Type of service: Social service agency
Connecticut employees: 60
Headquarters: Hartford
Top executive: Doug Sudell, CEO
Winning category: Social Entrepreneur of the Year
Hands on Hartford’s Doug Sudell wasted no time in getting to work when he took the helm as CEO in January 2009. By August, Hands on Hartford, formerly known as Center City Churches, had signed an agreement with Huntington Learning Centers, Inc. to provide educational tutoring support to about 80 elementary grade school students in Hartford’s Sanchez and Betances public schools just in time for the new school year to begin.
The agreement was the first of its kind in Connecticut in which a nonprofit partnered with a for-profit national franchise to support its mission of providing supplemental education. The concept is called social franchising.
The idea is for a nonprofit to partner with for-profit national franchises to attain additional, non-goverment funding to enable them to further their mission and reach their goals. While a relatively new approach in the way nonprofits support public schools, it has been utilized to great success in other areas, most notably, Sudell explained, by the Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream organization. Ben and Jerry’s works with ‘partners’ in a way that helps raise funds that serve a host of nonprofit social service needs. Nationally, there are about 100 business-related nonprofit owned franchises.
“We’ve taken that concept to the next level,” Sudell said. “We’ve been providing school services for some time now in Hartford, and we wanted to figure out a way to leverage our excellent relationships with the City of Hartford, parents and students to deliver a service that otherwise would not be available to this population.”
In this instance, Hands on Hartford is partnering with Huntington Learning Centers, a for-profit national franchise that specializes in student tutoring. The program is funded through the federal No Child Left Behind Act and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, more commonly known as the stimulus or the Recovery Act.
“We’re leveraging these federal funds in Hartford through a unique partnership that allows us to deliver the highest level of service to local students, with no burden on the city. All the benefit is delivered directly to Hartford students,” said Sudell. These efforts, he explained, are an important part of the overall goal to close the academic achievement gap for schools and students in Hartford schools, a major focus of No Child Left Behind.
All tutors are Connecticut certified teachers who work with groups of students numbering no more than six students per group. This school year, he said, Hands on Hartford hired 15 staff members to help ensure the program’s launch. Next year, Sudell hopes to grow the program’s presence to include 8 to 10 schools. This would require hiring as many as 80 part-time teachers and an additional three to five staff members, he explained.
“Especially in a down economy, we’re excited about being able to create jobs, build a staff and put a little extra money in the pockets of teachers who are also struggling in today’s economy,” he said.
The future looks bright for social enterprise public private partnerships in Connecticut, according to Sudell. “I see a lot of potential for growth here. As a nonprofit leader, we’re always interested in connecting with individuals and entrepreneurs who are interested in supporting our mission.”