Public/private partnerships can be tricky stuff. To make them work takes common vision, mutual interests and the ability to compromise. So finding a goal that would get state government, private funders, nonprofit organizations, advocacy groups and the business community working effectively together might be as likely as winning the Powerball lottery.
Yet that’s exactly the kind of partnership that emerged in pursuit of a share of a Powerball-sized $133 million pot of federal funds.
That’s the potential windfall that caught the attention of state officials and Connecticut’s philanthropic community in 2010. The money was part of $5 billion in federal stimulus money — through the TANF Emergency Contingency Fund — earmarked nationally to support emergency benefits and subsidized employment for low-income families.
With unemployment rates in Connecticut’s urban areas at nearly 26 percent and public assistance demand growing in a sluggish economy, a broad cross-sector coalition took action.
Their collective payday was $30 million in funds for Connecticut, with $12.5 million directed toward job training and subsidized employment at more than 800 businesses statewide — from small business to corporations.
It’s an investment that Tom Phillips, president and CEO of Capital Workforce Partners in Hartford, one of five Connecticut workforce investment boards, contends benefits both low-income participants as well as employers. “While our participants received training and job experience, many small businesses didn’t go under because of the resources [subsidized employees] these federal funds made possible.”
In total, the state’s workforce investment boards helped place more than 6,100 individuals — from summer jobs for youth to temporary job placements for adults — with federal dollars subsidizing 80 percent of each employee’s pay.
“The federal money provided an incentive for businesses to give low-income people an opportunity to gain job experience and proof themselves,” said Phillips, noting the average subsidized employee earned about $9 per hour. “These people want to work; they want to add value and meet their employer’s needs.”
Judy Resnick, executive director of the Connecticut Business & Industry Association’s Education Foundation, agrees and notes that the business community wants to play an active role in identifying the skills that are in demand in the state. One area that CBIA focused on with federal stimulus money was energy sector jobs.
In fact, CBIA, in collaboration with the Connecticut Energy Workforce Development Consortium, collectively connected more than 200 people with training in solar energy and electrical or gas utility work.
“These participants now have the entry level credentials and marketable skills to find employment” Resnick explained. “And we leveraged federal dollars to receive additional support from Northeast Utilities and the Clean Energy Fund to support this job training.”
It’s that leverage that Nancy Roberts, president of the Connecticut Council for Philanthropy, sees as one of the greatest benefits of collaboration in general and public/private partnerships in particular.
“Through this broad effort, we were able to secure $4 in federal support for every $1 Connecticut spent,” explained Roberts, whose organization helped engage the philanthropic and non-profit sectors as part of the effort to secure stimulus dollars.
It was an effort — and a collaborative model — that Roberts says should guide future efforts in pursuing federal dollars for Connecticut. “The reality is no one organization or agency can do it alone,” she said. And with budgets tightening across all sectors, getting government, businesses and nonprofits working in concert is a fiscal necessity.
“Ultimately, everyone involved [in this collaborative] was interested in helping Connecticut workers and employers,” said CBIA’s Resnick. “It was a classic win-win.” With a Powerball-sized jackpot.
Foodshare facing deficit
Foodshare’s Turkey and a Twenty Campaign kicked off with a new sense of urgency.
“For the first time in the organization’s history, we are facing a deficit,” said Gloria McAdam, president and CEO at Foodshare. “Despite the generosity of so many over the past few years, the economy has finally taken its toll. Combined with the perfect storm … we are now faced with the challenge of increasing donations at a time when many are still recovering.”
Foodshare saw a 30 percent increase in need through 2009 and 2010 and it’s not getting better.
Foodshare says it must raise $800,000 to meet the increased need.
“For every dollar that we are unable to raise, a greater Hartford resident faces an entire day without food,” says McAdam.
A turkey donation enables a family to participate in the American tradition, while an additional $20 donation supports Foodshare’s work long after the holidays have come to an end.
Leadership gifts from long-time supporters helped to launch the campaign including Lincoln Financial’s $40,000 Fight Hunger at the Holidays grant, and Stop & Shop’s donation of 1,000 turkeys during the Hartford Harley Owner’s Group ‘Turkey Run’ event.
