Brighter Futures Initiative

For decades, countless families living in Hartford’s neighborhoods have battled a cycle of poverty that dramatically affects their children’s ability to do well in school. The barriers to a brighter future have been many.

Recognizing the problem, in 1990 the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving launched one of its most ambitious undertakings: the Brighter Futures Initiative. It was designed to help Hartford families improve their children’s school readiness - and their success in the early grades. The premise was that young children who were healthy and had high quality early childhood experiences, and whose families were supported in their child-rearing, would have a strong start to becoming successful adults.

Brighter Futures is a 'gold mine of innovation and ingenuity...'

Brighter Futures has had a tremendous impact on Hartford’s children and the Hartford community, strengthening the service system for young children and their families.

According to Neal Halfon, director of the UCLA Center for Healthier Children, Families and Communities, Brighter Futures is a “gold mine of innovation and ingenuity” that began even before much of the current research proved how important quality early childhood services are for the healthy development of children.

The 20-year, $25 million initiative has given rise to a plethora of programs that benefit parents, children and their teachers in a profoundly positive way. These are as varied as neighborhood-based Family Centers, offering day and evening literacy and education programs for children and parents, to a lead treatment program to help ensure that families have a healthy place to live.

Brighter Futures Director Richard A. Sussman said the Foundation’s vision, financial commitment and collaborative efforts “have led to the creation of a network of groundbreaking programs that have achieved impressive results. Several of these programs have expanded statewide, while others are in the process of being replicated across the country.”

In addition to working with local organizations to develop new programs, Brighter Futures has strengthened the quality and capacity of existing programs. For example, through the Child Care Enhancement Project, early childhood teachers in 23 community-based centers received intensive training in a nationally acclaimed curriculum that significantly improved their young students’ learning.

As critical as it is that young children are prepared for school, it is equally important for schools to be ready for their first students. Foundation board and staff realized that after careful review of national research and best practices, and building on the expertise and relationships we had developed through our work in helping children succeed in the early years, we had a role to play in this arena as well. So, in 2007, the Foundation funded a three-year effort to provide instruction and mentoring to kindergarten through second grade teachers in five Hartford schools in the science of teaching reading.

Over the 20 years, Brighter Futures’ programs and strategies were continuously assessed and evaluated by external evaluators. These efforts have helped strengthen the initiative’s effectiveness.

In recent years, Brighter Futures has broadened and deepened its work to collaborate with others to develop a system of early childhood support. The goal has been to create better alignment among programs, making it easier for parents to access quality services to help their children succeed.

“By promoting collaboration among various family and child service organizations - and bringing other foundations and government into the mix - we’ve been able to weave a tapestry of programs and services that supports families and their young children,” said Sussman.

Six years ago, Brighter Futures partnered with the City of Hartford and Hartford Public Schools to create a “Blueprint for Young Children,” (PDF, 1.29MB) which outlined specific goals and objectives to achieve measurable outcomes for Hartford’s children. The Blueprint called for the creation of the Office for Young Children. “It is the only municipal department in the state specifically focused on young children and families,” Sussman said.

“Truly, the success - and the promise - of Brighter Futures is its collaborations,” said Linda J. Kelly, Foundation president. “The Hartford Foundation, as committed as it is to ensuring that Hartford children have every opportunity to succeed, is not able to accomplish that goal alone.”

“We’ve engaged very committed partners in this effort - first, parents - the first teachers of their children - the many service providers committed to children and their families, other funders, the State of Connecticut and City of Hartford,” said Sussman.

Last year, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation provided $1 million over two years to support the initiative’s programs. The Hartford Foundation will continue to leverage private and public dollars (at the city, state and federal levels) by identifying areas of alignment among Brighter Futures’ goals and other funders.

In 2010, the Hartford Foundation’s board of directors voted to extend its support to the Brighter Futures Initiative for another five years, with an additional $10 million in support for continued grantmaking and use of other “philanthropic tools,” such as communications, convening and advocacy. The focus will be on continuing to strengthen the system of supports for Hartford’s children and families, in particular neighborhoodbased programs and municipal and state programs.

From its beginning, the Brighter Futures Initiative was founded on the belief that with the appropriate support, Hartford’s children can overcome the challenges of poverty to succeed in school. “it’s our role to join with parents and others to create a trajectory for children toward a rich and really meaningful life,” Sussman said.