Nonprofit Profile: Connstep Inc.

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The Bank of America Charitable Foundation has donated $7,500 to Nutmeg Big Brothers Big Sisters, a Hartford-based youth mentoring organization. The donation is designated for mentoring programs for Hartford youth.

Pictured (from left) are: Constantine Andrews, senior vice president, Bank of America; Andy Fleischmann, president and CEO of Nutmeg Big Brothers Big Sisters.

In addition, Bank of America announced $465,000 in grants to be distributed to nonprofits throughout Connecticut. About $255,000 will be given to 25 nonprofits working to increase educational and workforce development opportunities in the Greater Hartford area.

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The city of Hartford has drawn an extra $2.2 million in donations, plus several million more in state and federal grants – $5.5 million altogether – to initially hire 200 underserved city youths to perform North End cleanup and beautification assignments, the mayor says.

“The single most powerful tool for building a better future for Hartford is to help give Hartford's young people opportunities for meaningful employment,” Mayor Luke Bronin said recently.

He announced $2.2 million given by various philanthropic groups, plus $1 million from the state Department of Housing's Urban Revitalization Pilot program to operate the Hartford Youth Service Corps.

That's on top of a $2 million youth-employment grant the city previously secured through the federal Department of Labor, said Bronin, who broached the idea for the corps during his mayoral campaign.

Set to launch in July, the corps will provide Hartford's opportunity youth — defined as out-of-school, out-of-work youth ages 16 to 24 — with the chance to earn a paycheck while strengthening neighborhoods.

Bronin said he aims to expand the number to 500 in 2017.

Youth Service Corps members, in collaboration with Rebuilding Together Hartford, will renovate between 10 and 20 properties within a designated neighborhood of the North Hartford Promise Zone, the mayor said.

Five organizations, he said, donated most of the corps' funding of funding to the program: The Hartford; Barbara Dalio and the Dalio Foundation; Aetna Foundation; Travelers Foundation; and Newman's Own Foundation.