Inspiring Change: CTOP's Catalytic Impact
What is happening in the Ecosystem?
Connecticut Passed New Legislation Impacting Youth Experiencing or at Risk of Experiencing Disconnection
The Connecticut legislature passed HB5437: An Act Concerning Education Mandate Relief, School Discipline, and Disconnected Youth. The definitions for “at-risk” and “disconnected” in the bill align closely with the definitions from the first installment in our research report series. The bill also requires P20WIN, Connecticut’s statewide longitudinal data system, to develop a plan to establish a statewide data intermediary and annually report on disconnected youth to the legislature using specified data – representing a critical step forward for the state in tracking at-risk and disconnected young people in order to better support them. In addition, the legislation also begins to identify and respond to contributing factors of disconnection, such as the need for reliable and affordable transportation for students in Hartford and New Haven.
State Youth Service Corps
The Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development awarded the cities of Hartford $640,000 and Stamford $460,000 to support the implementation of their respective Youth Service Corps programs. Two of our grantee partners, Our Piece of the Pie in Hartford and Domus Kids in Stamford, are the implementation partners for their cities and provide young people with paid service opportunities to learn the skills they need to succeed in the workforce while contributing to their communities.
Connecticut Conference of Municipalities Launched the 119k Commission
In response to what CCM learned during six regional forums from experts and CT residents about CT’s Unspoken Crisis, the organization created the 119K Commission, a bipartisan group of municipal leaders from across Connecticut whose mission is to develop a strategy to cut the number of disconnected young people in half over the course of ten years. The commission gathered community input through a series of public hearings and youth round tables, and via additional public testimony, and as part of its strategy identifies annual metrics and detailed descriptions of aligned actions to drive, track, and assess progress towards the goal.
The Establishment of Likely and Unlikely Partnerships
Recognizing their mutual interests in addressing this crisis, the Connecticut Education Association, representing organized labor, and the Connecticut Business and Industry Association (CBIA), representing business sector leaders, gathered community input to better understand the barriers to employment for Connecticut’s young people and to begin identifying potential solutions. In addition, the CBIA Foundation released a new Economic Action Plan that aims to create an environment where all young people in our state can advance their career opportunities.
Op-Eds in the News
This past year, CTOP staff, grantee partners, key stakeholders, and community members have penned 18 op-eds across five Connecticut news outlets to promote key findings from our research report series, call for care for and support of this population of young people, and stimulate public dialogue about Connecticut’s Unspoken Crisis.
Read more of CTOP's and our grantee partners' media coverage in our Media Center.