Partnership for CT seeks education, workforce partners
PHOTO | New Haven BIZ
Partnership for CT board chairman Erik Clemons.
The Partnership for Connecticut, a public-private nonprofit coalition that seeks educational and vocational support for young people (ages 18 to 24) “disengaged” from secondary schooling and not productively employed, is seeking requests for information (RFIs) from potential service-providing partners in the education and workforce-development communities.
The Partnership, formed last summer with a $100 million pledge from Dalio Philanthropies that was matched by an act of the General Assembly, estimates there are some 39,000 “disengaged” and “disconnected” young people in Connecticut, primarily nonwhite and from low-income communities. It asserts that the plight of this group may account for up to $1 billion in lost public revenue and additional expenses every year.
Dalio Philanthropies is the charitable enterprise created by Greenwich hedge-fund billionaire Ray Dalio and his wife, Barbara Dalio, who sits on the Partnership’s board of directors.
To begin to reverse the tide, the Partnership seeks to help young people in this target group 1) complete high school or its equivalent; and 2) access career opportunities through job-training programs and microfinancing to start their own enterprises.
The help it accomplish these objectives, the group is putting out the word to potential partners in the education and workforce-development communities for input and proposals on how it might most effectively advance its objective. These proposals are intended to help the Partnership craft and pursue specific strategies to pursue its mission.
To accomplish that, the Partnership invites responses from educators, workforce-development and economic-opportunity program providers, employers, community leaders and researchers.
“I am excited to enter this new phase of our work where we strive to develop our strategy by listening first to what our communities and our young people see as the most pressing needs and opportunities,” Partnership board chair Erik Clemons said in a statement.
The RFIs will be reviewed by a four-member Program Committee of the Partnership’s board of directors, which will make recommendations to the full board regarding which potential partnerships they deem worthy of further exploration.
The RFI process will not result in funding or commit the group to particular strategies or collaborations, according to the Partnership. Its purpose is to help the group identify specific communities posing the greatest needs, as well as the most promising opportunities for addressing those needs.
The RFI application is available online at https://thepartnershipforconnecticut.submit.com
The submission deadline for the initial round of RFIs is Jan. 24.
The Partnership for Connecticut plans to invest between $200 million and $300 million over the next five years to help young people who have left or may soon be leaving high school and are not workforce-ready. Dalio Philanthropies and the state have each committed $100 million, and it is hoped that an additional $100 may be raised from private philanthropic sources.
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