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LIVE UNITEDREADER2012 REPORT TOTHE COMMUNITY

BOOST!ING NEW HAVEN SCHOOLS THE KEYS TO JOB TRAINING A BETTER SAFETY NE

Working To BuildStronger Commun


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

In the Community, 3

Learning United, 5

Post-K, 12

The Art of EngagedReading, 14

Rebuilding Lives, 16

The Risk Factor, 20

The Keys to aBetter Future, 23

Building a BetterSafety Net, 26

Meet the SAMCoaches, 30

What a WonderfulExperience, 32

Financial Focus, 33

Companies thatLive United, 34

Individual Donors, 35

Community Partners, 37

Results, 40

OUR COMMUNITY

INCLUDES 12 TOWNS

IN GREATER NEW HAVEN:

Orange, Woodbridge,

Bethany, Hamden,

New Haven, West Haven,

East Haven, North Haven,

North Branford, Branford,

Guilford and Madison.

GET CONNECTED

JOIN THE OPPORTUNITY

TO CREATEA BETTER LIFEFOR ALL

LIVE UNITEDUnited Way brings together the caring power of people to create

change in our community and to improve lives with a focus on the

building blocks for a good life EDUCATION, INCOME AND HEALTH.

facebook.com/unitedwayofgreaternewh

twitter.com/uwgnh

Editor:Joshua MamisDesign: Katney BairWriters: Cara Rosner,Cara McDonough,Uma Ramiah,Gwyneth Shaw,Melinda TuhusPhotography: Kathleen CeiPrinting: Phoenix Press, on100% recycled paper Visit uwgnh.org/signup to get email

updates and learn how you can help.

FIND US 203.772.2010

To make a difference, please consider a donation. Call 203.772.2010 or go to uwgnh.or


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This has been percolating in our region forsome time and has taken on a new urgency

thanks to the impact of the Great Recession.Were familiar with the challenges: ten years ago, United Way of Greater New Haven

asked civic and business leaders and community residents what they viewed as the mostpressing concerns in the region. The issues on everyones mind: the disparity in educa-tion and income.

The issue on our mind: how do we best meet those big, thorny challenges?As we did our work, we became aware of our own gap between the need we saw in

the community, and the difference we knew we could make if we reinvented ourselves.

We were no longer satisfied with raising money and makinggrants to worthy non-profit organizations. We wanted to havemore impact. We needed to see more results.

So we retooled.Our grant-making process became open and competitive

to ensure that we were investing in the most effective pro-grams. We continued to refine the ways we were measuring outcomes to make surethat our investments were making a difference. We formed partnerships with otherorganizations for greater impact and to reduce duplication of effort. We brought onnew staff, with deep knowledge in education and economic development.

And we went to work.

In this, our 2012 Annual Report to the Community, we take a look at some of theimpact of our efforts and talk with some of the people whose lives have been affected.Heres a preview of some of the stories you will read about on the following pages:

We help to coordinate non-academic support services to New Haven students byworking with New Haven Public Schools, New Haven Promise, and the non-profit

community through Boost!, part of the nationally-lauded New Haven School Change Initiative. We haveseen early and encouraging results in the 2010-2011academic year, including rising test scores and adramatic decrease in behavior issues.

We mobilize volunteers to tackle community issues,including an effort to talk to the families of every child in New Haven about to startkindergarten, mobilizing 216 volunteers and connecting with more than 1,200 families,giving them the information they need to help their children succeed in school.

We address a shortage of affordable, quality early childhood education by managingan Early Head Start program that provides full-day, full-year child care and compre-hensive support services for infants and toddlers and their families.

CLOSING

continued

THE

GAPS

Lately, weve been hearing

more and more about Gaps.

Specically, the Income

Gap, the Achievement Gap

and the Opportunity Gap.


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We support programs that serve long-termunemployed people by teaching the skills theyneed to fill jobs that are actually available inthe community.

We train budget coaches and match themwith low-income households to help them getthe most out of their hard-earned resources.

We help New Haven agencies serving thehomeless identify those most vulnerable andget them shelter and services they need tostay healthy.

In short, United Way of Greater New Havenis immersed in strategic thinking andstrategic action about how to move the

needle on some of the most difficult challengesin our communities.

We also know that it takes more than smartinvestments in effective strategies to make adifference. Real change requires people comingtogether who understand that everyone benefitswhen we provide economic opportunity, goodeducation and basic needs for all our neighbors.

Thats why another key part of our mission isbringing together volunteers to help people inneed, whether its by tutoring children, collect-ing diapers or school supplies, or helpinglow-income families complete their taxes.

We hope youll be inspired by how thepeople weve written about have transformedtheir lives.

Because we and the other non-profitagencies working for change cant do it alon

It takes a whole community to effect thechange we need. We can all contribute.

If you are a parent, you can instill in yourchild the importance of going to school andhaving a vision for the future.

If you are a child care provider, youcan instill a love of reading and positivesocial interaction.

If you are a community or business leader,you can instill in your employees the value ofvolunteering and giving back to your communi

If you are recently retired, you can stayconnected to your community by going tomeetings and being knowledgeable aboutyour community.

If you are a young person, you canbuild a network of friends who care aboutthe community.

So what is the role of United Way? It ito enable these connections to happeTo be a catalyst that affects long-term

positive change in our community. Our mottoLive United for a reason: This kind of transfmation requires people working together for tbenefit of all. We invite you to be a part of thechange. You can support United Ways work inthree ways:

You can GIVE your contribution makesthe work possible;

You can ADVOCATE your voice helps raiseawareness;

And you can VOLUNTEER giving your timeand talents to help those in need.

We know the Gaps are going to be hard tobridge. After all, the achievement gap and theincome gap took years to grow this far apart.

But we are chipping away at them, with eve

tool in our arsenal.Were proud of the work that we are doing

We know its what we should be doing. And ware committed to success. We hope you willbecome part of the change, and Live United.

Diane Young Turner, Chair, Board of DirectorsJack Healy, President & CEO

Caption to come

Diane Young Turner and Jack Healy


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Food Truck in the News

You might have heard about it on NationalPublic Radios food blog. Or you might have

been aware that it has been awarded the bestconvenience retailing concept by the trade publica-tion Food Management. Cleanplates.com called itThe summers coolest food truck. Even the FirstLady got into the act praise appeared on MichelleObamas Facebook Fan page: Projects like this

highlight the innovative ways that communitiesacross the United States are working to improvechildhood nutrition, a post read in 2011.

Whats all the buzz about? The New HavenFood Truck.

Its an innovative solution to a puzzling problem.How do you get free meals to students dependenton school food programs when school isnt insession? The answer: bring it to them.

United Ways Womens Initiative boughtthe truck, and, with funding from the USDAs

summer feeding program, New Haven PublicSchools provided the food. The truck went intounderserved New Haven Neighborhoods through-out the summer, bringing healthy, nutritious foodto any New Havener under 18 years old. In 2011,it served more than 17,000 meals.

As Long as There is Need

Neighbor-to-Neighbor LifeLine (N2N) wasborn during the financial crisis in 2009 to

address the urgent housing and hunger needs inGreater New Haven. While the economy has sinbeen stabilized, the recovery has been slow enouthat many people still require emergency aid.

Through the partnership between United Waand The Jewish Federation of Greater New Havelast year, N2N diverted 550 people from homeleness and into stable housing, and provided morethan 200,000 meals at soup kitchens and shelters

For more information, or to contribute toN2N LifeLine, go to n2nlifeline.org.

The Power of Wome

Women in Greater New Haven wanted to ba part of change they could call their own

So a group of engaged women got together and

partnered with United Way of Greater New Havto form the Womens Initiative.The goal: to unite, engage and support our lo

women leaders, and to focus our contributions otime, talent and treasure to make a difference.

The Womens Initiative meets regularly todiscuss local needs and decide what issues toaddress. To date, the group has focused on thechallenge of access to high-quality nutritious foounderserved neighborhoods. In their first projecUnited Ways Womens Initiative bought

a Food Truck to bring free meals to city youth inthe summer when access to school lunch prograis problematic.

This year, the Womens Initiative is working bringing better nutrition and cooking skills into home. Cooking Matters provides nutritionaleducation and instruction geared for teens, pareand child care providers throughout the region.

To get involved with United Ways WomensInitiative, go to uwgnh.org.

IN THE

COMMUNITY

United Way Womens Initiative Leadership Council

members visit the Food Truck (left to right): Barbara

Healy, Lawanda Leslie, Sharon Milikowsky, Diane Turner,

Maria Arnold, Lindy Lee Gold, Linda Masci (Chair).


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Many Happy TaxReturns

Volunteer Income Tax

Assistance (VITA), a freetax preparation program, saved

local residents over $517,000 in tax

preparation fees. This year, trained

volunteers prepared over 3,500

tax returns at 14 locations in NewHaven, West Haven, and Wood-

bridge, helping residents claim

over $5.8 million in tax refunds.

VITA, a partnership betweenmany local organizations, is part

of a nationwide initiative that has

been serving Greater New Haven

residents for more than a decade.It provides free federal and state

tax preparation to households earn-

ing less than $50,000 per year.

VITA gets critical money intohouseholds that need it and who

have earned it, without family

members paying fees or falling prey

to predatory lending. When a family

has the money to meet their basicneeds, and invest in their future

and our community, we all win.

United Way brought two

coalitions of VITA service provid-ers together to help streamline

their efforts. United Way also

provided important marketing and

volunteer support.This work is at the core of what

we do to mobilize community in

this case volunteers to be a part of

a community-wide effort to change

peoples lives, said Amy CasavinaHall, United Ways senior director

of Income and Health Initiatives.

IN THE

COMMUNITY

Put a child at a table with paper and scissors. You can eitherlet the child play, or you can watch carefully, determine thechilds fine motor skill ability, and gear a specific activity wit

tools that will allow the child to learn and develop. Its called inten-tional teaching, and its one area where child care centers of today a

different than in the past.Many child care centers have incorporated this type of learning

activity into their daily activities as part of a dynamic approach to earlchildhood education, supported by United Way, and work of theNational Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)

NAEYC has developed an accreditation process that providescoaching and gives caregivers the tools they need to keep childrendevelopmentally on track. For a child care center it can mean thedifference between simply watching children and providing a dramatlift to the childrens long-term chance for success in school and in lifeIt can also help child care centers attain financial viability.

But keeping up with certification requirements can be challengingA few years ago, NAEYC revised its requirements and many centerswere worried that they might lose their accreditation. And it wouldnaffect just the child care center. Accreditation is required for child cacenters to qualify for state subsidies that enable them to serve low-income families. The loss of funding would mean that more than 1,00families were in danger of losing access to affordable child care.

Quality matters, says Jennifer Heath, executive vice presidentof United Way of Greater New Haven, and if the centers didnt getaccredited they would not have gotten the state dollars that make itpossible for the kids who need it the most low-income children to

benefit from those early learning programs.United Way provided funding for consulting services to help child

care centers gain the skills they needed to maintain or receive crucialNAEYC accreditation. So far, 19 early care and education programs ithe region have done so, benefitting about 1,200 children.

The process is one of continual growth and quality improvement,says Marge Weiner, the director of Gateway Community College EarlLearning Center, whos been in the field for more than 30 years.

Staff observe children and determine their needs and individualdifferences, says Weiner.Its holistic, not just reading and math, andincludes four categories: personal and social; physical development,

cognitive, which includes language and math, and creative expressionMany areas contribute to a person being successful, she says.Parents experience this as well. A mother at the NAEYC-accredite

West Haven Child Development Center reported, When I choseWHCDC, I really liked that they were accredited by NAEYC. I think[my daughter] gets a lot more enrichment here than if she was just wia babysitter. I have definitely noticed improvements in her speakingabilities. I think she has really blossomed here. Melinda Tuhus

The Best of Intentions


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JULIE FRAENKEL ILLUSTRATION

EDUCA

LEARNINGUNITEDT

his was the rallying cry of Jack Healy,United Way president and CEO, toan audience of invited guests

convened last May to hear a representativefrom the Obama administration hail NewHaven as one of six places in the countrywhere school-community partnerships aremaking a difference in student performance.

The White House was impressed by the

efforts of many in the communityworking to improve New Havensschools. A major component wasBoost!, United Ways partnership

with the City of New Haven andNew Haven Public Schools tosupport students in their outside-of-school lives so that they are readyand able to learn when they cometo school.

As Mayor John DeStefano, Jr.said, We know that students dotheir best in school and are ableto maximize their possibilitieswhen their personal, physical and

emotional needs are met.The following stories look at

the impact of Boost!, UnitedWays contribution to New Havensbroad and ambitious SchoolChange Initiative.

We will be

successful,

we will be

the model.


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Dyann Sousa is getting ready to dismissher third grade class at the end of aSeptember day. The children are

restless, animated, anxious to go. At barely awhisper, she sing-songs an instruction to quietdown. In a moment, the children are calm, andsent on their way.

Sousa is a second career teacher whoknows how to manage a classroom and clearlyhas a gift for connecting with children. Nonethe-less, her 2011-2012 third grade class at Barnard

Environmental Studies Magnet School hadher worried.In September and October, she says, she was

overwhelmed with behavior issues. There was alot of back and forth across the room; a lot of

BY JOSHUA MAMISnegativity. One child was so upset he flipped adesk. She could hardly teach because she wasconstantly managing disruptions.

She worked hard to bring the class togethebut problems lingered. Then in November itstarted to change.

Thats when the Foundation for Arts andTrauma began working in the school, thanks Boost!, a partnership between United Way,New Haven Public Schools and the City of NeHaven. Boost! works with schools to identifytheir biggest challenges around studentsnon-academic needs, and then helps schoolsteam with local non-profit organizations to

provide those services. (For more on Boost! saccompanying story, Boost!ing New HavenStudents.) Through this process, Boost! wasable to link Barnard with the Foundation. ThFoundation placed trained drama therapists aBarnard to be available as needed when stu-dents are having a rough day. Teachers can caon the therapists to do quick 15 minute inter-

HOW BOOST! HELPS STUDENTS LEARN AND COMMUNITIES GROW

Above: Students at Barnard Environmental Studies

Magnet School.


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Boost! has had a big impact on

school culture. Kids seem happier, more

comfortable, they have less stress.

Judith Puglisi, Principal of

Metropolitan Business Academy

ventions with students as needed through-outthe school day.

In an urban district like New Haven, thescope of student need is extensive, says SusanWeisselberg, New Haven Public Schools chief ofWraparound Services. Through the districts

ongoing efforts and now its partnership with theUnited Way, Boost! opens the door to a wholeworld of support services and programs thatmany of our students might not have had.

The Foundations work at Barnard is one ofmore than 120 programs serving city schoolscoordinated by Boost!, which provides strategicglue to make sure the work of all the youthservice providers is targeted to have maximumimpact and delivers results. Boost! kicked off lastyear in five schools and has expanded to 10 this

year. The goal is to add schools each year until itis active in all 47 New Haven public schools.By addressing students needs holistically,

paying attention to the kinds of issues thatimpact students in their lives outside of theclassroom, Boost! also has the potential toimpact the community as a whole.

The idea of New Haven School Change,says Mayor John DeStefano, Jr., started with asimple premise, which is the idea that the citycould not be successful as a community, that

we wouldnt be able to grow wealth, that wewouldnt be able to reduce violence and achieveour potential as a community, unless we werepromoting the skills and talents of all the peoplewho live here, particularly our younger people.

Sousas experience reflects these ideals.And her work with the Foundation forArts and Trauma last year is encourag-

ing: She would indicate to the counselor, knownas Miss Renee to the staff and children, which

student or students needed help that day. MissRenee would take the child out of the class to aplayroom to talk. Miss Renee knows how to getthe child to open up about stress he or she isexperiencing at home. Within 10 or 15 minutes,the student is ready to return to class. As thedisruptions stopped, Sousa was able to focus onteaching. Even the well-behaved students

appreciated the transformation. (See illustra-tion, next page.)

For Sousa, especially, it made all the differ-ence. It turned her most challenging class intothe favorite class of her teaching career.

This kind of intervention has led to remark-

able results throughout the school. Barnard, forexample, saw a 64 percent decrease in referralsto the principals office among students receiv-ing counseling in the 2011-2012 school year.

And Barnard isnt alone. Each Boost! schoolhad similarly positive results. (See accompanyingstory, Boost! By the Numbers.)

Thanks to Boost!, schools have integrateddozens of programs into their in-classand after-school schedules. Few have

done so more aggressively than Metropolitan

Business Academy (MBA), a magnet high schoolon Water Street in downtown New Haven.

At MBA, Principal Judith Puglisi has foundthat Boost!, through both counseling andafter-school programs, helped transform theschool culture. With the help of Boost!, MBAwas able to bring in partners to offer over 26different after-school activities, such as Yale

Model Congress, SAT Prep Classes, Hip-HopDance, a Students in Free Enterprise club, andnon-contact boxing, as well as an ever-growingroster of official and near spontaneous things todo including just hanging out in the musicteachers room and playing guitar.

When I first came here two years ago, staffand students left at the end of the day, Puglisi


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EDUCATION

A student at Barnard Environmental Magnet School

recognized the positive impact of a Boost!-sponsored

program. On a drawing she wrote:

Thank you Miss Renee

For making my classmates feel better

Because when my classmates are happy

I can work betternow I can workMy face is like this.

says. Since MBA is a magnet school,with a population that comes fromacross the region, kids did not feelas connected to the school, shelaments. But once they make thatconnection, through the after-

school programs and the nurturingenvironment, it is harder for themto take their frustrations out duringthe day.

Boost!, she says, had a bigimpact on our school culture. Kidsseem happier, more comfortable,they have less stress.

The schools suspension ratehas been cut in half. Puglisi saysthat she has seen a tremendous

decrease in the number of behav-ioral issues, which has enabled herto spend more time in classrooms,coaching and mentoring teachers.

As students start to stay at theschool longer, Puglisi says, teachersrespond. It starts to build stronger ties andrelationships between the children, the teachers,and ultimately the families.

The improved school culture was evidencedin the most recent annual school Learning

Environment Survey conducted by New HavenPublic Schools.

The numbers are impressive. Some 82percent of students report that they feel thereis at least one adult at this school that knows mewell, a measure that improved 10 points overthe previous year. A significant number 74percent report that, Overall, I feel goodabout this school, an increase of 25 pointsfrom when the same question was asked twoyears previously.

The survey also reports that 93 percent ofMBA parents said that Overall, I would recom-mend this school to other parents, up 5 pointsfrom the previous year, and 21 points from the2009-2010 school year.

You can feel the energy in the corridors ofthe school. Students greet visitors in the hallways

with confidence and maturity. It would be easyto mistake MBA for an elite private school.

Its an impression that makes Puglisi proudAnd one that gets to the heart of what is happeing in the schools, the kind of energy that leadUnited Way president and CEO Jack Healy toproclaim, We will be successful we will bethe model.

As third grade teacher Sousa put it about hturnaround class, To see the growth, not onlyacademic growth, but to become a family, tohave a social connection, she says, beaming, hstudents have learned to live in a society.


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BOOST!ING NEWHAVEN STUDENTS

In 2010 New Haven launched its SchoolChange Initiative, a comprehensive packageof education reforms with ambitious goals:

Eliminating the achievement gap by raisingtest scoresto the state average;

Cutting the high school dropout rate in half; Ensuring every student is academically

prepared and financially able to attend andsucceed in college.

Key elements of the plan included reforming

and turning around schools and changing theway teachers are evaluated, developed andretained. However, as Mayor John DeStefano, Jr.and School Superintendent Dr. Reggie Mayomet with stakeholders, it became clear thatfocusing on what was happening within theschools could only take students so far. Theyrealized that in order to reach the ambitiousSchool Change goals, schools would have to takeon the challenges that many students faceoutside of school.

DeStefano and Mayo asked United Way ofGreater New Haven to lead the effort to design asystem for providing comprehensive wrap-around services to New Haven Public Schoolstudents. This was the beginning of a newpartnership: Boost!, an effort to address thesocial, emotional and physical needs of studentsin partnership with the City of New Haven andNew Haven Public Schools, and to engageparents and families, as well as business andcommunity leaders, in the hard work of turning

around the schools.Every day our teachers face challenges in

the classroom that have to do with the personaland emotional issues students are dealing withat home, explains Susan Weisselberg, the chiefof Wraparound Services for New Haven PublicSchools. Those issues can translate to behav-

ioral problems at school and ultimately, impedi-ments to learning.

Boost! tackles these problems head-on bycoordinating and developing programs in theschools to help make sure that every child has anopportunity to succeed. To do this, Boost!

schools incorporated into the daily scheduleprograms that address four domains whichhave been demonstrated to contribute tochildrens ability to succeed in school:

Physical health and wellness

Social, emotional and behavioral health

Family support and engagement

Student engagement/Academic Enrichment

Boost! kicked off in the 2011-2012 academicyear with a pilot program in five schools Augusta

Lewis Troup School, Barnard EnvironmentalStudies Magnet School, Clinton Avenue School,Metropolitan Business Academy, and Wexler-Grant Community School.

While many already had existing programsthat addressed some of these critical areas,

Our ability to address students

social, psychological and emotional needsthrough Boost! enables them to focus

on learning in the classroom.

Susan Weisselberg, chief of Wraparound

Services for New Haven Public Schools

Boost!s role was to strategically coordinate the

work, facilitate communication, and identifyyouth service providers that could fill in thegaps. Each school appointed an existing staffperson as Boost! coordinator. And United Wayrecruited AmeriCorps VISTA and EpiscopalService Corps workers to provide extra supportand to help engage families.


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BOOST! BY THE NUMBERSBoost! schools showed significant improvementin reducing behavioral issues, increasing parentengagement, and raising standardized testscores for the 2011-2012 academic year.

THE BASICS

5 Boost! schools

5 Boost! Service Corps members volunteering full-timein Boost! Schools

59 Youth service organizations providing services toBoost! students

129 Programs available to Boost! students

2,500 Students impacted2,553 Parents visited by 359 volunteers at their homesthrough Boost!/Promise/NHPS canvasses at the start of

the 2012 academic year

THE RESULTS

3 Boost! Schools in the top 10 most improved CMTsin the District

7.4 Percentage points gained by Wexler-Grant students

on the 2012 CMTs, an increase 7 times the state averageand 3 times the district average

19 Percentage points gained by Troup school studentson the literacy portion of the CMTs

42% Students participating in Boost! activities atMetropolitan Business Academy high school who improved

their attendance

64% Students receiving counseling who had a decreasein ofce referrals at Barnard Environmental Magnet School

64% Parents who attended Spring 2012 parent-teacherconferences at Clinton Avenue School up from 28% in

Spring 2010

97% Students at Barnard participating in enrichmentactivities with external partners

0

OPENING DOORSThe community mobilizes to go door-to-door to

talk with parents about kindergarten.

Family engagement and support is a Holy Grailof school reform, and a key element of UnitedWays Boost! Initiative. Get the parents involve

and student performance will follow, the thinking goesBut getting parents involved in their childs academ

career can be a challenge one that teachers and schooadministrators have wrestled with for years.

There are many reasons parents might be discon-nected from their childs school experience, says LaoisKing, vice president of Education Initiatives at UnitedWay of Greater New Haven. Parents may have had anegative experience in their own school career, may bestruggling to juggle multiple jobs while taking care of

Boost! conducted a comprehensive survey of organizations in the region that provide youth services, thenworked with the five schools to identify needs specificto each school that would help get students the supportthey required.

The schools could then choose from the menu ofprograms that matched their requests. Remarkably,some agencies were willing to supply services withoutadditional funding.

The first year results are promising behavioralproblems diminished and test scores and school satisfaction improved. (See sidebar, Boost! By the Numbers.

Our ability to address students social, psychologicand emotional needs through Boost! enables them tofocus on learning in the classroom, says Weisselberg.It ultimately helps the school district make more prog-ress toward its School Change goals of eliminating theachievement gap, cutting the drop-out rate and ensurinevery student is college and career ready.

Note: In the 2012-2013 academic year, Boost! added 5 new

schools: Celentano Museum Academy, Hill Regional Career

High School, John S. Martinez School, Strong School and

Truman School. The goal is to bring Boost! to all 47 New

Haven public schools.


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Research shows that with a few simple steps parents

can help students thrive. Boost!, United Ways

partnership with New Haven Public Schools and the

City of New Haven, boiled the research down to a

promotion called The ART of School Success, and

delivered the following message on the sides of

buses, street banners, on posters, and on bookmarks:

THE ART OF SCHOOL SUCCESS

Attend: Send your child to school every day

Read: Read with your child for 20 minutes every day

Talk: Enjoy family talk time every day

their families, or may be experiencing frustra-tion around navigating a complex bureaucracylike a large school district.

The problem called for a radical newapproach: engaging the parents where theylive at their homes. And so the first-evercity-wide Kindergarten Canvass was born.

The idea: mobilize hundreds of volunteersand knock on the doors of the 1,500 New Havenfamilies with a kindergarten student before thestart of school. Ask the families what they need toknow about their schools, talk with them aboutwhere they could turn if they had any questions.Let them know how important it is to establishgood school habits for children of all ages.

Last August, community volunteers pairedwith school district employees hit the streetsarmed with a book for every child (in Englishand Spanish), a refrigerator magnet with keyschool-related phone numbers, and answers tocommonly asked questions. It was one of threesuccessful canvasses last fall organized by UnitedWay, New Haven Public Schools and New Haven

Promise aimed at parent and family engagementwith the schools.

It took one full Saturday and two weekdayevenings, but the canvassers achieved their goal.Some 216 volunteers knocked on 1,497 doorsrepresenting about 1,200 individual families(some doors were visited twice if the family was

not home on the first day). The street teams leftinformation for, or spoke with, more than 80percent of the incoming kindergarten class.

The effort was a powerful collaborationbetween United Way, New Haven PublicSchools, New Haven Promise, the City of NewHaven, and community leaders, and was evi-dence of what can happen when the whole citycomes together with a common purpose.

Teachers were energized, parents delightedand kindergarteners thrilled with their back toschool gift. Volunteers enjoyed themselves, too.

Having this much fun should be illegal, saidcanvasser Lee Cruz, a parent of a too-young-for-kindergarten child.

Feedback from parents was positive as well.The Kindergarten Canvass, said Britt Ander-

son, a parent at the East Rock CommunityMagnet School, made us feel welcome atERCMS, and it was incredibly helpful to be ableto get answers to gnawing questions.


14/44

2

Tyree Dickey loves and adores all fourof her children but there is something,she says, that stands out about Christo-

pher and not just because he is the youngestchild and the lone boy of the group.

Christopher, 15, entered high school this fall.His mother sees characteristics and a maturityin him that she attributes to time he spent morethan a decade ago in a child carecenter she ran as part of All Our Kins network.

I see a difference with Chris, she says.

Parents reect on how theirchildrens vital pre-kindergarten

experience shaped their lives.

POST-K

BY CARA ROSNER

EDUCATION

Hes very articulate; problem solving comeseasier to him than it did to his sisters.

About 12 years ago, Dickey was among thefirst women to become a licensed home-basedchild care provider through All Our Kin, a NewHaven-based nonprofit that trains, supports an

helps sustain community child care providers.United Way of Greater New Haven supportsAll Our Kin, and the agency is a key partner inUnited Ways Early Head Start program, helpito meet the tremendous need for additional affordable infant and toddler care in New Haven

I was trying to find work and I was strug-gling because I didnt have child care for myson, and even if I could find child care I couldafford it, she remembers. She was drawn, shesays, to All Our Kins focus on child develop-

ment, the concept that quality child care goesway beyond babysitting and delves deeply intosubstantial early childhood issues.

Soon after graduating from All Our Kinsprogram and running her own center, she

joined the organizations staff as an educationconsultant, where she works with newly licenseproviders to teach them the importance of

Tyree Dickey believes

her son Christophers

years in chlid care have

helped him succeed ashe got older.


15/44

While he may not realize it, seeds

for life skills were planted when

Christopher was a two year old playing

at his moms child care.

having a curriculum, establishing a routine withchildren and other skills.

Providers like Dickey have a profound impactnot only on the children they serve in their cen-ters but also on their own families, by becomingbetter parents, says Janna Wagner, All OurKins co-founder and chief knowledge andlearning officer.

Co-founder and Executive Director JessicaSager, agrees. Its really a two-generation trans-formation, she says, with both children and par-ents benefitting. The impact that (child care)providers can have on parents is really huge.

The impact on children also is significant.Research shows that early childhood educa-tion is essential, as the years between birth andage six are a time of huge growth and develop-ment, and childrens earliest experiences have aprofound impact on the structure of their brain

and affect their ability to learn, along with theiremotional and behavioral well-being.

Dickey has seen the lasting effects on herown son. Attending her child care center helpedgive him the structure of routine, and taughthim how to thrive in a diverse group of children.While he may not realize it, seeds for life skillsChristopher has acquired over the years wereplanted when he was a two-year-old playing athis moms child care.

When Christopher encountered racism while

attending suburban elementary and middleschools, for instance, he handled the situationmaturely, by telling school officials and his mother.The social, emotional and problem-solving skillsshe began imparting to him back in his child caredays impacted how he reacted, she says.

I just moved on, Christopher says, remem-bering a time in second grade when anotherchild wouldnt let him play with a toy simplybecause Christopher is African-American. Ididnt want anything to just make me give up.

Those skills came into play again, as he unfor-tunately faced racism and prejudice throughouthis suburban schooling, he says.

Its clear when talking to them that Chris-topher and Dickey share a very tight bond. Ispent equal time with all of my children, but Ithink with Chris going through All Our Kin, itwas more quality time, Dickey says.

Likewise, P. Marie Gibson, owner of ButterflyChild Care in New Haven, continues to seeAll Our Kins impact on her 12-year-old daugh-ter Jolene, who attended the center whenshe was little.

Gibson opened Butterfly Child Care in 2004and currently has four children, ages 20 monthsto 3 years old, enrolled. Prior to opening her

business, the stay-at-home mom already foundherself taking care of other peoples children,so it made sense to become licensed and bettereducated about the process, she says.

I recommend All Our Kin. It brought me anew challenge, Gibson says. Its an intensiveprogram. I had to open my mind to other ways

(of doing things). It was difficult in the begin-ning, but I got it.

Along the way she has benefitted from work-

shops, trainings and support the organizationoffers in entrepreneurialism and working withchildren. Today she serves families from WestHaven and throughout New Haven. She wasalso able to participate in hands-on training with

Jolene when she was younger, as well as withother mothers and their children.

Gibson says the effects the program had onJolene remain evident. Among them, the childcare center introduced her to children beyondher neighborhood and taught her how to inter-

act in a group while still being her own person,Gibson says.

Shes very independent, she says of Jolene.Very! Jolene interjects, proving her moth-

ers point and happy to tout the benefits shesnoticed from the program. Im becoming morecreative. Now I can draw really well because ofAll Our Kin.


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4

Sandra Dill is proud tosay that the children atthe home day care she

runs now regularly grab a bookand say, Read, please to the staThe kids have grown to really lo

books, says Dill. And thats thankto the WORDS Project.

We know that the achieve-ment gap starts early long befochildren enter kindergarten,explained Jennifer Heath, execu-tive vice president at United WayThrough our Success By 6 initia-tive, United Way is working toensure that children enter schooldevelopmentally on track so that

they do not start behind. TheWORDS Project was a natural fitfor Success By 6 support becauseis based on extensive research thashows that children who are readmore frequently, and have bookstheir homes, have bigger vocabulies and become better readers.

THE ARTOF ENGAGED

READING

The WORDS Project helps

kids build tools that will

last a lifetime.

BY CARA MCDONOUGH

Juan Aquilar has made reading books a focus of his Felicitas

Family Home Daycare. Photo courtesy of Juan Aquilar


17/44

The United Way-funded program is in itsthird year, with rave reviews from providers,parents and the kids themselves. WORDS, whichwas designed by the New Haven Early Child-hood Council, serves 10 licensed child carecenters and 10 licensed family child care homes

in New Haven, providing children with literacyand vocabulary tools that will lasta lifetime.

Sandra Malmquist, director of the Connecti-cut Childrens Museum, is one of the projectstwo reading coaches, visiting selected home daycares once a week for four weeks. On each visitshe brings a picture book and a fun prop, suchas a stuffed animal or puppet.

The idea is to give dimension to thesebooks, says Malmquist. The goal is to bring

inspiration and excitement to reading.Participating centers receive two sets of 12

new picture books usually colorful boardbooks for the 0-3-year-old age range and propsfor acting out or accentuating the story. One setstays in the center while the other is used tocreate a WORDS Family Lending Library, sothat parents can check the books out and readthem to their children at home.

Getting parents involved is crucial to thesuccessful coaching model. When Malmquist or

Adrenna DOrlando, the second WORDS readingcoach, visit a home care or child care center,theyre not only reading a story; theyre modelingthe most engaging way to read that story to youngchildren. Providers learn from seeing them inaction and parents, in turn, learn from them.

A puppet, for example, accompanies thebook, Wheres the Cat? When Malmquist readsthe book, she shows the children how to look forthe bold black and white illustrated cat in thepages of the colorful board book and also hides

the cat puppet behind her back, or under a chair.The story comes alive, the young children arecaptivated and suddenly the simple act ofreading a book is an interactive experience.

Not only does this make reading more fun,but showing teachers and parents how toeffectively engage young children in readingmeans its likely to happen more often.

This level of excitement truly benefitschildren in the long run, says Malmquist. Thegold standard for a young child is reading fivebooks a day, exposing them to hundreds of newwords that will become building blocks of theirvocabularies and enrich their education.

Parents are excited by the program, says Dill,and are often surprised that their childrens

The idea is to give dimension to these

books. The goal is to bring inspiration

and excitement to reading.

Sandra Malmquist, Connecticut

Childrens Museum

vocabulary has increased so much throughreading. As a result, theyre checking out theWORDS books from the centers lending libraryand trying the methods at home. Other partici-pants share similar stories.

Laura Sandstrom, whose two-year-old sonattends Felicitas Family Home Daycare, says thatsince so many of the books in the WORDS

program are bilingual, her son often asks to readbooks in Spanish after theyve read them inEnglish. Books from the program are promi-nently displayed at the cozy daycare, which isowned by Juan Aguilar. A kid-sized bookshelfmeans they are always within reach so thatchildren can pick their favorites when its timeto settle down for stories.

The end result is a high quality readingenvironment for children when they are athome and when they are with their caregivers,

says Malmquist.And the caregivers agree. Cardery Alexis,

who owns Baby Bear Day Care, had her firstWORDS reading coach visit this month. She saidthat after the session was over the six children inher program were completely enthralled withthe toy and the book presented to them thatmorning; they played with them all day long.


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6


19/44

Meet Dan Jusino. His idea: Teach ex-cons how

to think differently. His program is working.And so are his guys.

REBUILDING

LIVES

The house at 153 StarrStreet is being taken apart,from the inside out.

Chunks of plaster, splinteredtwo-by-fours, paneling and fixturesand insulation: they fly out secondstory windows and land with asatisfying crash to the brimming

BY UMA RAMIAH

This page, from left: Dan Jusino and Mark

Wilson in front of 153 Starr Street.

Opposite: Felix Torres, Emerge crew chief.

dumpster below. This is a goodthing a rebirth for the home,and in many ways, a rebirth for the12 people dismantling it. ErnieNorthrup, 26, is clad in work boots,an orange vest and hard helmet.Hes an ex-offender.

If I wasnt here, Id be backon the streets. Being here, its not

just about work. They teach youstuff on decision making. SinceIve been here, my whole way ofthinking is different, he says.Now, hes back in school at Gate-way, and looking forward tofinding full-time work.

Ernies one of many ex-offend-ers at Emerge CT a re-entry,transitional work program forex-offenders with low educationlevels and limited work experience.Emerge CT steps in to support menand women leaving the prison

system to re-enter the world andthe workforce, providing jobtraining, educational opportunitiesand life skills support in real time.

This isnt just transitionalwork yes, we get them on jobsites, we get them reading, we getthem training. But this is aboutchanging how they think, and howthey make decisions, says Execu-tive Director Dan Jusino, standing

on the first floor of the nearlygutted house. His business man-ager, Mark Wilson, nods enthusias-tically. If after 26 weeks all weve


20/44

given them is apaycheck, then wevefailed them. Theyrenot better off. Werelooking to change

patterns in behavior.No small feat fora small organization.When Emerge wasestablished in 2009,

Jusino and Wilsonfound themselves on-call 24 hours a day. Ourguys problems dont happen 9-5, Wilson says.And because weve made a commitment tothem to be there, helping them out in toughsituations along the way, we were pretty much

working around the clock. That includedsourcing jobs for the crew, getting them to andfrom worksites, overseeing the educationalcomponent of the program, and responding toproblems at all hours. Then, United Way ofGreater New Haven stepped in with a grantspecifically structured for a program designed togive people the support they needed to enter the

If after 26 weeks all weve given them isa paycheck, then weve failed them. Theyre

not better off. Were looking to change

patterns in behavior. Dan Jusino

New Haven nonprofits dont always knowhow to play well together, he explains. Butnow, because of a United Way grant we have aemployee on our payroll who works over atWorkforce Alliance for us, on behalf of our

guys, helping them through the process to findemployment or training. This is like, perfect!Upon arrival, most participants are reading

a 6th or 7th grade level. That dooms them to acycle of poverty, says Jusino. So they complete aliteracy component (about 100 hours) at partneWorkforce Alliance boosting them to at least 10th grade level. With that reading level, and whelp from an Emerge employee at WorkforceAlliance, they can access training and supportprograms that require higher levels of proficien

This was a tough thing to build, but wevecome a long way, Wilson says. Sixty guys havemoved through the program so far. Theyre abto work up to 24 hours a week on payroll, payitaxes, for up to 26 weeks. Before they can wortheres an upfront requirement of 16 hours ofcommunity service, followed by another 34 ovthe course of the program.

When they first arrive, we try to stabilizethem get them to sleep well, to eat well. Weassume because theyre adults that they do thisBut they dont. Nobodys taught them. The smthings sometimes seem insurmountable, but wwork with them to ease their fears and changethose patterns, Jusino says.

Emerge, Jusino says, ascribes to the theoryof degrees of less failure.

If somebodys robbing cars last week, andtoday hes coming in late, I can work with that

Emerge crew, front row, left to right: Ernest Northrup,

Dan Jusino and Jamal Lockman. Back row, left to right:

Roger Johnson, Don Williams and Tywain Harris.

workforce and remain employed over time bycombining access to services (child care, trans-portation, etc.) with a curriculum that would

result in industry-recognized credentials. Thatgrant, Jusino says, has greatly improved organi-zational capacity.

8


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22/44

Nine years ago, Avery McFadden hada happy, stable life: a strong relation-ship with his girlfriend and their three

young children, and a house in New Haven.

Then, in the wake of one tragic twist, every-thing shattered.McFadden woke up one morning to find his

girlfriend dead in bed beside him, felled by abrain aneurysm. His grief sent him a little bitoff the deep end, he says now. In short order,several dominoes fell. He lost the house. He hadto sign over guardianship of the kids to theirgrandmother. And he found himself first as aninpatient, being treated for a deep depression,and then on the street.

McFadden resisted going to a homelessshelter for years.To me, if I go to a shelter, thats an admis-

sion that Im destitute, so to speak.McFadden slept behind whats now the

A new tool is helping the most

vulnerable homeless people getoff the street and into stable,

long-term housing.

THE RISK FACTORBY GWYNETH SHAW

0

After 12 years without a home, David Pardy (top of page)

and Avery McFadden are now both living in stable housing.


23/44

360 State Street building. Thats where KennyDriffin first made contact with him, calling outover a foot and a half of snow. Driffin is an out-reach worker for Columbus House, a New Haven-based nonprofit that operates shelters and apart-ments and provides a range of services to adultswho are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

McFadden declined Driffins offers of help,but Driffin and another member of ColumbusHouses street outreach team, Betsy Branch,kept at it. One day, Branch took advantage ofMcFaddens love of coffee and got him into adowntown Dunkin Donuts. For some reason, hesaid, that day he was ready to accept assistance.

Branch worked with McFadden to fill out abunch of papers, including a relatively new toolthe social-service agency is using to prioritizepeople like McFadden: the Vulnerability Index.

The Index aims to identify the most at-risk peo-ple, considering the length of time theyve beenhomeless, their mental health and substanceabuse situations, and a number of other factors.

Once a homeless person has been evaluated,theyre added to the prioritized list of housingapplicants, with those who score highest on the

Vulnerability Index at the top. Then, ColumbusHouse caseworkers scour the area for a housingunit thats the right fit individual apartmentsfor those who are self-sufficient, or group place-

ments for those who need in-home services,for example.

We have targeted our housing resourcesto individuals who are the highest on that vulner-ability scale, so those folks that are most at riskfor dying get housed first, said Anne Carr, theformer director of program development atColumbus House.

We have this group of chronically homelessfolks, and so this gives us a tool to say, this per-son is in the highest priority group, so that you

are selecting not the easiest person to house butthe most vulnerable person to house, Carr said.It really helps in us prioritizing how we utilizeour housing stock.

It also helps answer questions with hardnumbers, rather than anecdotes.

I think data tell our story, Carr said. Andthat data is providing some early good news:

We have targeted our housing

resources to individuals who are the

highest on that vulnerability scale, so

those folks that are most at risk fordying get housed rst.

Anne Carr, Columbus House

Thanks to the Vulnerability Index, Carr andher co-workers at Columbus House have gotten15-20 deeply at-risk people off the streets andinto stable, long-term housing.

The Vulnerability Index, which was devel-oped by the nonprofit housing group 100,000Homes, is one piece of the effort to end chronic

homelessness locally. United Way of Greater NewHaven is helping local agencies toward that goal.

United Way supports the Greater NewHaven Regional Alliance to End Homelessness,whose mission is to end chronic homelessnessand homelessness for veterans within five yearsand homelessness for families within 10 years.

United Way has played another role,through Neighbor-to-Neighbor LifeLine, orN2N, which was launched in 2009 as a partner-ship with the Jewish Federation of Greater New

Haven. The partnership has raised more than$2 million since then -- $100,000 of which went

to Columbus House to help find housing forpeople like Avery McFadden.

Amy Casavina Hall, United Ways seniordirector of Income and Health Initiatives, said

the regional approach is essential, because thehomeless dont hail just from New Haven.

The region has a lot of challenges that tendto come to a point in New Haven, even thoughthey are regional challenges, Casavina Hall said.

The ultimate goal, Casavina Hall said, isto end chronic homelessness. If the area has apopulation of about 120 chronically homeless


24/44

people, she said, that means placing 30 people a year intohousing over each of the next four years a daunting butdoable challenge.

After seeing him around for years, Columbus HousOutreach Workers Driffin and Branch found Davi

Pardy living in a storage container with anotherhomeless man over the winter. Pardy, 47 years old, had spemore than 12 years without a home, a slide that started withlosing a good job managing an Olive Garden in Orlando anaccelerated by a long battle with drug use.

Pardy said he liked living outside -- being close to natureespecially wild animals, which he still feeds when he has theopportunity.

His extended homeless stint, as well as his substanceabuse issues (Pardy says he still drinks beer but no longerdoes drugs) put Pardy high up on the housing priority listdriven by the Vulnerability Index. He got into housing rela-tively quickly. And while he describes the transition asdifficult, he feels lucky, too.

Kenny (Driffin) and Betsy (Branch) found me out in thwilderness, said Pardy, and brought me back to reality.

McFadden, whos now 50, tells a similar story. He scoredas a high priority on the Vulnerability Index, largely becausof his many years without a stable living situation. Whenhe left Branch after their coffee break, McFadden said heassumed hed hear from her in a year or two.

It was only a few weeks later when she handed himan envelope as he waited outside a shelter to get a bed forthe night.

Whats this? he remembers asking. Its your housingvoucher, Branch told him.

McFaddens mother died shortly before his girlfriend one reason, he says now, that his support network was soshaky. When Branch told him he had a place to go, McFad-den said, I remember closing my eyes and saying, thanks,Mom, thanks for sending her to me.

Hes now happily ensconced in an apartment in WestHaven, close to a bus line so he can visit his children -- twogirls and a boy -- frequently. Even during his years on thestreets, McFadden never lost touch with them, and longs tohave them back in his own place.

For now, living solo is enough. McFadden proudly showoff a cellphone video of his apartment, where he brews hisown pot of coffee every morning and relishes a daily showe

I love my man-cave, he said.

HOMELESSNESS INGREATER NEW HAVENBY THE NUMBERS

$23.96 Hourly household wage required to be able toafford the Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom apartment

in New Haven*

$8.25 Minimum wage in the state of Connecticut

$13.30 Average wage for those working in retailin New Haven**

24% Homeless people in Connecticut who reporteda need for substance abuse services

33% Homeless people in New Haven who had beenhospitalized in the past for mental health conditions

610 Homeless population in Greater New Haven,according to the 2011 point-in-time survey (this includes

children, adults and single adults, both in emergency

shelters and living outside)

106 People who are considered chronically homeless

93 Homeless veterans in New Haven living in shelters oron the streets thats nearly 30 percent of all homeless

veterans in Connecticut

351 At-risk people interviewed using the VulnerabilityIndex as of mid-August, 2012

15-20 Approximate number of the most vulnerablepeople who have been placed in housing since March

550 Homeless people who were diverted into stablehousing in 2011

5 Year goal for the Greater New Haven Regional Allianceto End Homelessness for veterans

10 Year goal for the Greater New Haven RegionalAlliance to End Homelessness for families

*Fair Market Rent is determined by the U.S. Department

of Housing and Urban Development.

**U.S. Department of Labor

2


25/44

Ron Harrington is amongthe first to admit hehasnt always made the

best choices in life. But when the56-year-old recently started a new

job as a customer satisfactionworker at an area auto parts store,he brought with him something hehadnt had in a long time confi-dence that he could do the job, anddo it well.

A program that bridges

the gap between the skills

employers need and the

skills jobseekers have.

BY CARA ROSNER

THE KEYS TO ABETTER FUTURE

Harrington, a U.S. Air Forceveteran and recovering addict wstruggled to find work for aboufive years, landed the job aftercompleting a job skills trainingprogram known as WorkKeys anKeyTrain. He found WorkKeysthrough Harkness House, atransitional housing program thserves veterans and is part ofColumbus House Inc., a NewHaven-based nonprofit, whichprovides a range of services toadults who are homeless or atrisk of homelessness.

I didnt know anything abo(the program) until I came heresays Harrington. I found out thIm qualified for a lot more thanthought. I went in there (to the jinterview) more confident.

The WorkKeys and KeyTrainprograms were introduced inNew Haven in 2011. They areWeb-based skill assessment andtraining systems from ACT Inc.best-known to most for its colleg

Veteran Ivan Valez, at keyboard, work

with Employment Specialist Bernadett

Barbour while Ron Harrington looks on


26/44

4

readiness exams. The goal is to bridge the gapbetween the skills employers are seeking and theskills jobseekers have. (See accompanying story,The Key to WorkKeys.)

The program fits well into Columbus

Houses mission, which is not only to provideshelter, but also to foster personal growth andindependence.

A recent grant from United Way of GreaterNew Haven has allowed Columbus House to

I made a lot of wrong choices in

my life; right now I just want to get

(on) my feet, says Ivan Velez. Hehopes that WorkKeys will help him

get back into the kitchen and have

my passion again.

expand its WorkKeys center from two sharedcomputers to 10 new laptops on which job-seekers can access the program, a printer and

a WiFi hotspot.Harrington believes the impact of theadditional computers will be great, saying,There are probably going be eight to 10 timesas many people using this (program).

Prior to the training, Harrington saw himselfas someone who was getting old and had alimited skill set. Working in customer servicenever occurred to him before, but now he looksforward to going to work, which he says hasreinvigorated him, and credits Columbus Housewith connecting him to the opportunity.

Certain Columbus House clients are morelikely to benefit from the program than others,

according to Bernadette Barbour, the organizations employment specialist. It works better fthose who are ready to find out what they wanto do with their life, she says.

Jobseekers who meet certain standards

through the program earn a National CareerReadiness Certificate, which they bring topotential employers to prove their work-relatecompetencies.

It gives you a nationally recognized certifition thats good here, its good all over thecountry and, in many parts of the country, is thcertification that employers look for, says AmCasavina Hall, United Ways senior director ofIncome and Health Initiatives.

Anne Carr, Columbus Houses former

director of program development, hopes moreemployers in Connecticut will embrace theprogram and the certificate, but knows it willtake some time to gain widespread traction.

It makes really good business sense forcompanies to hire workers trained with thespecific skill sets the companies need, she saysbut there is a learning curve that needs tohappen in the employer community.

Adds Casavina Hall, Organizations of allsizes that have used the system can demonstragreat savings and better results in terms of theoutreach, the hiring process, training andpromotion (at their businesses). The programshe says, helps employers find the right people

INCOME

Veteran Donald Moore (left) and Ron Harrington both

received a National Career Readiness Certicate under

the Pathways to Independences Employment and Enrich-

ment Centers job readiness program.


27/44

for the jobs quickly and helps keep them in theright positions.

A major benefit of the training program isthat it is customized for jobseekers, dependingon the occupational field they want to enter.

Donald Moore, a 48-year-old Army veteran whocompleted the program and earned his certifi-cate, is seeking work in the medical field, whichhas more stringent requirements than someother occupations.

Taking the training helped me refresh myskills, says Moore. The program is segmentedinto levels that get more difficult as they prog-ress, and theres a sense of accomplishment thatcomes with completing each one, he says.

He recently moved into permanent housing,

is studying at Branford Hall to become a medi-cal assistant, and is seeking a job that will workaround his class schedule.

For Ivan Velez, a 54-year-old U.S. Armyveteran living at Harkness House, the decisionto work through the program was an easyone. A recovering alcoholic who earned theNational Career Readiness Certificate, hecurrently is looking for work and says he wouldlike to get back into the kitchen and have mypassion again.

I made a lot of wrong choices in my life;right now I just want to get (on) my feet,he says. WorkKeys, he says, broadened myspectrum of possibilities.

Having access to the program, and thedetermination to complete it, is something thatwill pay dividends for him far into the future,he says.

It was something that I wholeheartedlywanted to do because its going to affect my life,not only now but in the long run, he says.The certificate can carry me a long way.

The Key to WorkKeys

WorkKeys and the supplemental KeyTrain together foa Web-based program that assesses jobseekers skills an

provides training to help them find employment in thdesired fields.

WorkKeys identifies skills needed to succeed at a wvariety of jobs accountant, butcher, hotel desk cleor automotive specialty technician, to name just a fe and assesses job seekers current skill levels.

Job seekers are assessed in three main areas: appliemathematics, locating information and reading forinformation.

Participants take a test; those who meet certain standards earn a National Career Readiness CertificateTo receive the certificate they must attain bronze,silver, gold or platinum levels of proficiency.

Different occupations require different skill levels. accountant, for instance, needs a platinum score math, and gold scores in both locating informatioand reading for information. Butcher or meat cutte

jobs require a bronze score across all three areas.

Along the way, jobseekers have access to the averagscores needed for the occupation they want, so

they know from the outset the benchmarks theyneed to reach.

A supplement to WorkKeys, KeyTrain is a targetedcurriculum written to help people master the work-force skills as defined by the WorkKeys system.


28/44

Andy Eder inherited two things from his father and uncle.The first was the family business: Eder Brothers Inc., a WeHaven-based wine and spirits distributorship.

The second: A deep commitment to philanthropy. Its a commitment that Eder has honored, not just with dollars, but with personainvestment of time and a passion for making a difference.

Eders resume is rich with experience and generosity in commu-nity service. A brief summary includes: He is a past president of theGreater New Haven Jewish Community Center and Tower One/Tower East, and he founded the Eder Leadership Institute, whichprovides development and leadership training to current and future

Jewish community leaders. He has been honored for his commitmeto the community by the Jewish Federation, the Juvenile DiabetesResearch Foundation, the ADL with its Torch of Liberty Award,and United Way, which honored him in 2010 with our Alexis deTocqueville Society Herbert H. Pearce Award. He and Eder-relatedfoundations have contributed to causes and non-profit agencies toonumerous to list here.

6

BUILDING

A BETTERSAFETY NET

BY JOSHUA MAMIS

Andy Eders drive to

make things better.

Really better.

HEALTH


29/44


30/44

Neighbor-to-Neighbor LifeLine. Neighbor-to-Neighbor got me closer to the street, so tospeak, and I didnt like what I saw: In additionto what I just described, there is also very littleinter-agency cooperation.

The simple hypothesis I came up with is:What would it be like if we had an all-starteam of providers cooperating having firstperformed triage on the client in trying to lookat the patient and the whole family? While Idont want to speak in absolutes and say noone does that at all, its extremely rarely done.And the instances of inter-agency cooperationare minimal.

You dream this up, you see the problem, you offer

talking about here? And so I went to UnitedWay and said, Make me a list please of the besocial service agencies in town which operate aa very high level and second, make me a list ofexecutive directors who are really excellent intheir particular field. And sometimes those lis

crossed. On top of that, there were some othepeople who made my list I went out and didface to face personal interview with I think 31executive directors and other types and I gavethem the same hypothesis that I gave you. AndI listened to the answers. I was able to find outthe following:

1. Maybe I wasnt so crazy.

2. That everybody thought this could be awonderful thing if you could pull this off, and

3. This would be awfully difficult to try to do, a

4. What can I do to be of help because thissounds pretty amazing.

I think people gave me some respect becauseI wasnt a government agency and I wasnt aninstitution, I was simply someone who waswilling to devote some energy and some moneto see what we could do to make things better.

I got pretty honest feedback from everybody.That led me to form a team of people who

are really involved and know a heck of a lotmore than I do. We changed it a little bit, wenarrowed the focus. I really listened to whatpeople were saying and I used that to form themanagement team.

What motivates you to not just identify the problem a

fund it, but to actually get your hands dirty at this lev

Its the way I operate. I enjoy -- Im not trying tminimize in any way the people who write acheck, and Im not trying to minimize in any w

the people who do the work but Im the typewho likes to write the check and do the work. Ifind that brings me a lot of satisfaction. I dontreally expect with this project that were goinghave it perfect and that were going to have a

There is not anybody in the business of

helping people who does not wish they could

help the entire person or the entire family.

Thats what they train for, thats what they

went to school for. What this project is going

to allow them to do is to fulll that wish they

had back when they were in school.

8

your solution, generously fund it. Most people would

stop there. But you also are intimately involved with

creating it.

Let me go back a step. I could dream up things,and that doesnt mean that they are practical orgood. I actually scared myself with this dream

because, and this is not me being modest,because I said to myself: What do you possiblyknow about this other than having chaired theNeighbor2Neighbor piece, which really wasminimal involvement in terms of what were


31/44

whole new dawn after were finished with it. ButI do expect to learn an awful lot and to be ableto make some recommendations and moveforward and attract other public and privatefunders to what weve learned from this.

How will you gauge success? Its not like a literacyproject where you can take people who are semi-

literate and at the end they can read. This is a lot

more vague than that.

Its definitely more vague. Thats why as part ofour team we have hired someone to measureoutcomes. What are the stats and measures thatwe need to be sure to collect on the front end tomake sure we have an actual accurate measureon the back end? There would be nothing worse

than spending your time, effort and energyon this, whatever the outcome is, and havingsomeone say, but you didnt measure theright things.

Is it realistic to think you can change the way people

and institutions do their jobs?

Heres why I think the answer is yes. I was nottrained in social services, so I cant answer thisfirst hand. But of everybody Ive spoken to -- andnot just the 31 executive directors -- there is not

anybody in this business, meaning the businessof helping people, who does not wish they couldhelp the entire person or the entire family. Thatswhat they train for, thats what they went toschool for. But the minutia of running a particu-lar agency, or having a particular job at a particu-lar agency with certain guidelines, has preventedthese people from being able to perform thosetasks. They have had to conform to whatever thestandards are of that particular agency becausethey need to get grants and they need to do

things to stay afloat.What this project is going to allow them todo with the blessing of their executive directoris to fulfill that wish they had back when theywere in school. And it is going to renew that.

Hopefully, this will make a huge

difference in the lives of people who

could really use some help.

They are going to have permission to learnthings slightly differently. They are going tohave permission to and they are going to findout how to perform the triage to understandwhats going on with that particular person orfamily and they are going to have the training toknow where to send those peopleI think that issuch a turn on for most people its not what Ithink, theyre the ones who are saying this.Thats why I think they would all like to be partof this project.

What do you get out of it?

Satisfaction, I hope. When you think about it,here, quite by accident I just really saw thingsI didnt like, I thought of some way of trying toaddress it, I processed that with people whoknew a heck of a lot more than me. They gaveme encouragement and many of them partici-pated in the management of this, and some ofthem are going to participate as heads ofagencies that are going to be part of this. Itsgoing to be a team of people who have neverreally worked together like this that hopefullymakes a huge difference in the lives of peoplewho could really use some help. How could younot get excited about that?


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0

A

s a personal banker, Jennifer Hanley used to helping people manage theirmoney. But her financial guidance

became even more personal and reached anentirely new demographic during her time aa volunteer budget coach in United WaysSmart About Money (SAM) program.

SAM helps families work toward theirfinancial goals through one-on-one sessions witrained volunteer budget coaches. The freeprogram is offered by United Way in partner-ship with The Annie E. Casey Foundation.

For Hanley, who works at Wells Fargo inSeymour, it was a truly rewarding experiencehelping a single woman identify financial goaland outline steps toward achieving them. Shecreated short-term goals which were basic, sucas getting her prescriptions filled, as well asmore long-term objectives like getting a largehole in her homes roof repaired, Hanley says.

While there are no income restrictions toreceive the programs services, SAM is gearedtoward low- to middle-income households. It isparticularly helpful for those who have income

but need some help living within their budgetsor meeting financial goals, such as saving forcollege or buying a home.

Working with the woman from Aprilthrough July, Hanley saw a dramatic transformtion in her from someone prone to dwell onher past and present troubles, to a woman who

BY CARA ROSNER

MEET THE SAMCOACHES

Theyll teach youhow to be Smart

About Money.

Budget coaches Jennifer Hanley

and Tim Gomer (below).


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was empowered to take more control over herfinances and looked increasingly toward herfuture instead of her past.

She really just was opening up to me in thebeginning, telling me more of her life (than herfinances), Hanley says. In the end, she seemedto gain a clearer sense of not only where she

wanted to go, but what she needed to do to getthere, Hanley says.

One of the first things the pair worked onwas keeping better tabs on where the womanspent her money. The woman at first wasresistant, claiming she didnt spend muchmoney so didnt need to make a written list ofexpenses. But keeping track of bus fares andother seemingly small costs was eye-openingfor her.

Passing along that knowledge is empowering,

Hanley says. It wasnt (me) telling her what todo. It was (me) guiding her in what she wantedto do. In the end, she was very grateful becauseof the awareness. It gave her kind of a kickstart.

While her professional background inbanking helped, Hanley says anyone interestedin helping others on the path to financialsecurity can be a SAM budget coach, particularlywith the training provided by United Way.

Since SAMs inception, volunteers havedonated their time to help families in need.

While some come from financial companies likeStart Community Bank, Connex Credit Unionand Peoples United Bank, others are employedby places such as Yale University, the SouthCentral Connecticut Regional Water Authorityand Charter Oak State College, among others.

For Tim Gomer, a budget analyst at Yale-New Haven Hospital, volunteering as a SAMbudget coach last fall and this past springbrought a new experience and perspective.

It was definitely different; its not something

that Id done before, Gomer says of his twoexperiences, each time helping low-incomewomen. Both the women he coached werepreviously employed but suffered financialsetbacks due to health issues.

They had major restrictions on what theycould actually do, despite their good intentions,

Small steps have the potential

to be truly life-changing, setting

people on the path toward nancial

independence.

he says, so he helped them lay the groundworkneeded to gain more solid financial footing.Mostly, I tried to express the importance ofa budget.

Through his coaching, for instance, onewoman set up a bank account that she usedsolely to save money. She wanted to buy a carand, though she had a bank account previously,she didnt have one dedicated to savings beforethe SAM program. The second participant

Gomer worked with also started saving moneyto have as a financial safety net.

Though they may seem like small steps tosome, that behavioral shift has the potential tobe truly life-changing, setting people on the pathtoward financial independence.

The second woman that I worked withactually saved more money than she had before,Gomer says. That was pretty significant.

He recommends volunteering as a budgetcoach, even for those with no formal financialbackground. It was interesting to meet differ-ent kinds of people, especially people from thelocal area that need some help.

SAM also provided an eye-opening experi-ence for Hanley, who admits she didnt knowmuch about United Way and its programs

before learning about SAM through an emailher employer circulated in her office.

United Way blows me away, she says.Working with United Way, and seeing more ofwhat they do, its just really exciting to see all ofthe efforts. I would definitely do it again.

To learn more about SAM, visit uwgnh.org/sam


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Having this much fun should be illegal. That wasone volunteers comment after participating in a city-wide door-to-door canvass of families with kindergar-

teners last August. Its not an unusual response.

Our experience tells us that volunteers get more thanmerely a sense of accomplishment from their work. In most

cases, they also get apowerful feeling ofconnection to thecommunity. Theycome away with thebelief that together wecan make a difference.

Volunteers play acrucial role in our

effort to strengthenthe community.

Collectively, volunteers contribute $2.1 billion in sweat equityto nonprofit and civic organizations every year in Connecti-cut. Many of the organizations United Way of Greater NewHaven works with count on volunteers to do big jobs theycould not afford otherwise. They also appreciate the individu-al volunteers that come to them via our online volunteerdatabase, available at uwgnh.org/volunteer.

When you volunteer, you help knit the fabric of ourcommunity together. Volunteering brings people from

different walks of life side-by-side, making the kinds ofconnections that help us advance the common good. It is,in short, one way to LIVE UNITED.

WHAT A

WONDERFULEXPERIENCE!

Reections on

volunteering

The highest reward for a

persons toil is not what they

get for it but what they

become by it. John Ruskin

One of the best experiences Ive had

volunteering in a long timeA great wa

to get outside of the boardroom and ma

some personal connection. Alex Johnsto

Kindergarten Canvass, August, 2012

Volunteering with United Way has given

my best opportunity to put my charitabl

dollars to work to bring about the most

substantial positive impact in my comm

nity while also keeping me connected

and engaged with the meaningful work t

make the New Haven region a stronger,

safer, better educated and more sustain

able place. Tom Sansone, Carmody &

Torrance Day of Caring at the Barnard

Environmental Studies School, 2011

What a wonderful experienceNot

only did it build teamwork amongst our

colleagues at the Knights of Columbus,

but it provided a greater awareness ofAutism. It was wonderful to meet the

staffas well as the men and women

who have autism. Providing a workplace

and grooming them for a future job is

priceless. Lori Foster, Knights of Columbu

Day of Caring at Roses for Autism, 2012

There is no better way to get to know fo

than when you get together to provide

service for a worthy causeThank you

to United Way for providing such anenriching opportunity to provide service

to the community. The more often we

consider the needs of others the strong

our communities grow. Michael Ahlers,

Knights of Columbus Day of Caring at Life

Haven, 2012

Tom Sansone

2

VOLUNTEERS


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United Way of Greater New Haven is a non-profit organization, supported by contri-

butions from individuals, corporations, fundingagencies and the government, who back ourmission to strengthen the community throughstrategic investments in programs that deliverlong-term change.

United Way is a fully transparent organiza-

tion. All of our finances are posted on our Website, uwgnh.org. This financial information is asnapshot from our most recent, audited finan-cial report, from fiscal year 2010 through 2011.The full 2011 through 2012 financial report willbe available after November 1 on our Web site.

FINANCIAL

FOCUS

1 Other revenue includes investment returns andpension benet changes.

2 Program expenses include donor directed gifts,

direct grant expenses and program services.

Individuals/Employees$3,742,830

Institutions/Companies $989,764

Neighbor to Neighbor $273,321

Federal Grants $1,343,078

Other Grants $387,895

Other1 $733,139

TOTAL REVENUE $7,470,027

REVEN

UE

AND

FINANCIALS

TOTAL EXPENSES $6,740,430

Program2 $5,140,740

Development $739,584

Management and General $671,534

Allowance for uncollectibles $188,572

EXPENSES

United Way staff, including additional workers contributed

by AmeriCorps VISTA, and the Episcopal Service Corps.

United Way is grateful to AmeriCorps and the Episcopal

Service Corps for their support.


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COMPANIES THAT LIVE UNITEDWe recognize and celebrate the following companies and organizations for demonstrating their

commitment to creating lasting change in our community through their United Way employee giving

campaign and leadership.

United Way of Greater NewHaven has named First Niagarathe 2012 Corporate Community

Champion for their philanthropic supportand civic leadership. This recognition isgiven annually to an organization that hasmade significant contributions to advancethe common good in the community. FirstNiagara was selected for its leadership as acorporate sponsor, its engaged andgenerous workforce, and its strategicgrant-making in New Haven.

Among its investments with UnitedWay, First Niagara has provided essential

funding to support the New Haven SchoolChange Initiative, including a $3 million3-year grant. A key piece of that invest-ment is in Boost!, a partnership betweenUnited Way, New Haven Public Schoolsand the City of New Haven that addressesthe social, emotional and physical needsof students. First Niagara employeesalso contribute additional support forUnited Way through their workplacegiving campaign and volunteerism.

FIRST NIAGARA2012 CORPORATE COMMUNITY CHAMPION

Doing Great Things for Greater

New Haven

*Recognized for their additional support through a corporate contributionListing is based on the best information available as of Sep. 4, 2012

Bank Foundation

AAA

Aetna*

Agilent*Albertus Magnus College

Alcoa

Amphenol Products

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield*

Area Cooperative Educational Services

AT&T*

Bank of America*

The Bank of Southern Connecticut

Best Buy*

Big Y

The Bilco Company*

Blakeslee Prestress, Inc.*

Bonton*

Brenner, Saltzman & Wallman LLPBrescome Barton, Inc.*

C. Cowles and Company*

C.A. White

Carmody & Torrance LLP

Chubb Group of Insurance Companies

Citizens Bank

City of New Haven

Comcast*

Connecticut Container Corp.*

Covidien*

CT State Employees

Deloitte & Touche LLP

Donald L. Perlroth and Company

Durol Co.*

East Haven Board of EducationEder Brothers Inc.*

Enterprise Rent-a-Car

FedEx*

First Niagara Bank Foundation*

George Ellis Company*

H. Pearce Real Estate

Halsey Associates, Inc.

Hamden Board of Education

Hartford Financial Services

Hopkins School

Knights of Columbus*

Kohls*

KX Technologies

L.L. Bean*Laticrete International, Inc.*

Liberty Bank Foundation*

Macys*

Marriott

Mason Inc.*

McKesson Health Solutions*

Murtha Cullina LLC

Nationwide*

The Naugatuck Savings Bank Founda

NEU Specialty Engineered Materials,

LLC./PolyOne*The New Haven Register*

NewAlliance Foundation*

Newman Architects, LLC*

Northeast Utilities*

PCL Civil Constructors

Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects*

Peoples United Bank*

Pzer*

Phoenix Press

Pratt & Whitney

Principal Financial Group*

Quinnipiac Bank & Trust

Quinnipiac University

Regional Water AuthoritySargent Manufacturing*

Seward & Monde*

Shuster-Mettler Corporation*

Sikorsky Aircraft*

Stop & Shop*

T.J. Maxx

Target*

TD Bank*

Town Fair Tire Centers*

Town of Branford

Town of East Haven

Town of Guilford

Town of Hamden

Town of Madison

Town of North HavenTown of Orange

Town of West Haven

Town of West Haven Fire Dept.

Town of Woodbridge

Travelers Companies, Inc.

UBS

United Aluminum Corporation*

United Health Group*

United Illuminating Company/Southe

CT Gas*

United Parcel Service*

United Technologies*

University of New Haven

Vine Products Manufacturing*Walmart*

Webster Bank*

Wells Fargo*

Wiggin and Dana LLP

Woodbridge Board of Education

Yale-New Haven Hospital

Yale University*

COMPANIEST

HATLIVEUNITED

4


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Nina M. GlicksonMr. Thomas A. GoetterLindy Lee GoldW

Joseph W. GordonGiulia GougeW

Thomas GraedelCarolyn GrahamLinda Joyce GreenhouseCaroline GrifnMarjorie GuglinJeanie HagganGary and Sondra HallerMarsha Ham

Ellen H. HammondMr. and Mrs. George W. HannaKarsten HarriesPaul S. HarringtonAnne HarrisW

Jennifer McGrady HeathCaroline Hendel and John WysolmerskiErica HerzogMarilyn W. HirschMark HochstrasserAnne HoganJonathan Holloway and Aisling ColanHellen Hom-DiamondGregory Huber and Caitlin SimonErnst HuffMr. and Mrs. Lawrence HusseyThomas HylinskiCarol Jacobs and Henry Sussman

Carol JustDiane E. KaplanSteve and Anemone KaplanEd and Donna KavanaghPaula KavathasLeah KelleyBrian KellyDavid H. KelseyDaniel and Bettyann KevlesSusan A. KingJeffrey KlausLinda B. KleinRob KleinAlvin Klevorick and Susan E. BenderAlan and Joan KligerCarolyn KobsaHarvey and Ruth KoizimAndea Kovacs and Jeff Johnson

Caroline KoziatekwAlbert KrausWendy Kravitzw

Sharon Kugler and Duane IsabellaJohn LaheyCharles J. LangevinJohn S. L

uway cr web

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