Connecticut Opportunity Project

4/21/2026

Expanding career pathways for all requires investment in community-based organizations

In this op-ed, CTOP's Deputy Director reflects on the CBIA Foundation's new report, Connecticut Workforce & Education Strategy Blueprint, where they outline high school career pathways as a key lever to pull to strengthen the state’s workforce pipeline and expand economic opportunity in Connecticut. However, Olberg purports that it is critical to ensure the state also prioritizes the population of young people experiencing disconnection who are beyond the reach of such school-based programs.

1/9/2026

Dalio Education To Boost New Haven Youth Job Training Program With $2.5M Grant

Dalio Education, through CTOP, will invest $2.5 million dollars in Manufacturing and Technical Community Hub (MATCH) to strengthen pathways to careers in manufacturing for New Haven's young people with barriers to employment. The investment will support MATCH to strengthen their organization and program to better serve New Haven's young people.

1/9/2026

Dalio Education To Boost New Haven Youth Job Training Program With $2.5M Grant

Dalio Education, through CTOP, will invest $2.5 million dollars in Manufacturing and Technical Community Hub (MATCH) to strengthen pathways to careers in manufacturing for New Haven's young people with barriers to employment. The investment will support MATCH to strengthen their organization and program to better serve New Haven's young people.

1/8/2026

Opinion: Dalio investment in New Haven strives to lift at-risk youths while boosting workforce

In this op-ed, Sr. Portfolio Director Samantha Miller and Sr. Portfolio Associate Emily Bonzagni explain how investing in our new grantee partner MATCH could help Connecticut's manufacturing indsutry thrive while providing career opportunities with upward mobility for young people with barriers to gainful employment.

1/8/2026

Dalio family backs New Haven job-training program with $2.5 million grant

Dalio Education, through its social investment fund the Connecticut Opportunity Project, is partnering with the Manufacturing and Technical Community Hub (MATCH) in New Haven. MATCH runs an innovative job training program that prepares participants with the technical and professional skills needed to thrive in the manufacturing industry, one of Connecticut's core industires, and attain upward mobility.

9/16/2025

Kathryn Hauser Moderates Discussion on Finding Employment for Disconnected Youth

In September, CTOP hosted its Annual Grantee Partner Convening with a focus on bridging the gap between how nonprofits prepare young people for the workforce and the needs and expectations of employer partners. As a part of the day, Kathryn Hauser moderated a panel discussion with employers and young people with questions from the audience to better understand how to prepare young people to succeed in workforce.

6/25/2025

Dalio Education gives $5.1M to Nuvance Health, teams up to train 'disconnected' young people for health jobs

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. This program will support off-track young people in Danbury and Norwalk to prepare them for careers in the healthcare industry by providing wraparound supports and hard skills training and certifications.

2/15/2025

Opinion: CT can get disconnected youth on the right 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.

10/31/2024

CT’s unspoken crisis: Elevating the voices of young people

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.

10/10/2024

October — a month to focus on improving CT children’s lives

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.

8/2/2024

CT youth facing obstacles need additional support

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.

4/28/2024

CT at risk: Uncovering what young people say is keeping them back

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.

4/22/2024

Opinion: Going deeper in the data on Connecticut’s 119,000

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.

3/18/2024

Opinion: CT’s disconnected youth crisis has an enormous human, economic cost

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.

2/13/2024

Adhlere Coffy and Amanda Olberg: How to address Connecticut’s unspoken crisis

Adhlere Coffy and Amanda Olberg, senior portfolio directors at CTOP, discuss how capacity building and improving nonprofit organizations can address Connecticut's Unspoken Crisis and help get young people back on track. Read more from their op-ed.

10/13/2023

Dalio report counts 63,000 'disconnected' CT youth in every city and town. Now what?

A recent report by Boston Consulting Group, commissioned by Dalio Education, reveals that 63,000 young people in Connecticut are disconnected from work and/or school. Hear from a young person enrolled in Compass Youth Collaborative, a grantee partner of the CT Opportunity Project, explaining the impacts the program has had on his life trajectory after reconnecting him to the Hartford community.

5/19/2023

Connecticut's Pathways to the Future: Investing in Opportunity Youth to Invigorate our Workforce

Investing public and private funding in programs supporting Opportunity Youth is essential for promoting economic growth and social equity and for preparing the next generation of workers for a rapidly changing job market.

4/30/2023

De facto institutions: In Connecticut 95.5% of prison inmates have mental illness history, report finds

The nonprofit’s chief executive officer, Jacquelyn Santiago Nazario, explained that when 16 to 20-year-olds enter COMPASS Youth programs, they aren’t at-risk; they’re already “in-risk.” Of those young people, 89% have experienced the death of a close family member or friend due to a homicide.

7/7/2021

A Better Way to Keep People From Going Back to Prison

Most programs that try to help formerly imprisoned people re-enter society and avoid reincarceration have been far from successful. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) may help turn the tide.

4/14/2021

‘Tell Us What You Need to Succeed’

Barbara Dalio vividly remembers the meeting when she realized she had to pivot the Connecticut Opportunity Project (CTOP) to generate positive outcomes.