Catalyst Updates

Catalyst members learned about the availability of healthy food in Greater Hartford and how deficiencies in the food environment have a clear impact on the well-being of a community.

$50,000 in grants awarded to:

• Hartford Food System - to help expand a program that encourages small, Hartford neighborhood grocery stores to shift 5 percent of shelf space from junk food and soft drinks to healthier items to improve the diets of residents.
• Billings Forge Community Works - to help expand its popular Farmers’ Market in one of the poorest sections of Hartford to a year-round program including nutritional workshops and healthy food demonstrations.

Catalyst Endowment Fund members learned about the profound effects the recession and housing crisis have had on homeless people in Greater Hartford.

A $45,000 grant was awarded to Journey Home for its Moving On Initiative, a pilot program to move the homeless off the streets and out of shelters into independent, permanent housing.

Catalyst Endowment members studied Access to Health Services: Who is missing out and why?  The group examined access beyond insurance... Even if everyone had a way to pay for health services, what barriers exist that challenge people from getting proper care? Some of these included lack of good information, language differences, cultural challenges, and transportation.

$50,000 in grants was awarded to:

• The Malta House of Care - to help expand services of its mobile clinic, providing free primary health care at a fourth site in the Asylum Hill community, and to extend hours of exisitng clinic sites in order to reach a greater number of patients.
• University of Connecticut’s Connecticut Health Education Center - to establish a Healthy Hartford-Healthy Eating Project to provide preventive and therapeutic nutrition and healthy lifestyle programming to the community. 

Members learned about truancy, and explored a variety of factors that affect students and their attendance in school, including safety concerns, health problems (of the student or a family member), caring for younger siblings, learning disabilities or poor academic performance that have not been addressed, lack of motivation, perceived irrelevance of school, teen pregnancy, low self-esteem, or transportation challenges.

50,000 in grants was awarded to:

• Hands on Hartford - to support expansion of the Family School Connection program at Hartford’s Betances Elementary School, for families with students with high rates of absenteeism, tardiness, and unaddressed behavioral issues or at risk of academic failure.
• Center for Children’s Advocacy - to enhance the Truancy Court Prevention Project by improving staff coordination and follow-up on educational advocacy on behalf of students, enhancing case management and evaluation support, and educating parents and practitioners about truancy and effective responses. 

Members learned about local literacy levels, the implications these have for families and the region, and best practices for addressing our area's particular challenges.

$50,000 in grants was awarded to:

• Literacy Volunteers of Greater Hartford to expand technology-assisted literacy instruction, including adding computers to its computer lab and offering additional courses in math, English literacy, job search and readiness, and computer skills to low literate adults.
• The Hartford Public Library for a pilot project to provide basic literacy instruction for older teens and adults who are homeless or in transitional or supportive housing, using computer-assisted instruction in reading, writing and math.

For a second year, members learned about how issues of congestion, affordable housing, taxes, open space, service delivery, and more are related to current growth patterns of rural, suburban and urban communities.

$45,000 in grants was awarded to:

• Corporation for Supportive Housing including to create permanent supportive housing and for supportive housing Small Towns Project resource toolkit.
• Capitol Region Council of Governments (CRCOG), on behalf of the Capitol Region Partnership, for a regional indicators project entitled “COMPASS – MetroHartford Directions."
• 1000 Friends, to support its Grow Smart Connecticut Project.

Quality-of-life factors that we all care about are related to the way our state is growing. Current growth patterns impact all of our communities. Catalyst explored the challenges and the opportunities to shape our future by examining a study published by the CenterEdge Coalition.

$45,000 in grants was awarded to:

• Corporation for Supportive Housing for the Next Step Initiative
• Connecticut Public Broadcasting, through CPTV, towards the production of a documentary entitled "Regionalism: A Commitment to Place."

2003 Capitalizing on Hartford's Strengths

Building on the previous year’s topic, members focused on our capital city’s strengths. What are they? How can we make the most of these successes to keep Hartford and our region moving forward?

$40,000 in grants was awarded to:

• Greater Hartford Arts Council’s Comprehensive Community Calendar
• Hartford 2000/CREN Neighborhood Leadership Training Institute and Alumni Network.

2002 The Power of Perception

Catalyst examined the commonly held perceptions of our region, and how perceptions affect progress. They learned how a region’s identity is formed, and how best to promote positive thinking.

$40,000 in grants was awarded to:

• MetroHartford Alliance – the Hartford Image Project
• Hartford Economic Development Commission – Neighborhood Leadership Training Program

2001 Leadership in Greater Hartford

Presentations emphasized the challenges involved in developing effective leaders with a range of skills and that leadership must occur at every level in the community—in institutions and organizations, and on an individual level.

$35,000 in grants was awarded to:

• Hartford Economic Development Commission – Neighborhood Leadership Development Program
• Capitol Region Council of Governments – regional activities coordinated with The Gathering Place

2000 Inside Hartford's Schools

Critical issues facing the Hartford public school system were the focus. Catalyst members met with school leaders and parents to learn more about the issues, unpublicized strengths, and plans for the future of the Hartford Schools.

$30,000 in grants was given to:

• Hartford Consortium for Higher Education – Career Beginnings Program
• Hartford School Readiness Council – Family Development Training and Credentialing Program

1999 Inside Hartford’s Neighborhoods

Building on the previous year’s topic, Catalyst members focused on neighborhoods. They took a tour of North Hartford neighborhoods and discussed what was happening throughout the city and what it meant for the region’s future.

$25,000 in grants were made to:

• Capital Community College – scholarship funds
• Hartford Areas Rally Together (HART) – HOME program
• McDecca Child Care Center – computer labs project

1998 Revitalizing Our Region: The People, Plans and Projects

Catalyst members learned about current economic revitalization efforts at the city, neighborhood, and regional levels. They explored ways in which programs and capital expenditures impact neighborhood development.

$15,000 was split equally in grants to:

• Hartford Areas Rally Together – Home Ownership Made Easy (HOME) Program
• Co-Opportunity, Inc. – Young Adults Building a Future Program (YABAF)

1997 Impact of Changing Demographic Patterns

While enriching our lives, Hartford’s ethnic and cultural diversity has also created a number of recurring issues. Reflection on the experiences of early and mid-20th century newcomers inspired Catalyst to discuss some of the issues still facing our community.

One $12,500 grant was made to:

• Co-Opportunity, Inc. – Young Adults Building a Future Program (YABAF)

1996 Race in America: National and Local Perspectives

Catalyst explored race relations in the Capitol Region and considered grants that would strengthen leadership skills, increase public awareness, provide mentoring and educational support, and encourage urban-suburban public school partnerships.

A $10,000 grant was given to:

• Connecticut Pre-Engineering Program (CPEP) – mentoring at Rawson and SAND schools

1995 Children’s Health Care in Hartford

Catalyst members narrowed their focus on children's health issues in the Hartford area. Discussed were key policy trends and the importance of defining "children's health" more broadly and within the context of family situations.

Decisions were to award a total of $10,000 in grants to:

• Connecticut Children’s Medical Center – The Healthy Families Connecticut Program
• Hartford Hospital – The Hartford Violence Prevention Project with the RAMBUH Family Center

1994 Education Reform in Greater Hartford

Catalyst members explored ways to help school-age children, including after-school activities, programs for gifted students, and new enhancements.

Grants totaling $10,000 were awarded to:

• Connecticut Pre-Engineering Program (CPEP)
• Hartford Public Schools – PASCAL (Positive After-School Children’s Athletic Leadership Process)
• Hartford Public Schools – Humanities Alliance Curriculum Library Acquisitions

1993 Children at Risk

In Catalyst’s first year, 74 founding members chose to learn about children considered to be “at risk”, and then support programs effectively helping those children.

Two grants totaling $10,000 were made to:

• Hartford Action Plan on Infant Health – The Always on Saturday Program at Mi Casa
• La Casa de Puerto Rico – The El Futuro en Nuestras Manos Mentoring Program