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Grantee Partner Organizations

CT’s workforce crisis is hiding in plain sight

Our Piece of the Pie's CEO Hector Rivera wrote this op-ed to make the case that the solution to Connecticut's labor challenges is to support organizations that are preparing Connecticut's severely off-track and disconnected young people for employment through paid work opportunities. These work opportunities allow young people to learn new skills and explore new career opportunities to be able to enter the laborforce, all while earning paychecks along the way.

In Your Neighborhood: Kathryn Hauser moderates panel with Compass Youth Collaborative in Hartford

Award winning journalist Katheryn Hauser moderated a panel with state and national community violence intervention leaders as well as young people during COMPASS Youth Collaborative's Annual Meeting. The conversation focused on the impact of COMPASS's program model in interrupting violence in the City of Hartford by supporting young people to build the skills needed to reconnect to school and the workforce.

Municipal Leaders Invited To Open Public Service Career Pathways To Disconnected Youth

Last year, Domus Kids and Our Piece of the Pie (OPP) created Service-to-Career Pathways toolkits designed to help communities and municipal officers create career pathways for young people ages 16 to 24 who are disconnected from the workforce to pursue careers in public service. These toolkits will be further discussed in a webinar with municipal leaders and Governor Lamont about how to effectively roll out and implement the toolkits in cities across the state.

Inaugural Class Graduates Healthcare Career Academy, Program Eyes Expansion

In May, Northwell Health graduated the inaugural class of graduates from the Academy for Career Readiness at Norwalk Hospital. This program was created from a partnership between Dalio Education, Northwell Health, and CTOP grantee partner Domus Kids. Throughout the 12-week program, Domus Kids participants learned hard and soft skills that will prepare them for a career in Healthcare through an interactive classroom-based curriculum and hands-on learning experiences in the hospital. Read more about the program and graduation.

ON THE MENU: Fire by Forge New Menu Items

CTOP grantee partner Forge City Works was featured on Channel 3 WFSB's "On the Menu" segment, where Program Director and Associate Executive Director Becky McGuigan spoke about their job training program and new menu items at the nonprofit's social enterprise restaurant Fire x Forge. Fire x Forge's Executive Chef Dylan Hancock cooked up some of the new menu items that anyone can try this summer at Fire x Forge in Hartford. Watch the video here.

LaFemina Named State Workforce Champ

Marcia LaFemina, board chair of CTOP grantee partner Manufacturing and Technical Community Hub (MATCH), was honored with the 2026 Connecticut Workforce Champion Award for her exceptional leadership in advancing the state’s manufacturing sector and expanding equitable workforce opportunities by Governor Lamont. LaFemina has championed inclusive hiring practices and empowering minority groups in the manufacturing industry. Read the article to learn more about Marcia, her company Penn Globe, and her leadership in the founding of MATCH.

Anti-Gun Violence Groups Host CT Senator For Prevention Roundtable

Roca Inc's Hartford Young Women's Program hosted U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal for a roundtable discussion with COMPASS Youth Collaborative about the challenges the organizations face in mitigating gun violence in the state. Both organizations pointed to inconsistent and short-term funding structures as a barrier to reducing violence in Hartford. Blumenthal has proposed funding for an office of community violence intervention to better support the work of Roca and COMPASS.

Hartford deserves a city where lives are not lost to violence.

In this op-ed, COMPASS CEO Jacquelyn Santiago discusses a particularly violent February in Hartford, where in the span of 8 days, three young people were shot and two tragically died. COMPASS's Hospital Violence Intervention Program responded to each incident at the hospital to support victims, families, and reduce the risk of retaliation. And despite this critical work, COMPASS does not receive enough funding from the state and city to run this program that helps keep Hartford safer.

Community Health Worker Helps Women Rebuild Lives

Monya Saunders works at Yale's School of Medicine's Transition Clinic, where she supports people recently released from incarceration and connects them to healthcare and social services. Once home, her clients struggle to find employment and Saunders refers them to CTOP Grantee Partner MATCH, where they can be trained in manufacturing skills that are needed in the job market. As she put it, "Once you graduate, they help you find a job. They are not going to leave you.”

Hartford Leaders Announce Planning Grant To Reimagine Opportunity Academy For Disconnected Youth

In a press conference at Our Piece of the Pie (OPP), leaders from OPP, the state, City of Hartford gathered to announce a state-supported planning grant to redesign OPP’s Opportunity Academy. The Academy serves over-age, under-credited students through personalized learning, workforce training, and wraparound supports and the grant will help OPP craft a blueprint that can be replicated statewide for more alternative education programs.

How a nonprofit is reducing crime among young people in Hartford: 'It's powerful when you show up'

COMPASS Youth Collaborative shows how they are helping drive down violence in Hartford through their Peacebuilder Program, where staff build transformational relationships with young people, deliver cognitive behavioral techniques to them, and use data to inform their decisions. CT Insider follows COMPASS Peacebuilder Isaiah Luna to understand how he supports youth to disengage in violence.

Woman to Woman: Program Helping Youth in Connecticut

Liz Giannetta, Program Director of CTOP Grantee Partner COMPASS Youth Collaborative, participates on the Woman to Woman segment on WTNH discuss how COMPASS transforms the lives of young people in Hartford through relationship building, training for employment, and basic needs support. Watch this video to learn more about the incredible work COMPASS does every day in Hartford and how they change the trajectory of youth's lives in the city.

With Tariffs At 100-Year High, CT Officials Back Price Gouging Protection Act

Forge City Works hosted Senator Richard Blumenthal and Connecticut Attorney General William Tong at their social enterprise grocery store, The Grocery on Broad, where the two officials discussed rising concerns for corporate price gouging due to the anticipated tarriffs that will strain Connecticut families. Executive Director Ben Dubow described the current environment as a “perfect storm” and The Grocery on Broad's innovative sliding pricing scale seeks to ease some of that pain.

A Connecticut Violence Interruption Group Traded Paperwork for an App. It’s Been Transformational.

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.

Roca Hartford Celebrates 22 Program Graduates

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.

Compass Youth Collaborative Works to Prevent Youth Violence in Hartford

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.

2024 Crime Review: Homicides, Gunshots Down

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.

CT Expert Weighs in on How to Quell Gun Violence

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.

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