Nonprofits See Tangible Benefits from Leadership Greater Hartford’s Quest Program

Four Hartford-based nonprofit organizations have received a boost from some of the region’s up-and-coming leaders participating in the flagship program of  Leadership Greater Hartford (LGH).  The Hartford Consortium for Higher Education, Oak Hill School, CountMeIn! Hartford and GreenShare Technology saw rising and established leaders from diverse career backgrounds - corporate, government, small business, academia and nonprofit – work on key projects as part of the Quest program.  It is the most recognized community-based leadership development program for professionals working throughout the Greater Hartford region, a landmark initiative of LGH for more than three decades.

The 11-month program kicks off with an orientation and retreat in January and ends with November class presentations and commencement. Workshops throughout the program focus on learning about one’s own leadership personality, participatory decision- making, effective group dynamics and leadership practices, including change leadership. The field experiences allow participants to meet the area’s key players and organizations, better understand the region’s assets and challenges, and gain a greater understanding of creative problem solving while leveraging limited resources.

Central to the Quest program is the community service component, a collaborative team project working alongside various nonprofits in the Hartford region. Through real world community projects, Quest participants work in teams and learn the tools and insights needed to become collaborative leaders. The four community-based projects tackled by the 2013 Quest participants, now completed, included:

Working with the Hartford Consortium for Higher Education (HCHE) to create a media device that would tell the story of the Career Beginnings program, which connects Hartford-area high schools, businesses, volunteers/mentors and parents in a coordinated effort to increase the percentage of Hartford teenagers who graduate from high school, pursue higher education and fulfill career goals.

One of the Quest project groups created a magnificent 25-page booklet – which has now been produced by HCHE and is being distributed to interested parties throughout the region - that effectively tells the story of the students who are a part of the Career Beginnings program.  They presented the publication to stakeholders of Career Beginnings at an event held at the Artist Collective.

 Working on the project were Brenda de los Reyes (Corporation for Independent Living), Diana Marsh (United Healthcare), Cara Farrrell (Women’s Health USA), Teresa Nieves (Village for Families and Children), Shawnee Baldwin (Archdiocese of Hartford), Lisa Galinski (Wild Heart Coaching), Brenda Pabon (Aetna), Vivek Mukherjee (OptumHealth), Karen Bernard (retired; Dept. of Correction), William Tarinelli, Jr. (Travelers), Alice Ferguson (HIV/AIDS Commission) and Shazia Chaudry (Alzheimer’s Resource Center). They coordinated with Martin Estey, a Quest 2012 participant, the executive director of HCHE. 

Working with Oak Hill School on a new, all abilities/inclusive wellness facility that is being built in Bristol, a second Quest group was charged with developing aspects of a recruitment plan for members and staff for the wellness facility.  They produced a video montage for marketing and a recruitment plan for staff and facility members.  The group worked with a 2012 Quest graduate, Leslie Sanborn.  The wellness center is projected to open in late 2014 or early 2015.

The participants in the projected included Bob Bourett (ConnectiCare), Pat Sebring (Imagineers), Kent Limson (Phoenix), Alex Cuevas (Stone Academy), Neville Brooks (Hartford Police), Leilany Rivera (Harc Inc.), Jim Mindek (UConn), Chris Baker (American Red Cross), Anne Hayes (Travelers), Casey Bandarra (Eastern Connecticut State University), Mel Camacho (United Way of Central and Northeast CT), and Dan Wenner (Day Pitney).

CountMeIn! Hartford is a new, local think tank whose mission is to provide thought leadership for individuals who want to turn an idea into an organization.  The third Quest group – anxious to help start an endeavor from scratch – set out to provide organizational structure.  The group focused on marketing, strategic relationships, board development and fundraising, breaking into subcommittees to develop a document with plans outlined in each of these areas.  They worked with Scott Orsey, a Quest 2009 participant , who is leading CountMeIn! Hartford.

The project team included Betty Ann Grady (Hartford Foundation for Public Giving), Aliza Finn-Welch (Junior League of Hartford), Mike Fritz (Shipman and Goodwin), Lee Hameroff (Goodwin College), Dartanion Reed (Hartford Arts Center), Jay Arcata (Halloran & Sage), Lindsay Ryan (Ryan Marketing Partners), Jas Millette (CT1 Media), Mick Connors (CCMC), Kiran Panati (OptumHealth) and Christian Sager (Travelers).

The fourth Quest group shared a passion for closing the digital divide for residents of Hartford, and worked with GreenShare Technology, a social enterprise and one of the first reSET Social Enterprise Trust projects, now operating in Hartford.  The organization refurbishes computers and then sells them to organizations that might not otherwise be able to afford computers.  The group developed and held a fundraising event which raised sufficient funds to purchase six refurbished computers that could then be donated to area nonprofits that the group had visited as part of their Quest program.

Working on the GreenShare Technology project were James McLaughlin (Murtha Cullina), Corey Fleming (Hartford Public Library), Jessica Gagliano (Lincoln Financial Group), Anthony DeSalvo (Travelers), James McLoughlin (Hartford Fire Department), Rasheed Ali (Phoenix), Christopher Pagano (Travelers), Jennifer Carrier (CRCOG), Matthew Wallace (CCMC), Dalyn Delgado (CNG) and Kim McPherson-Shiffrin (OptumHealth).

 Photo: Leadership Greater Hartford's 2013 Quest class

Charities Receive Record-Setting Contributions from Travelers Championship

Charitable organizations associated with the Travelers Championship, Connecticut's only PGA TOUR event, were well-served in 2013 - the event generated a record $1,253,000 for 180 charities throughout the region.

It is the largest annual amount the tournament has given since Travelers became title sponsor in 2007, helped in part by 2013 winner Ken Duke who made a personal donation of $25,000 during the tournament’s closing ceremonies following his playoff win in June.

The Travelers Championship donates 100 percent of net proceeds to charity and offers a variety of fundraising programs that allow for community involvement. Duke, who won his first PGA TOUR event at the 2013 Travelers Championship, attended last week’s announcement at The Bushnell, where Travelers recognized his generosity by donating an additional $10,000 to the charity of his choice.

Hundreds of organizations have benefited from the charitable giving of the Travelers Championship, most notably The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp. Founded in 1988 by Paul Newman, the Camp is dedicated to providing "a different kind of healing" to children and their families coping with cancer, sickle cell anemia and other serious illnesses. Through summer sessions and family weekends at the Camp in Ashford, Conn., and year-round outreach to hospitals and clinics across the Northeast, the Camp serves more than 20,000 children and family members annually. All services are provided free of charge.

The 2013 Travelers Championship benefited 180 charities through hundreds of thousands of dollars raised in the Birdies for Charity pledge-based fundraiser and the Chip In for Charity ticket-sales fundraiser. Additionally, the Travelers Championship raised awareness and funds for local charities through a variety of special events like the Birdies for the Brave Golf Outing, BlumShapiro 5K for Charity, Premier Limo First Tee Classic, Military Appreciation presented by Saint Francis Care, Golf Digest Junior Pro-Am, Northstar Wealth Partners Celebrity Mini Golf Tournament, Women's Day presented by Travelers, Powerstation Events Concert Series, and the LEGO® Children's Charity Golf Tournament.

Since 2007, the tournament has generated more than $7 million for charity, bringing the total giving since 1952 to more than $31 million.  For the fifth consecutive year, CohnReznick was the presenting sponsor of Birdies for Charity, by supporting administration of the program and contributing to a bonus fund for the charities that raised the most money. New this year, the bonus bucks pool increased from $15,000 to $50,000 to be distributed among qualifying nonprofits.

 "We are thrilled to be giving more than $1 million to charity for the fifth consecutive year, which wouldn't have been possible without the sponsors, volunteers and fans who support our event," said Travelers Championship Tournament Director Nathan Grube. "This record donation is a testament to the support the community gives in making our tournament one of the top sporting events in the Northeast. As we look ahead to 2014, we encourage everyone to continue to show their support."

Preparation has already begun for the 2014 Travelers Championship, which will be held from June 16 to 22 at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell. More information is available at www.TravelersChampionship.com

National Conference in Hartford to Focus on Nonprofits, Philanthropy and Voluntary Action

The theme will be “Nonprofit and Voluntary Action in an Age of Turbulence” when more than 600 researchers, leaders and teachers from around the nation gather in Hartford later this week for the annual convention of ARNOVA – the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action.

As the leading organization supporting research and education in the fields of voluntary action, philanthropy, nonprofit management, and civil society, ARNOVA conducts its annual conference to create a public conversation on, as well as opportunities for presenting research about, pressing issues and vital opportunities facing the voluntary or nonprofit sector. It is considered to be both a showcase for the best and most current research, as well as a seed bed from which new research is born.

Scholars, practitioners and students from the U.S. and beyond will exchange knowledge about voluntary action, nonprofit organizations, and philanthropy – and Connecticut will be well represented among participants.   David Nee, representing the Connecticut Data Collaborative and Terry Edelstein, nonprofit liaison to the Governor will be among the panelists for a plenary session of the Conference.  Among those attending the national conference close to home are Kyle Barrette (UConn), Mary Bernstein (UConn), Ron Cretaro (Connecticut Association for Nonprofits), Robert Fisher (UConn), Richard Frieder (Hartford Public Library), Maggie Gunther Osborn (Connecticut Council for Philanthropy), Reinaldo Rojas (UConn), Homa Naficy (Hartford Public Library), Nmarasimhan Srinivasan (UConn), Rebecca Thomas (UConn) and Jun Yan (UConn).

The three-day conference (Thursday-Saturday) at the Connecticut Convention Center will include more than 100 sessions attendees can choose to attend.  Frieder will lead a session highlighting the Hartford Public Library’s Immigrant and Civic Engagement Project.  Cretaro will conduct a session devoted to outlining Connecticut’s Collaboration with Human Services Nonprofits.  Rojas will present Community Development and Its Socioeconomic Impact in Latino Neighborhoods.

Over recent decades, the public conversation at the conference – held last year in Indianapolis - has evolved to address new developments in the fields, including social entrepreneurship, social economy and all aspects of civil society, as well as to meet the needs of those who study and lead “the social sector.” ARNOVA’s Annual Conference is the largest gathering held regularly anywhere devoted to these matters, according to the organization.

Conference organizers report that roughly 80 percent of participants will be based in universities or colleges, and include leading scholars and teachers. Many also serve as community consultants and nonprofit board leaders. The remaining 20 percent will be staff or leaders of nonprofit or social-economy organizations, full-time consultants to those groups, and some who play other roles in the world of philanthropy.

ARNOVA’s work benefits all of society by helping generate the knowledge and perspectives that can make organizations and enterprises more effective. With a focus on teaching, we are also playing a key role in preparing the next generation of leadership. Special projects we carry out have directly addressed the needs of nonprofits and foundations in developing new knowledge and sustaining important conversations vital to refining and improving their practices and services. In short, a wide range of organizations and individuals seeking to serve the public good are strengthened by the work of ARNOVA and its members.

Among the conference sponsors are the UConn College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Department of Public Policy and the Hartford-based law firm of Reid and Riege.

Photo:  David Nee, Terry Edelstein, Ron Cretero, Richard Frieder

Nationwide Effort by Newman’s Own Foundation to Help Veterans; Local Initiative Lagging

When Westport-based Newman's Own Foundation launched a national fundraising competition aimed at supporting the work of veterans organizations across the country – coupled with plans to contribute an additional $180,000 to the most successful efforts - the inclusion of a Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network (CPBN) job training initiative for veterans was encouraging.

With the deadline just hours away, however, the local CPBN effort is ranked 23rd among the 28 participating organizations, having raised a total of $691.

A select group of military service nonprofits – a total of 28 organizations across the nation - were invited to raise money and compete for additional funds.  The Honoring Those Who Serve Challenge is a fundraising initiative developed to help charities gain awareness, recognition, and most importantly, cash.  It is an element in the Newman’s Own Foundation’s commitment to military personnel, veterans, and their families, providing a public awareness platform and funding support to organizations that help those who serve.

As of November 10, a total of $388,922 has been raised by 28 participating nonprofit organizations.  The Challenge began on Monday, September 30, and closes on Veterans Day, Monday, November 11, at noon.  Only charities pre-selected by Newman’s Own Foundation were eligible to compete and win – among them Connecticut Public Broadcasting’s Veterans Vocational Training Program.

The CPBN program is free to veterans to train for a career in media arts and video production at Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network’s Learning Lab in Hartford.  Veterans learn from award-winning professionals in television, radio and new media production.  Participants gain experience working on digital projects and productions, ranging from live broadcasts to studio operations to web services.  Completion of the program leads to industry-specific certifications in digital arts or video production and includes portfolio development and business connections.

The charity that raises the most money during the Challenge wins a $75,000 grant. Second place will receive $50,000, and third place will receive $25,000.  Another $30,000 is being given throughout the campaign, through weekly bonus challenges.  As of November 10, the leading organizations were the Dixon Center for Military and Veterans Community Services and Easter Seals ($122,194), Operation Finally Home ($53,331) and Hero Dogs Inc. ($41,531).  All the participating organizations in the Competition – operated through a specially designed Crowdrise website - will keep the money they raise, regardless of whether they receive the additional prize money contributed by Newman’s Own Foundation.

To carry on Paul Newman’s philanthropic legacy, Newman’s Own Foundation turns all net profits and royalties from the sale of Newman’s Own products into charitable donations. To date, Paul Newman and Newman’s Own Foundation have given over $380 million to thousands of charities around the world.

Among a range of programs supported by Newman’s Own Foundation – including the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang Camp in Ashford, CT and an array of nutrition programs nationwide, the organization has been a consistent supporter of veterans initiatives and public broadcasting.  Earlier this year, the organization announced a series of grants totaling $2.4 million over two years to 13 public broadcasting stations and organizations. The grants represent an ongoing commitment to support open dialogue and promote civic engagement.

Funds were used by some stations to generate increased donor giving through challenge grants. In other cases, funds will be directed to programming or special projects, such as National Public Radio’s Military Voices Initiative, where the experiences of military personnel, veterans, and their families are recorded and broadcast.  Among the affiliates included were Connecticut Public Broadcasting and WSHU Public Radio in Fairfield. 

This fall, Newman’s Own Foundation committed $7 million in grants over three years to support United States military men, women, and families through its “Honoring Those Who Serve” program. The grants will be awarded to more than 50 nonprofit organizations that help military personnel, veterans, and their families successfully manage deployments and the transition from active duty to civilian life.  The current Challenge that concludes on Veterans Day, along with $300,000 in grants for nonprofit organizations that assist female veterans with career development, are segments of the overall commitment.

“There is no greater sacrifice than serving and defending our country,” said Robert Forrester, President and CEO of Newman’s Own Foundation. “We have a responsibility to support our military men and women, since they protect the freedom and privileges we enjoy as Americans.”

The grants will help military service organizations across the country that deal with issues such as health, housing, education, career development, and family support. When veterans return home, they face vast and complex challenges. According to the Department of Defense, the military suicide rate hit a record high in 2012, increasing nearly 16 percent over the previous year. Over 60,000 veterans are homeless.  The unemployment rate for Gulf War-era veterans was 9.9 percent in 2012, compared to 8 percent for all Americans.

“Recalling Paul Newman’s service in the United States Naval Corps in World War II, we have been committed to supporting military nonprofits for over twenty years,” said Forrester. “Paul felt that we can all make a difference by helping others, and there is no better time to announce our military grant commitment.”   The actor and philanthropist who founded Newman’s Own passed away on September 26, 2008.

For more information on Newman’s Own Foundation, visit www.newmansownfoundation.org. Any questions regarding the Veterans Vocational Training Program can be answered by contacting Donna Sodipo, Director of Education Services at dsodipo@cpbn.org

UPDATE:  At the end of the challenge, a total of just over $670,000 was raised during the Honoring Those Who Served Competition, including $741 for the Veterans Vocational Training Program at CPBN.

Stamford is #1 in USA in Workers with College Degree; Geography Key to Job Prospects

Stamford ranks first in the nation in the percentage of workers with a college degree, according to a  book that features an analysis of  the influences of geography on jobs, highlighting tremendous disparities that exist in cities across the country and citing innovation as a key jobs driver.

 “The sheer size of the differences between American communities is staggering," the book stated. " Stamford, Connecticut, the city with the largest percentage of college-educated workers in the United States, has five times the number of college graduates per capita as the city at the bottom, Merced, California.”

The New Geography of Jobs, written by Enrico Moretti, a professor of Economics and the University of California, ranked 306 of the nation’s metropolitan areas.  In the ranking, Waterbury was among the metropolitan areas with the smallest share of workers with a college degree, at 15 percent.

Stamford, with 56 percent, led the list, topping Washington, DC (49%), Boston (47%), Madison (47%) and San Jose (47%), which rounded out the top five metropolitan areas in the country.  Completing the top 10 metropolitan areas with the largest share of workers with a college degree is Ann Arbor (46%), Raleigh-Durham(44%), San Francisco-Oakland (44%), Fort Collins-Loveland, Colorado (44%), and Seattle-Everett, Washington (42%).  Yuma, AZ and Merced, CA, both at 11 percent, ranked last.

Moretti’s research and analysis reveals that the “new geography of jobs is benefitting centers of innovation,” and “among the beneficiaries are the workers who support the idea creators.”  He indicates that “for every new innovation job in a city, five additional non-innovation jobs are created, and those workers earn higher salaries than their counterparts in other urban areas.”

According to the book, the average salary of college graduates in Stamford is $133,479 and the average salary of high school graduates is $107,301.  Moretti points out that “the more college graduates there are (in a metropolitan area) the higher the salaries for high school graduates are.”  Overall, “the earnings of a worker with a high school education rise by about 7 percent as the share of college graduates in his city increases by 10 percent,” a statistical analysis indicates.

Morelli also notes that the education level of the workforce not only impact salaries, but also the level of charitable contributions.  “Among large U.S. metropolitan areas, charities in five brain hubs – Stamford, Boston, Raleigh-Durham, Washington, D.C., and New York – receive the highest contributions relative to their population.”

The book also ranks Stamford as the metropolitan area with the second highest cost of living in the nation, behind only San Jose, CA, and just ahead of San Francisco-Oakland-Vallejo, California.  Also in the top 20 cities with the heist cost of living is Bridgeport, at number 17.

The New Geography of Jobs was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2012. Moretti is Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley where he holds the Michael Peevey and Donald Vial Career Development Chair in Labor Economics. He is the Director of the Infrastructure and Urbanization Program at the International Growth Centre (London School of Economics and Oxford University).

Mental Health and Community Well-Being Is Focus of Initiative Honoring Memory of Ana Grace Márquez-Greene

The  parents of Ana Marquez-Greene, one of the students whose life was tragically ended at Sandy Hook Elementary School nearly a year ago, have announced plans to convene "Love Wins,"  a day-long conference for those concerned with mental health and community well-being to help build connections that prevent and cope with trauma.

 To be held on December 2 at the University of Hartford, the conference is the inaugural initiative of The Ana Grace Project, and is designed to “promote love, community and connection for every child and family,” and a day dedicated to honoring Ana Grace.

Nelba Márquez-Greene and Jimmy Greene have dedicated themselves to creating real solutions to the kind of violence that took their daughter’s life.  They have developed The Center for Community and Connection in partnership with the Klingberg Family Centers as a transformational initiative of The Ana Grace Project to identify the most effective ways to build community and interpersonal connection to prevent violence and promote recovery. The Center aims to accomplish this objective through research, practical tools, professional development and public policy.

The Center was inspired by the heart and soul of Ana Grace’s mother, Nelba Márquez-Greene, LMFT, a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist employed by Klingberg Family Centers. Nelba Márquez-Greene and Jimmy Greene “believe that love and community are the antidotes for violence and are spurred on not only by their loss but by their faith and the belief that it is always best to “Overcome Evil with Good,” according to the organization’s website.

Nelba Márquez-Greene and Jimmy Greene are both alumni of the University of Hartford.

The program on Dec. 2 will feature Bruce Perry, MD, Ph.D., as its keynote speaker and is a collaboration of the resources of Western Connecticut State University, Central Connecticut State University, the University of Hartford, Klingberg Family Centers and Stanley Black and Decker.  Perry is the Senior Fellow of The Child Trauma Academy, a not-for-profit organization based in Houston, TX, and adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago.

A workshop on Creating Compassionate Communities by Christopher Kukk will address weaving compassion into the fabric of learning (schools) and living (cities and towns) communities, drawing upon ideas from neuroscience, psychology, evolutionary biology, economics and other social sciences. Dr. Kukk is Professor of Political Science at Western Connecticut State University and founding Director of the Center for Compassion, Creativity and Innovation.

A session to be led by Alice Forrester will describe New Haven's efforts to reduce the impact of adverse childhood experiences using a two-generational approach.  Participants will discuss how collaboration and grass roots activism can impact children and families facing mental health challenges.  Dr. Forrester is the Executive Director of the Clifford Beers Child Guidance Clinic in New Haven, a community-based, mental health center for excellence for the treatment of children and families.  She was appointed by Governor Malloy to sit on the Sandy Hook Commission and has served as the Project Director of two National Child Traumatic Stress Network grants.

“For anyone whose child has been the victim of senseless violence it can seem almost impossible to go on. Grappling with anger and despair, you search for a way to redeem what has been lost, said Nelba Márquez-Greene on the organization’s website.  “And here we stand, knowing we must do something, something meaningful, to help all of us turn the page and begin the next chapter. Our hope as a family is to invest in creating solutions that will draw these individuals away from violence and replace it with the powerful love and connection that can only be found in a healthy community of caring.”

Additional session topics include the human cost of unmet mental needs in our cities, Mental Health First Aid, Circle of Security Parenting and Teaching and Learning with Compassion.

Conference participants will learn about and contribute to best practices in building community and interpersonal connections to prevent violence and promote recovery. Organizers anticipate that conference outcomes will contribute to a shared body of knowledge for community members, parents, and professionals to create their own roles in building connections that “will enable love to win.”

The program will also include presentations by Steven Girelli, Ph.D., President & CEO, Klingberg Family Centers; Bryan Gibb, M.B.A., National Council of Behavioral Health; Deborah McCarthy, O.T., Mindfullness Collaborative for Youth and Schools; Adi Flesher, M.Ed., Garrison Institute; Isabel Pacheco Logan, L.C.S.W., Office of the Public Defender;  Keith Gaston, M.S.W.,  Village for  Families and Children;  Charlie Slaughter, M.P.H., R.D., Department of Children and Families; Geoffry Scales, Hartford Juvenile Probation;  Karl Koistein, L.C.S.W., DCF;  and Iran Nazarrio, COMPASS Youth Collaborative.

There will also be a performance piece about gun violence by Janis Astor del Valle and Lara Herscovitch, and a performance by the Connecticut Children’s Chorus.  CEUs will be available for teachers.  Registration and additional information is available at

http://events.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=kdmy5ioab&oeidk=a07e8bf8e4yaa208d5f

Founded in 1903, Klingberg Family Centers is a private nonprofit charitable organization offering an array of treatment programs. The organization’s programs are designed to serve children and families whose lives have been affected by trauma in its various forms, family difficulties, and mental health issues.

Connecticut “Ideas Worth Spreading” Resonate in Massachusetts in TED Talks

TED came to Springfield, Massachusetts this month with a decidedly Connecticut flavor, as a quarter of the featured speakers offering “ideas worth spreading,” hailed from the “still revolutionary” state.

Of the 16 “TED talks” on the agenda during a day-long program sponsored by and held at the headquarters of Mass Mutual, four of the speakers were from Connecticut, and left the specially selected audience intrigued, impressed and inspired.

Well known worldwide, TED is a nonprofit which began decades ago with a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become considerably broader, and “TED Talks” – widely available on the web – have become a global phenomenon, watched by tens of millions.

TED conferences “bring together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives.”  That’s precisely what occurred at TEDx in Springfield, where in addition to speakers touting the possibilities for that post-industrial urban center, a wide array of innovative subjects were featured under the theme “Driving innovation through diversity and inclusion.”

The Connecticut quartet at TEDx Springfield:

• Keisha Ashe is co-founder and CEO of ManyMentors, a nonprofit science, technology, engineering and math STEM) mentoring organization that connects minority and female middle and high school students with encouraging and supporting near-age mentors in the STEM fields.  “If they never know, they’ll never go,” is the guiding phrase of the initiative, reflecting the fact that many women and minority students are not encouraged to pursue the STEM fields, and are often unaware of the career potential or their own aptitude for the STEM careers.  Ashe is a Ph.D. candidate in Chemical Engineering at UConn.
• Maureen Connolly is an event planning professional with extensive national and international experience across diverse markets, and a visionary and passionate leader skilled at creating high impact programs with measurable results.  She is the foremost advocate for utilizing public celebrations as a means of extending social capital by having the community, rather than the event, at the core of planning.  She has written on the enduring transformational potential of public celebrations, and offers that “now is the time to harness that collective energy and accumulated social capital as a catalyst for social change” that will develop collaborations with the potential to breathe new life into hard-pressed cities.
• David Ryan Polgar is a Connecticut-based writer/attorney/educator and highly regarded tech ethicist who speaks on the topics of information overload, digital diets, and creativity.  He is an award-winning columnist for Seasons magazine, and has been featured in national media. Polgar speaks and writes about the ethical, legal, sociological, and emotional issues surrounding our relationship to technology.  He has created a “Mental Food Plate” as an approach to achieving deeper levels of thinking, and explores the imperative for an industry to develop that will serve as a counterbalance to the burgeoning technologies that “we can’t stop consuming.”
• Jon Thomas is the founder of Tap Cancer Out, a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu nonprofit and host of the most philanthropic martial arts events in the world.  Jon Thomas and his wife Becky run the Stratford-based nonprofit “in the slivers of spare time between their jobs in advertising.”  The nonprofit was founded out of a desire to respond to the devastation of cancer through a sport that Thomas was deeply involved with.  The organization raises funds – all donated to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society - through hosting fundraising tournaments, direct donations, merchandise sales and sponsorships.

The TED website points out that “TED is best thought of as a global community, welcoming people from every discipline and culture who seek a deeper understanding of the world.”  TEDx Springfield was organized by Jae Junkunc of Hartford, from Mass Mutual's Enterprise Risk Management Group, with support of a 15-member team that developed the program over six months.

TED includes the award-winning TED Talks video site, the Open Translation Project and TED Conversations, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize. The TEDx program gives communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are planned and coordinated independently.

A TEDx session in Hartford in June included talks by David Fink of Partnership for Strong Communities, Steven Mitchell of East Coast Greenway, Donna Berman of Charter Oak Cultural Center, and Rich Hollant of CO:LAB, among sixteen local speakers.

New Haven Foundation Issues 36-hour local 'giving challenge,' Waterbury Up Next

To celebrate its 90th anniversary, the Connecticut Community Foundation is coordinating Give Local Greater Waterbury & Litchfield Hills, a "challenge" to area residents to give generously online to the region's nonprofits over a 36-hour period from 7 AM on November 12 to 7 PM on November 13.

"Give Local" is based on the successful three-year effort by the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, which now underway with its annual 36-hour effort, running on October 2nd and 3rd - under the name "The Great Give 2013."  The effort concludes at 8 PM on October 3. [As of midnight on Oct. 2, 4,000 individual gifts had been received totaling nearly $400,000 for local nonprofits.]

CFGNH reports more than $1.3 million has been distributed in new and matching funds through its three previous giveGreater.org giving campaigns.  All donations made during the 36-hour period of The Great Give® 2013 to qualified nonprofits on giveGreater.org® will receive a pro- rated portion of the match pool.

In addition, there will be competitive grant prizes, including $1,000 to the first three charities to accumulate 100 individual donors and grand prizes of $15,000, $10,000 and $5,000 for charities with the greatest number of new donors. A series of “Golden Ticket” awards wil also provide funds, recognizing gifts such as those given between 2 and 4 a.m. or those given closest to midnight. In the current campaign, a total of $70,000 will be awarded in match incentive grants.

The Valley Community Foundation has set aside a matching pool of $20,000 for the Great Give. All donations made between $25 – $125 by Valley donors (residing or working in Ansonia, Derby, Oxford, Seymour or Shelton) or Valley Community Foundation fund holders during the 36-hour period of The Great Give® 2013 will be matched until the pool is exhausted.

In Waterbury, the effort is underwritten by Naugatuck Savings Bank Foundation and Crystal Rock. The Connecticut Community Foundation hosted five workshops between September 10-16 for nonprofits in its 21 towns to explain the initiative.

For more information: contact (Waterbury)Edwin Rodriguez, (203) 753-1315 x102, erodriguez@conncf.org; and (New Haven) Tricia Caldwell, (203) 777-7090, tcaldwell@cfgnh.org.

Big Trash Pick-Up: Volunteers to Clean Connecticut's Shoreline

A year ago, 2,450 volunteers in Connecticut removed 16,310 pounds of trash from Long Island Sound’s shoreline and Connecticut waterways. This weekend, the effort continues, as bird watchers, fishermen, sailors, scuba divers, students, citizen groups and businesses will be cleaning up trash from Connecticut’s beaches, islands, and rivers as part of the International Coastal Cleanup (ICC).

Save the Sound, the Connecticut coordinator for the ICC for the past 11 years, has worked with cleanup captains to organize public clean-ups at 25 locations across the state this weekend. (See partial list below.)  The cleanups will continue throughout September and October.  Interested volunteers should check the calendar for listings of clean-ups and to register.

ICC, created by the Ocean Conservancy, is now in its 28th year and has participation in all 55 U.S. states and territories and 100 countries around the world. It is a unique event in that volunteers tally up all garbage they pick up on data cards, which are sent to Ocean Conservancy for analysis. They use the information to track trends in marine debris and help stop it at its source. Last year, more than 550,000 people picked up more than 10 million pounds of trash along nearly 20,000 miles of coastline worldwide.

Bank of America is Lead Sponsor of Save the Sound’s ICC Cleanups in Connecticut, and employees from the company are leading and participating in a cleanup at Jennings Beach in Fairfield on Saturday, as well as co-leading a cleanup with the New Haven Rotary club at Lighthouse Point Park.

Working in both New York and Connecticut, Save the Sound has established a 40-year track record of restoring and protecting the waters and shorelines of the Sound.  A program of Connecticut Fund for the Environment, Save the Sound recently received a $50,000 grant from the Fairfield County Community Foundation to support its green infrastructure work in partnership with the City of Bridgeport and the Bridgeport Water Pollution Control Authority. The grant will further Save the Sound's efforts to work with towns to implement innovative installations that act like sponges to absorb and filter stormwater runoff, thereby reducing flooding and improving the water quality of Long Island Sound.

For a complete list of the over 43 ICC cleanups happening in Connecticut throughout September and October, please visit http://www.ctenvironment.org/get-involved/calendar.cfm. A Facebook page has additional information.

Saturday, September 21

NEW HAVEN, 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Bank of America, New Haven Rotary Club, and Save the Sound executive director Curt Johnson at Lighthouse Point Park.

FAIRFIELD,  9:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Bank of America cleanup at Jennings Beach.

NEW LONDON,10:00 AM – 11:30 AM

Local citizen cleanups at Ocean Beach and Alewife Cove Tidal Creek.

 Sunday, September 22

WESTPORT, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM, 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM

 Friends of Sherwood Island State Park and National Charity League of Ridgefield will hold cleanups at Sherwood Island.

MILFORD, 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM

The Boy Scouts will hold two cleanups at Audubon Coastal Center and Gulf Beach.

New Audio Service To Help Students Challenged by Reading; Innovative Pilot is First in Nation

As students across the state return to begin a new academic year, the Connecticut Radio Information System (CRIS) is launching a first-of-its-kind service for schools, providing instant access to audio versions of educational materials, the Common Core State Standard text exemplars, and children’s magazines on any mobile device, including tablets, smartphones, and MP3 players, or computers with Internet access.

CRISKids™ For Schools is geared for students who are visually impaired or are print-challenged for any reason including a learning, physical, intellectual or emotional disability. The new service also provides custom recordings to fit the needs of the students.

Nearly a dozen schools have signed up to participate in the pilot of CRISKids For Schools.  Student outcomes will be submitted for evaluation by the U.S. Department of Education.  CRISKids For Schools is the only extensive line-up of audio versions of children’s magazines, educational materials and the Common Core State Standards featuring human narration in the nation.

Early results of the new initiative have been impressive, officials say, noting that teachers report that students participating in the CRISKids pilot are reading and enjoying it more. Megan O’Brien, a Grade 5 teacher at Clover Street School in Windsor, has noticed a transformation with her reluctant Grade 5 readers since using MP3 players downloaded with CRISKids.

“They think it’s awesome,” she said, noting that the students are far more motivated to read now with the help of CRISKids.

Support for CRISKids for Schools comes from the generous funding of several foundations, including Help for the Blind of Eastern Connecticut, Fund for Greater Hartford, The Gibney Family Foundation, and the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.

The Connecticut Radio Information System is Connecticut's only radio reading service, and is registered with the state of Connecticut as a private, nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization. CRIS broadcasts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from a broadcast center in Windsor, and regional satellite studios in Danbury, Norwich, Trumbull, and West Haven.

The programs broadcast on CRIS Radio are available to individuals who, because of vision loss, learning disability or physical handicap, are unable to read printed material.   CRIS Radio's live programming is provided free of charge and is available on specially tuned radios (provided free), cable providers, your telephone and online.  In addition, in recent years CRIS has become available on an iPhone, iPad/tablet, Internet radio or downloaded onto an iPod/MP3 player.

Earlier this year, the organization launched CRISKids™ Magazines, which provides audio versions of more than a dozen children’s magazines, and brought the initiative directly to children’s hospital beds.  In another first-in-the-nation initiative, Connecticut Children’s Medical Center teamed with CRIS Radio to offer the audio service to their patients  unable to turn the pages of magazines due to their medical condition or while receiving treatment.