaluation Sept 2018 - Sept 2019

October 21, 2020

The Greater Hartford Reentry Welcome Center (GH-RWC) officially opened its doors on September 17, 2018. Community Partners in Action administers the Center with in-kind support from the City of Hartford, the Connecticut Department of Correction, the Connecticut Judicial Branch-Court Support Services Division and over thirty community based organizations. The GH-RWC's mission is to ensure that "individuals returning home will have access to support, information, resources, and referrals to vital services in one location. These services are key to an individual's successful reintegration back into our community." This report presents process evaluation findings from the first year of implementation. Its purpose is to identify what is and what is not working well and to provide strategic recommendations for areas needing improvement and to leverage emergent promising practices. This is the first in a series of reports for a three-year formative evaluation comprising process and outcome findings.

Opportunities in Health Care: Evaluation of Career Connections Program at Norwalk Community College

May 1, 2019

The Career Connections program was a career pathways program at Norwalk Community College (NCC) aimed at connecting opportunity youth in Fairfield County, Connecticut to high-demand allied health care jobs in the local labor force. The term "opportunity youth" in this program refers to youth, aged 18 to 25, who have graduated from high school or the equivalent, are not pursuing postsecondary education, and are not making a living above minimum wage. The program design was conceived of by Fairfield County's Community Foundation ("The Community Foundation"), as part of its Thrive by 25 initiative. The Community Foundation also funded Career Connections. The Community Foundation, NCC and the NCC Foundation jointly selected Philliber Research & Evaluation as the third-party evaluation consultant for the program.Because of the many challenges these youth face, the program was designed to provide full coverage of the cost of NCC's allied health care certificate programs, as well as offer additional supports, such as workforce readiness training, internships, academic advising, job development, and subsidized transportation. An NCC Job Developer worked with employers to help place students in Fairfield County allied health care jobs. Career Connections, housed in NCC's Continuing Education and Workforce Development Division, launched in winter 2017 and concluded in fall 2018. 

The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven 2018/19 Annual Report

April 25, 2019

The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven 2018/19 Annual Report.

The Evolution, Expansion and Evaluation of the Family Economic Security Program

October 1, 2016

In 2008, the Fund for Women & Girls of Fairfield County's Community Foundation created the Family Economic Security Program (FESP). The goal of the program is to assist low- and moderate-income working students – particularly women who are single parents – in securing postsecondary educational degrees that can lead to careers offering family-sustaining wages and benefits.This paper reviews the research that prompted the original design of FESP; examines the results of the initial pilot demonstration at one community college; and highlights current efforts to test an expanded, enhanced version of the FESP initiative at a second community college in Fairfield County. The paper also discusses the broader local and national context within which these efforts have been occurring.

Reaching the Tipping Point: Insights on Advancing Competency Education in New England

October 1, 2016

This paper explores K-12 competency-based education policy and practice across six New England states: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.This paper explores the core concepts of competency education, detailing the limitations of the traditional system, and how competency education is designed explicitly for equity and student success. Author Chris Sturgis then dives into why and how the New England region embraces competency education. She provides insights into policy strategies being used across states and analyzes the impact of competency education on quality, equity, scaling and sustainability. The Appendix offers a synopsis of each state strategy, complemented by short case studies of a few districts and schools.

It Takes a Village: Diversion Resources for Police and Families

June 27, 2016

Police frequently encounter youth running away from home, violating curfew, skipping school, and chronically disobeying adults—misbehavior that can often stem from family conflict and that do not require justice involvement. When alternatives are not available, however, these behaviors can lead to arrests or detention. Families dealing with difficult youth behavior often unwittingly send their youth into the justice system by calling the police because they feel they have nowhere to turn for help. For police, encountering these kinds of situations can be frustrating because they feel limited to suboptimal choices: either ignoring the problem behavior or criminalizing it.This brief explores the creative, collaborative, and community-focused work being done in Nevada, Connecticut, Nebraska, Michigan, Illinois, and Oregon to find productive responses to youth "acting out."  The juvenile assessment resource centers, crisis response centers, and crisis intervention teams in these jurisdictions address the needs of youth and connect families to resources and services without the need for juvenile justice involvement.

Co-Creation: Viewing Partnerships Through A New Lens

May 1, 2016

Collaboration remains an on-going discourse throughout the funder community, but little has been written about explorations or innovations into different ways of working collectively, beyond what was established decades ago.The Connecticut legislation calling for a greater coordination of efforts to improve early childhood outcomes explicitly invited "philanthropic organizations" to partner in the development of new policies and a systematic approach for supporting young children and families. The Connecticut Early Childhood Funder Collaborative emerged as the platform for philanthropy to do this work.Similar to other funder collective endeavors, the Collaborative and the state can claim short-term success. They not only had tangible results, but each valued their ability to coalesce to achieve those results. The difference in this effort was the melding of knowledge, networks and funding in a new paradigm. The more difficult question is whether the short-term endeavor creates the necessary conditions to sustain their efforts long enough to realize true systems change and improved outcomes for children and families.For large-scale systems change, co-creation may be a more fitting approach; it acknowledges self-interest, existing alongside shared goals and purpose, as necessary to sustain voluntary efforts. Co-creation is predicated on the notion that traditional top-down planning or decision-making should give way to a more flexible participatory structure, where diverse constituencies are invited in to collectively solve problems.Co-creation doesn't give priority to the group or the individual, but instead supports and encourages both simultaneously. In co-created endeavors, a shared identity isn't needed; members continue to work toward their own goals in pursuit of the common result. Co-creation enables individuals to work side by side, gaining an understanding of the goals, resources, and constraints that drive the behaviors of others, and adjusting accordingly to maintain a mutually beneficial gain.The partnership of the Connecticut Early Childhood Funder Collaborative, the State, and the Connecticut Council for Philanthropy was not originally structured to be an example of co-creation. It does, though, possess many of the attributes of successful co-creation endeavors. Recognizing these similarities in structure and purpose holds much promise to help the public and private sectors understand not only what to sustain, but how best to organize and continue working to achieve the long-term goal.