Learn more about the Connecticut Opportunity Project and its grantee partner organizations through media coverage below.
Nuvance Health, part of Northwell Health, has announced the arrival of a substantial $5.1 million donation from Dalio Education to support its newest workforce development initiative, the Academy for Career Readiness.
COMPASS Youth Collaborative Peacebuilders drive through the streets of Hartford aiming to connect and engage with the city's hardest-to-reach youth. Peacebuilders track and maintain data in the organization's custom, secure, mobile-first data platform called Navi that was designed by Peacebuilders to support their work most effectively. Navi has become the digital backbone of the organization's efforts to interrupt gun violence. Learn more.
After coming to Hartford in 2021, Roca Inc's Young Women's Program celebrated their first-ever cohort of graduates, which consisted of 22 young women. This program seeks to help young women break cycles of poverty, trauma, and violence. These women have learned emotional regulation, workforce, and life skills to get back on track to a path of self-sufficiency and build a life without violence and poverty for themselves and their children. Watch the video for more.
In Fox61's segment Making an ImpaCT, the news team highlights CTOP Grantee Partner, COMPASS Youth Collaborative, for their work interupting violence in Hartford. Peacebuilders are anti-violence professionals who go into the community to connect with the hardest-to-reach young people by showing care, offering support with basic needs, and building trust to help young people change their behaviors and get back on track.
In this op-ed, Domus Kids' Chief Justice Officer Tom Langan urges the Connecticut Legislature to take action to reconnect the one in five young people in the state who are experiencing disconnection or at risk of it. He discusses recommendtions on how to support nonprofits in making a measurable impact on young people's employment outcomes and get them on a path to self-sufficiency.
The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving awarded our grantee partner Roca Hartford Young Women's Program to continue their work in supporting young women from the Hartford area to find employment, secure housing and child care, help them obtain their GEDs and open their own bank account. Their program allows young women to change their behaviors and live independent lives in the long-term.
CTOP Grantee Partner, Forge City Works, won $10,000 to renovate a former cafe space into a flexible and functional training center from The Jacques Pépin Foundation. This funding will allow Forge City Works to increase the number of trainees in their program and increase the number of participants at public cooking classes.
Homicides and gunshots in New Haven fell by more than 30% in 2024, even as the city saw a jump in nonfatal shootings. Part of the reason for this success is more effective commuity outreach programs, like CTOP grantee partner CTVIP. CTVIP received a grant from the state's Commi9ssion on Gun Violence Intervention and Prevention which allowed them to canvass the community and prevent retaliatory shootings and relocate potential victims. Read more.
Dr. Kerri Raissian, director of University of Connecticut's Advancing Research, Methods and Scholarship in Gun Injury Prevention, discusses the disparities that exist in gun violence in Connecticut. She believes targeted resources should be allocated to nonprofits, like COMPASS Youth Collaborative, that provide trauma-informed therapy to youth affected by gun violence and a hospital bedside intervention model to ensure victims have the care they need to reduce gun violence in Hartford.
Marc Donald, CEO of CTOP Grantee Partner, Catalyst CT, writes this op-ed about exposure to traumatic events during childhood results in significant risk factors for both experiencing and committing violence. To address this crisis impacting youth all over the state, LifeBridge and Catalyst CT, in partnership with local schools, promote critical protective interventions through programs that strengthen youth's social and emotional health.
U.S. Senator Blumenthal visited our grantee partner, Connecticut Violence Intervention and Prevention (CTVIP), to celebrate $275,000 in Federal funds to the organization for capital improvements to their facility in New Haven. The renovations will allow CTVIP to build a full kitchen, laundry room, and computer lab to provide young people in New Haven with basic needs, which are forms of violence prevention.
In this op-ed, CTOP Portfolio Director, Samantha Miller, underscores the importance of the final installment of the Connecticut's Unspoken Crisis report series entitled Elevating the Voices of Young People. This final report is based on interview data from 74 young people in Connecticut experiencing disconnection so that we can better understand and learn from the circumstances that led to their disconnection and hear what they need to succeed.
Our grantee partner, COMPASS Youth Collaborative, received $198,000 in grant funding from the Department of Justice to provide wraparound services and basic needs to victims of violence in Hartford. US Senator Blumenthal and Mayor Arulampalam of Hartford joined the COMPASS team to announce this funding award. Read more about the press conference and the impact this funding will have on young people in Hartford.
In this op-ed, Josh Brown, tri-chair of the CCM 119k Commission and employee of CT Grantee Partner, Domus Kids, calls for more partnerships between across sectors to provide more supports to young people facing more obstacles to getting on the path to success. With more communication, collaboration, and support, young people can build resiliency to overcome their challenges. Read more about instances where CT is already providing these supports and the impacts they have.
Connecticut's Conference of Municipalities' 119k Commission created a 10-year strategy that aims to reduce the number of at-risk and disconnected young people in our state by half. With the release of that statewide strategy, Gov. Lamont met with young people from Our Piece of the Pie to better understand the circumstances that led to their disconnection and the supports that OPP provided to get them back on track.
Our grantee partner, Connecticut Violence Intervention and Prevention (CTVIP), received a $100,000 grant from Everytown Community Safety Fund in support of their violence reduction work in New Haven. CTVIP provides at-risk and disconnected youth with resources, life skills, and mentorship to help young people live a healthy and sustainable life. Read more about their work and the impact this funding will have.
COMPASS Youth Collaborative operates a Training for Employment (TEP) program, where COMPASS young people work at the Joan Dauber Food Pantry at St. Francis Hospital to build transferrable skills to prepare for the workforce. COMPASS Peacebuilders, trained in cognitive behavioral therapy, support young people during their shifts by reminding them of their goals and values when they get off track.
Watch grantee partner COMPASS Youth Collaborative's CEO, Jaquelyn Santiago Nazario, speak with Silver Linings Talk Show on Valley Shore Community Television in an inspiring conversation about her life in Hartford, her servant leadership mindset, and how COMPASS is transforming lives of young people through hospital violence intervention and street outreach programs.
In this op-ed, CTOP Portfolio Director, Amanda Olberg, highlights the data in additional analysis done by Boston Consulting Group showing young people’s wages at 22 can be linked to various risk factors and their previous educational attainment. Young people who are disconnected need intensive supports provided by community-based organizations to help them reconnect to education and employment pathways.
The Commission on Community Gun Violence Intervention and Prevention found that Black males in Connecticut were about 30 times more likely to be killed by gun violence in comparison to White residents from 2020-2023. The findings demonstrate a need for violence reduction organizations, like COMPASS Youth Collaborative, Roca, CTVIP, and Catalyst CT.
Mayor Arulampalam of Hartford responds to residents concerns about Hartford Public Schools by launching the Blue Ribbon Commission to address challenges. The Commission will be led by three co-chairs, including Hector Rivera, CEO of CTOP Grantee Partner, Our Piece of the Pie. The commission aims to pinpoint issues, develop recommendations, and craft a report for the mayor and Hartford Board of Education.
At COMPASS Youth Collaborative's Annual Meeting, they convened a panel of experts, advocates, and lawmakers to celebrate COMPASS's work and its success in helping to reduce gun violence in Hartford. According to U.S. Senator Chris Murhy, federal funding to organizations like COMPASS have led to the largest drops in gun violence in the U.S. in decades. Read more of Senator Murphy's comments.
COMPASS Youth Collaborative, a CTOP grantee partner, provides patients admitted to Hartford hospitals with gun-related injuries with wraparound services during their hospital stay and afterwards, as well as supporting their families. Read more about how COMPASS is reducing gun violence recidivism in Hartford.
Stamford mayor, Caroline Simmons, announced the creation of the Stamford Parks Community Partnership, which will beautify parks across the city. The initiative will leverage the DomusWorks program, a workforce readiness initiative of CTOP grantee partner, Domus Kids, that provides job training and subsidized employment for program participants. Read more about the partnership.
The final report of the Connecticut's Unspoken Crisis report series includes the voices of many of the 74 young people interviewed for the project. It will reveal their challenges, the obstacles they face and the ways they have overcome them. Read more about the systems that are causing challenges for Connecticut's at-risk young people.
Gun violence suffered by Latinos in the U.S. has increased. Survivors often face a difficult road ahead that includes medical bills and accessing mental health resources. Read more about COMPASS Youth Collaborative Peacebuilder, Diego López's experience, and how he builds transformational relationships with young people to help them down a better path.
Senior Portfolio Director, Adhlere Coffy, highlights the obstacles facing young people in Connecticut who are experiencing or at risk of experiencing disconnection, and how this data can be used to inform positive change.
COMPASS Youth Collaborative CEO, Jacquelyn Santiago Nazario, was named one of Connecticut’s Top 25 Women in Business for 2024 by the Hartford Business Journal. Read her interview about her career and accomplishments.
Connecticut has a moral and economic imperative to get 119,000 at-risk and disconnected young people back on track. This group of young people can help fill 94,000 job openings in our state and bring in additional tax revenue to Connecticut.
Joshua Brown reflects on the impact that Domus Kids had on his life. He now works with Domus to re-engage at-risk and disconnected young people by providing them with the skills and resources to be self-sufficient. Now tri-chair of the 119k Commission, Brown strives to make systemic change to improve the lives of young people in Stamford. Read to learn more about Joshua's story.
