Connecticut Institute for Youth and Police Relations to be Launched in Greater Hartford; Hartford Foundation, Travelers Championship, UNH, CCSU Collaborate

The objective is to enhance education and training delivered to police officers to assist them in balancing the demands of public safety and the best interests of youth and Black and diverse communities, improving relations between police and youth.  The newly forming Connecticut Institute for Youth and Police Relations (CIYPR) is to be launched in Greater Hartford, supported by funding from two well-known philanthropic institutions and led by highly regarded expertise of two academic institutions in the state.

A $400,000 grant from the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving and the Travelers Championship, announced this month and to be allocated over three years, will go to the University of New Haven’s Center for Advanced Policing and its Tow Youth Justice Institute, along with Central Connecticut State University’s Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy (IMRP).

The CIYPR program is expected to begin in the fall and will focus on police officers who have regular contact with young adults up to the age of 24, according to organizers. CIYPR staff will integrate community perspectives on current policing to inform the curriculum and discussions with participating officers. At the conclusion of training, the officers will focus on a project intended to make lasting improvements in their departments’ relationships with young people and families in their respective communities.

“We are grateful to have the opportunity to join the Travelers Championship on funding this holistic, evidence-based approach to training officers on building meaningful relationships with young people and better supporting the community,” said Hartford Foundation President Jay Williams.

Instruction will be delivered by University of New Haven faculty with expertise in youth justice, child development, and community policing. The curriculum is focused on changing approaches to situations that arise in the field and strategies for deescalating them while integrating restorative justice approaches.

The CIYPR will be led by Lorenzo Boyd, Ph.D., director of the University of New Haven’s Center for Advanced Policing and the University’s vice president for diversity and inclusion and chief diversity officer, who served 13 years as a deputy sheriff and has deep experience in police training; and Danielle Cooper, Ph.D., director of research for the Tow Youth Justice Institute and an assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of New Haven, whose research focuses on juvenile justice and delinquency prevention.

The Tow Youth Justice Institute is a university, state and private partnership established to lead the way in juvenile justice reform through collaborative planning and policy development, training, research and advocacy efforts. The Center for Advanced Policing promotes best policing practices and solutions, providing seminars and conferences on contemporary challenges in law enforcement and security. With a focus on leadership, the Center for Advanced Policing provides education on challenges that police departments face.

“The Capitol Region Chiefs of Police Association is honored to be working with the Center for Advanced Policing and the Tow Youth Justice Institute,” said Windsor Police Chief Donald Melanson, President of the Capitol Region Chiefs of Police Association. “Providing comprehensive training to expand our officers’ skills and ability to use a restorative approach in their interactions with our youth is vital to successful youth engagement.”

“As seen throughout our nation, law enforcement must continue the important work of building trust and legitimacy with the communities we serve,” Melanson said. “Understanding the impact of trauma on youth and families and interacting with youth in conversation will go a long way toward bettering police – youth relations. These interactions will assist in developing lasting positive police relations to build a better future for all.”

“The Center for Advanced Policing is working to build bridges between the police and fragile communities through empathy, lived experiences, and training,” said Dr. Boyd. “Our focus will be on fostering relationships by showing respect for the members of our Black community, cultivating compassion, and empowering officers to enact change in their departments as well as in the communities they serve.”

The grant will also fund community listening sessions and surveys to gather resident perspectives on police/community relations and ideas to improve policing practices led by Central Connecticut State University’s Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy (IMRP). IMRP’s mission is to effectively inspire and sustain a just, equitable, and inclusive Connecticut through independent research and evaluation, public policy analysis and development, and community engagement.

IMRP’s work will support the development of a final report at the end of the year to the Police Transparency and Accountability Task Force of Connecticut General Assembly’s Judiciary Committee.

“We are eager to work with the project partners at UNH and Tow Foundation as the Task Force engages the broader community in developing recommendations on police transparency and accountability,” said Andrew Clark, director of the Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy. “The support from the Hartford Foundation and the Travelers Championship is critically important and sets the standard for other regions in the state eager to support these efforts.”

“This program has received extensive support from local police departments throughout Greater Hartford, as their buy-in and commitment are crucial to the long-term success of this important initiative,” Williams noted.  “This is an opportunity to bring together police with youth and their parents to address the pain and make a real connection around the issues, as well as the solutions,” added Dr. Cooper.

The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving is the community foundation for Hartford and 28 surrounding communities. The Travelers Championship, held annually in Cromwell, is one of the premier events on the PGA TOUR and part of the FedExCup series. The 2020 tournament was held last month.