COMPASS
COMPASS Youth Collaborative interrupts violence in the City of Hartford by building transformative relationships with youth at the center of the violence. COMPASS Peacebuilders provide youth the tools to create sustained behavior change and transition successfully to adulthood.
In 2023, COMPASS’s new program model became fully implemented with the organization’s launch of transitional employment. Over the course of the year, COMPASS hired two work crew supervisors and secured two external partnerships to provide work opportunities for their crews, while also developing the policies, processes, and tools necessary to support transitional employment operations. With its new data system recently launched as the year began, COMPASS made incredible progress over the year in both data entry – with 3,921 contact notes recorded in June 2023 relative to 1,838 in June 2022 – as well as data utilization to inform program delivery and management, leveraging new reports and structures that were built out over the course of the year along with growing capacity within the program team. COMPASS also significantly expanded its board capacity and strengthened its board infrastructure in 2023, recruiting and onboarding four new board members who brought additional competencies to the board, developing a formal onboarding process for new board members, and undertaking a comprehensive review and revision of its bylaws and board policies.
Technical assistance through CTOP to develop data capacity has afforded COMPASS the opportunity to celebrate progress as an agency and provide resources that support our team’s efforts with youth.