Success By Six Advisory Council Urges Legislators to Protect Early Childhood Services

United Way of Greater New Haven would like to share a letter from Co-Chairs John Leventhal and Stephanie Redding on behalf of the Success By Six Advisory Council that was recently mailed to area state representatives and senators from the following towns UWGNH serves:

Bethany, Branford, East Haven, Guilford, Hamden, Madison, New Haven, North Branford, North Haven, Orange,West Haven, and Woodbridge

April 8, 2009

Connecticut State Senate
The State Capitol
Legislative Office Building

Hartford, CT 06106-1591

Dear Senator,

As Co-Chairs of United Way of Greater New Haven’s Success By Six Advisory Council, we are writing to urge you to protect critical early childhood services from the Governor’s proposed budget cuts as well as act upon early care and education funding opportunities through the American Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. It is our hope that as leaders who care about early education, you will continue to work with us toward our goal of ensuring that all children in our region are healthy, nurtured, supported and have the tools and skills they need to learn and succeed when they enter kindergarten by improving access to quality early childhood programs.

Not only are quality early childhood programs good for children, research shows that investing in such programs can generate government savings that more than repay their costs and produce returns to society that outpace most public and private investments. To that end, we urge you to at least maintain funding levels for Care4Kids, state funded child care centers, quality enhancement, school readiness and health services. In addition, your efforts to effectively advocate for early care and education federal funding opportunities around the Child Care and Development Block Grant, Head Start, IDEA and No Child Left Behind will enable area agencies to provide more families with quality early care and education services.

We also encourage you to support interagency coordination, partnerships and accountability so that the state can continue to build an early care and education system across government agencies system. Such a system would make it easier for families with young children to navigate the different programs with their different requirements and would ensure that the state’s resources are being well-used. The Early Childhood Education Cabinet was an important entity in promoting coordination and accountability, and we encourage you to keep this structure in place.

Similarly, the Governor’s recommended elimination of the Commission on Children as well as Children’s Trust Fund will take the state several steps back in its early care and education efforts. The recommendation that core grant programs for the prevention of child abuse and neglect be consolidated into the Department of Children and Families (DCF) is concerning because the success of the Children’s Trust Fund is the result of its singular focus on the prevention of abuse and neglect. In addition, a distrust of DCF by many families would create a barrier to important preventative services.

Thank you for working to meet the needs of our children now in order to avoid costly remedial strategies.

Respectfully,

Dr. John Leventhal

Medical Director, Child Abuse Programs

Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital

Success By Six Advisory Council Co-Chair
Professor of Pediatrics, Yale University School of Medicine

Stephanie Redding
Assistant Chief of Police, City of New Haven

Success By Six Advisory Council Co-Chair

Chris Alexander United Way of America’s 2009 Community All-Star

United Way of America has named Chris Alexander, founder of the New Haven Book Bank, the national 2008 Community All Star. Through United Way’s partnership with the NFL, Chris and her husband Bruce, recipients of UWGNH 2008 Alexis de Tocqueville Society award, were invited to attend Super Bowl XLIII. "It was truly a once in a lifetime experience. Thank you!, said Alexander.

To read the full story about Chris and the Community All Star Program click here

What Nonprofits Need to Know About The Federal Recovery Act

The Connecticut Council for Philanthropy invites staff and trustees of grantmaking organizations and their nonprofit grantees to:


What Nonprofits Need to Know About The Federal Recovery Act

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will bring close to $3 billion to Connecticut, and additional funds will be available on a competitive basis nationally. There will be opportunities for nonprofit organizations and groups of organizations to compete for this national money as well as money that will flow through the state and municipalities.

At this forum, nonprofit and philanthropic leaders will exchange information about three
key issues:

• What opportunities are there for nonprofits to access stimulus funding?
• How will state and local governments direct the funds from the Recovery Act?
• Are there areas where nonprofit organizations should advocate for policies and practices that would be needed for the stimulus package to succeed?

An overview of the Recovery Act will be followed by breakout sessions with experts focused on early childhood, education, transportation, housing, environment/energy, health, workforce/job training, and the arts.

Presenters:
Shelley Geballe, Distinguished Senior Fellow, Connecticut Voices for Children
Stewart J. Hudson, President, Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation

The forum will be offered on the following three dates in three locations. Register for the forum using the registration on the date you intend to participate.

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Hosted by the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven and the Connecticut Council for Philanthropy.
Monday, April 13, 20098:30 am – 12:00 pm (registration begins at 8:30 am; program promptly at 9:00 am)
Adanti Student Center, Southern Connecticut State University , New Haven, CT(Directions: http://www.southernct.edu/aboutscsu/map/ )

Register for the New Haven area forum: send an email to: events@cfgnh.org

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Hosted by the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving and the Connecticut Council for Philanthropy.
Tuesday, April 14, 20098:30 am – 12:00 pm (registration begins at 8:30 am; program promptly at 9:00 am)
Bruyette Athenaeum, Saint Joseph College, West Hartford, CT(Directions: www.sjc.edu/content.cfm/pageid/264)

Register for the Hartford area forum at: http://www.hfpg.org/events/EventReg/default.asp code: ARRA414

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Hosted by the Fairfield County Community Foundation and the Connecticut Council for Philanthropy.
Friday, April 17, 20091:00 – 4:30 pm (registration begins at 1:00 pm; program promptly at 1:30 pm)
PepsiCo Theater, Norwalk Community College, Norwalk, CT(Directions: http://www.ncc.commnet.edu/directions.asp)
Register for the Fairfield County forum at: http://www.fccfoundation.org/Join/WorkshopRegistration.php

Additional presenters and information will be available at www.ctphilanthropy.org
or by calling the Council at 860-525-5585.
Space is limited, and reservations are required.
The following foundations worked with the Connecticut Council for Philanthropy to design this program: Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund, Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, Fairfield County Community Foundation, Community Foundation for Greater New Haven and Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut.

Orange Seniors Join N2N Effort

The members of the Orange Senior Center have been most enthusiastic about supporting the Neighbor to Neighbor Program of United Way of Greater New Haven and the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven. We have been collecting monetary donations throughout the month of March in our little houses built especially for this project and placed around the senior center. The members are impressed by the program because 100% of the donations go to help local organizations who serve the homeless and the poor. Our senior members, though affected themselves by the downward turn of our economy, are most generous when asked directly to give to a good cause. It has been our pleasure to help in this very small way to be Good Neighbors.”

Quote from Joanne Byrne, Town of Orange

United Way of Greater New Haven Sponsors Bill Harley Event in Madison

United Way of Greater New Haven is hosting a family concert with two-time Grammy Award Winner Bill Harley. The event will take place Sunday, April 5th at 2pm at the Polson Middle School in Madison, Ct. Ticket proceeds will benefit the Shoreline Arts Alliance and the Women and Family Life Center.

Bill Harley uses song and story to paint a vibrant picture of growing up, parenting and family life. Bill is also a regular commentator for NPR's All Things Considered and featured on PBS. Harley joined the National Storytelling Network's Circle of Excellence in 2001 and recieved the Magic Penny award in 2008 from the Children's Music Network. Creator of "Monsters in the Bathroom", "You're in Trouble", "Dad Threw the TV Out the Window" and "50 Ways to fool Your Mother".

Bill is from Seekonk, Massachusetts , and tours nationwide as an author and performing artist.

Please join us for this special family event! Tickets may be purchased on line at http://www.shorelinearts.org/. For more information, call SAA at 453-3890 or WFLC at 458-6699.

Increasing Access to Quality Food for Children in New Haven

The Connecticut Food Bank and United Way of Greater New Haven are partnering to increase the number of children in New Haven receiving nutritious meals on weekends and during school holidays.

United Way of Greater New Haven worked with a group of community volunteers to discuss the needs in our community around emergency food and food insecurity and to identify possible strategies to address those needs. The Kids BackPack Program was selected for funding because it addresses food insecurity among low-income children in New Haven by working with schools to provide food to children who may not have enough to eat at home on the weekends. Bags are packed with nutritious food such as fresh or canned fruit, cereal bars, peanut butter, and juice.

As an increasing number of families are experiencing economic difficulties, more children face inadequate access to food on the weekends. This partnership has enabled the Connecticut Food Bank to respond to this need by expanding the Kids BackPack Program by 29% in New Haven from the previous year.

Since September, over 2,000 backpacks of food have been distributed to children attending the Wexler Grant School, Katherine Brennan School, Hill Central School, Troup Magnet Academy of Science and Vincent E. Mauro Elementary School in New Haven. In January, The Connecticut Food Bank also implemented this critical service in the West Haven Public School system.

FedEx Office Free Resume Printing Day on March 10

WHAT:
FedEx Office (formerly FedEx Kinko’s) is offering free resume printing on March
10, 2009, at the company’s 1,600+ FedEx Office Print and Ship Center locations
in the United States.

WHY:
FedEx Office understands the economy has affected many people in a very
profound way and wants to help by leveraging its printing services to assist job
seekers across the country.

• The nation’s unemployment rate rose to 7.6 percent and the number of unemployed persons increased to 11.6 million in January 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
• On February 18, the Federal Reserve projected the country’s unemployment rate could rise to as high as 8.8 percent by the close of 2009.

OFFER DETAILS:
- Available at any U.S.-based FedEx Office Print and Ship Center
- Up to 25 black and white resume copies per customer
- Valid for orders placed in-store on March 10 during regular business hours
- Place orders by submitting resume in printed format or as a digital file
- Copies will be printed single-sided on resume-quality paper
- Completed orders must be picked up in-store

To find the nearest location and confirm operating hours, visit www.fedex.com or
call 1-800-Go-FedEx (1-800-463-3339).

ADDITIONAL
INFORMATION:

FedEx Office (formerly FedEx Kinko’s) provides access points to printing and
shipping expertise with reliable service when and where you need it. The Dallasbased
company has a global network of more than 1,900 digitally-connected
locations. FedEx Office services include copying and digital printing,
professional finishing, document creation, direct mail, signs and graphics,
Internet access, computer rental, FedEx Express and FedEx Ground shipping,
and more. In addition, the company offers FedEx OfficeSM Print Online, an
online printing solution for business and personal printing, at home, at the office
or on the go. Products, services and hours vary by location. For more
information, please visit www.fedex.com.

Connecticut Mission of Mercy Free Dental Services

For many individuals living on small incomes or without dental insurance, dental care is a luxury that they cannot afford. Many go for years, sometimes even decades without seeing a dentist. In communities with a significant impoverished population, individuals (primarily the working poor, the elderly, the disabled, or the uninsured) are often left without any dental care, and face extreme pain, discomfort, and embarrassment.

Connecticut Mission of Mercy is a multi-day dental clinic open to the public. Dental services will be provided to anyone (children, adults and the elderly) who is without dental insurance and in a low-income situation. Patients will be screened and treated based on their most urgent dental needs. Most importantly, all treatments and services are completely free. Services will be provided by volunteer dentists, U Conn dental students dental hygienists and dental assistants. All services will be on a first come, first serve basis. No appointments.

Connecticut Mission of Mercy 2008 Slide Show!

Slide show courtesy of Connecticut State Dental Association

Services Provided:
Cleanings, Fillings, and Extractions.

WHEN: April 17th-18th, 2009 (Volunteer opportunities available April 16th-19th)

WHERE: New Haven Public Field House (James Hillhouse High School) 480 Sherman Parkway, New Haven, CT‎.

Read more in the Hartford Courant:

http://www.courant.com/news/health/hc-mission-of-mercy-dental-0326.artmar26,0,3270131.story

Volunteer Registration is now CLOSED.

For questions or additional information, please contact Cecily Jones, Volunteer Engagement Coordinator at cjones@uwgnh.org, or call (203) 705-0627.