New & Noteworthy
Hartford Foundation Submits Testimony in Support of An Act Establishing A Full Employment Trust Fund
On Thursday, February 20, the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving submitted testimony to the legislature’s Labor and Public Employees Committee in support of Senate Bill 1031, An Act Establishing A Full Employment Trust Fund.
As part of our efforts to dismantle structural racism and improve social and economic mobility for Black and Latine residents of Greater Hartford, the Hartford Foundation seeks to work with government, nonprofit and other public-private partners to increase stable employment opportunities for adults and youth in our region facing barriers to employment.
This work recognizes that all residents of our region need access to training and employment options that provide a sustaining wage. The Foundation’s efforts focus on increasing opportunities for education and training along with hiring and retaining residents with significant barriers to employment, including returning citizens and opportunity youth disconnected from school and work.
For these reasons, the foundation offers its support for Senate Bill 1031, An Act Establishing A Full Employment Trust Fund which would create a full employment trust fund to be administered by the Labor Department in order to support employment opportunity grants for public and nonprofit entities to create employment opportunities and job-training programs. The foundation applauds the bill’s efforts to create job opportunities and paid training programs specifically designed for unemployed and underemployed individuals who are currently unable to find suitable work. This fund could help to address employment challenges by providing direct support to job seekers through targeted employment and skills development initiatives. The fund can provide individuals with the opportunity to improve their employability and connect them with potential job placements.
Researchers confirm that the interplay of race, gender and where people grow up can have compounding effects on whether they disengage from school and work. This is a matter of racial equity. There is a critical need to support residents in building basic and professional skills while providing wraparound supports they need to be successful. In Hartford, young men of color are disproportionately more likely to be disconnected from education and employment. To reverse this trend, the Hartford Foundation has partnered with City of Hartford, Dalio Education and other nonprofit partners and key stakeholders to support opportunity youth, defined as young people between the ages of 16 and 24 who are neither enrolled in school nor participating in work. One of the key partners in this initiative is Our Piece of the Pie which recruits opportunity youth to participate in the Hartford Youth Service Corps. Program participants engage in paid service learning projects and receive educational supports, job readiness training and personal development workshops.
Recently, the Hartford Foundation also awarded a grant to ReadyCT whose work is focused on integrating career pathways and work-based learning opportunities within K-12 education, and partnering with schools and industries in Greater Hartford and across Connecticut. The organization has established business partnerships in Greater Hartford within the sectors that are integral to its program structure. These partnerships are critical to better aligning K-12 education and workforce systems. By connecting with high-demand fields like healthcare, manufacturing, and information technology, ReadyCT helps students build essential skills and earn industry-recognized credentials, promoting economic mobility and meeting local workforce needs.
In 2023, the Foundation also awarded a grant to the United Way of Central and Northeastern Connecticut to support a Workforce Solutions Collaborative of Metro Hartfordinitiative that directly works with employers and partners including the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology. This effort involves working with employers to promote job quality and ensure that they are hiring opportunity youth, providing a competitive wage, and opportunities for career advancement. Developing strong relationships with employers willing to hire and retain graduates of workforce training programs is crucial to their success.
Through its work in support of Hartford’s Community Schools and six of our region’s Alliance Districts (Bloomfield, East Hartford, Manchester, Vernon, Windsor, and Windsor Locks), the Foundation has seen how stronger partnerships between schools, families, nonprofits, and the community help students feel increased connectedness to their school, leading to increased attendance, academic engagement and persistence to graduation. We know that school districts are looking to engage in career pathways work starting in middle school and continuing through high school. Some districts are interested in partnering with nonprofits to start exposing their students to vocational opportunities, which could include after-school and summer enrichment programs. This new fund could help to support such partnerships between schools and nonprofit organizations.
The Foundation encourages the Department of Labor to complement programming already in place to provide more opportunities for students to get meaningful. hands-on work experience while in school that fully exposes them to careers and develops job readiness skills. Plans need to support access to transportation and accommodate school schedules.
Research has demonstrated that people employed after release from incarceration are less likely to return to prison. Connecticut must be committed to ensuring access to education and workforce development programs for men and women while they are incarcerated and after release. These are essential strategies for preparing for employment and successful reentry. The foundation has funded such critical reentry supports, including preemployment training and job placement assistance offered through the Reentry Welcome Center in Hartford and the BEST Chance Program. Today, these programs provide access to a range of support services; they could also help participants to enroll and be successful in a range of job readiness, academic support, and professional skills training programs.
It is important that this new fund have sufficient and stable resources to cover a variety of costs, including stipends to cover immediate expenses and promote participation, wraparound services (including job retention case management), and evaluation.
Many state and other funding opportunities do not ensure equitable access by smaller, neighborhood-based nonprofit organizations. The foundation has been working to support these organizations having access to our funding as well as state funding opportunities. We would encourage the Department of Labor to work collaboratively with philanthropy to support work such as mutual participation information sessions about grant opportunities and technical assistance for grant writing to get dollars into local communities.
With thousands of Connecticut job openings, the foundation is eager to partner with legislators, philanthropy, nonprofits, advocates, and businesses to eliminate barriers to employment and ensure that all residents have an opportunity to participate in the workforce, reach their potential and economic stability, and to thrive and contribute to Connecticut’s economy.