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.
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.
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.
Adhlere Coffy and Amanda Olberg, senior portfolio directors at CTOP, discuss in this op-ed how capacity building and improving nonprofit organizations can address Connecticut's Unspoken Crisis and help get young people back on track.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Barbara Dalio vividly remembers the meeting when she realized she had to pivot the Connecticut Opportunity Project (CTOP) to generate positive outcomes.
