Hartford Opportunity Youth Collaborative Receives $1.2 Million to Support Education and Employment Programming, Sets Ambitious New Goal

The Hartford Opportunity Youth Collaborative (HOYC) has been leading the work to create a comprehensive approach to increasing the scale and impact of programs serving at-risk and disconnected youth in Hartford. Chaired by the Mayor of Hartford and including leaders in education, youth development, and workforce development, HOYC is focused on addressing the needs of opportunity youth.

To support this work, the City of Hartford, the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, the United Way of Central and Northeastern CT, and the Aspen Institute announced this week they will be investing more than $1.2 million to implement the HOYC’s newly developed two-year plan. The Nutmeg Foundation has also been a significant funding partner supporting the Hartford Career Navigation System coordination.

For the past several years, Capital Workforce Partners, in collaboration with the City of Hartford and the United Way, has served as the volunteer backbone agency for the HOYC.  Now, with an ambitious long-term objective of decreasing the number of disconnected young people by over 50 percent over the next five years, HOYC is reemerging with renewed energy and purpose—driven by the city’s unwavering commitment to its young people.

According to the 2023 Dalio Education report Connecticut’s Unspoken Crisis: Getting young people back on track, one in three Connecticut high school students are at-risk of not graduating, and one in five Connecticut youth are at-risk of doing so.

While this challenge is present in every Connecticut municipality in varying degrees, data indicate that  Hartford has the greatest concentration of opportunity youth in the state with more than half (53 percent) of students at-risk, and 42 percent of 14–26-year-olds exiting high school that were newly disconnected.

“This is a pivotal moment for Hartford’s young people,” said Alex Johnson, CEO of Capital Workforce Partners. “With these investments and the collective commitment of city leaders, funders, and community partners, we are building a quality career pathway system with support services that ensure our youth do not fall through the cracks. By working together, we can give every young person in Hartford the chance to succeed in school, pursue their education, and find meaningful careers.”

This renewed commitment is designed to ensure that HOYC can more effectively perform their mission to connect opportunity youth to pathways to obtain their high school diploma, continue their education, and find employment through strategies like developing youth leadership, enhancing career pathways, and providing access to training and support services.

Building on this mission, the Collaborative is uniting community partners around a shared vision where every young person in Hartford has the chance to thrive. Together, HOYC is expanding coordinated pathways from school to career, strengthening mental health and holistic supports, and creating spaces for youth to shape solutions and lead. HOYC will be aligning data and resources professionals and investing in the growth of youth-serving professionals, and advocating for the policies and funding needed to sustain these efforts.

The City of Hartford has allocated $751,000 to support an intake and referral platform, a data and referral Coordinator and associated community organization and agency capacity building and technical assistance. Funds will also be allocated for other backbone administrative and operational costs.

“This is an incredible moment for Hartford, one that reaffirms our unwavering commitment to every young person in our city,” said Mayor Arulampalam. “This investment from the city and our foundational partners is more than just funding—it's a decisive commitment to solving Connecticut’s opportunity youth crisis right here in our capital city. Together, we are working to ensure that every young person in Hartford has the chance to thrive and lead."

The Hartford Foundation is providing a $300,000 grant to support a new HOYC director staff position for a two-year period, a critical prerequisite for the implementation of the HOYC Action Plan. Funding will also be used to support direct overhead, administrative functions, and other costs.

“Through a series of inclusive conversations with stakeholders across sectors—nonprofits, city agencies, philanthropy, and community voices—a new framework emerged,” said Hartford Foundation Senior Community Impact Officer Joel Hicks-Rivera. “This reimagined structure is designed to be more responsive, coordinated, and centered on the needs and aspirations of Hartford’s youth. Backed by the Mayor and a coalition of committed partners, this initiative reflects a shared vision: that every young person in Hartford should have access to a youth workforce system that is built for them—one that is equitable, empowering, and aligned with their potential.”

The United Way of Central and Northeastern CT is providing approximately $100,000 in flexible funding to support HOYC operations.

“United Way is proud to invest in the Hartford Opportunity Youth Collaborative to further advance our shared goal of reducing the number of at-risk and disconnected young people in Hartford by half over the next five years,” said Eric Harrison, President and CEO, United Way of Central and Northeastern Connecticut. “Our mission is to mobilize our community to end poverty, and this is a great example of what it looks like when partners across sectors come together to create a measurable impact for young adults.”

The Aspen Institute has committed $90,000 to support HOYC’s inclusion in the Everyone Counts Initiative (data sharing infrastructure) and the Belonging Meaning Wellbeing and Purpose (BMWP) initiative, which will include youth leadership supports and professional development resources for HOYC members and their staff. HOYC has also been a proud member of the Aspen Opportunity Youth Forum for the past decade, joining a national movement to reconnect young people ages 16 to 24 to education, meaningful work, and leadership pathways. 

“Achieving the future we all deserve requires an investment in every youth and young adult so that they are meaningfully supported to belong, make meaning of their lived experience in ways that enliven their wellbeing and purpose. Hartford is demonstrating this vision in transformative ways, accelerating impact with shared purpose to ensure every young person has the opportunity to thrive,” said Monique Miles, Aspen Institute Vice President and Director, Opportunity Youth Forum.