PERSPECTIVE - Broadening Our Approach: Hunger Beyond Thanksgiving

by Miranda Muro I am fortunate to work at Foodshare, the regional food bank that has served the Greater Hartford area for 35 years. Each year, we collect and distribute 14 million pounds of food – enough to make 11.5 million meals – to a network of 300 partner food pantries and meal programs that serve people in need. At the same time, we work with partners to address the root causes of hunger. Even with all of this effort, hunger is still a persistent and pervasive issue in our region. Here in Connecticut, one out of every eight people is food insecure, meaning they lack consistent access to enough food due to lack of money or other resources. That amounts to 437,500 people - our neighbors - who are at risk of hunger, including 127,000 children.

Despite being one of the wealthiest states in the nation, hunger affects people of all ages and backgrounds in Connecticut, including rural towns, suburbs, and cities. Certain populations, including children and seniors, are at greater risk. For example, while food insecurity affects 12.2% of Connecticut’s general population, it affects 16.7% of our children. Food insecure households are often faced with the difficult decisions of paying for basic needs, like rent or medical bills, or nutritionally adequate food. And it’s getting even harder for our food insecure neighbors to make ends meet. A recent Feeding America study shows that food insecure individuals in Connecticut face, on average, an estimated food budget shortfall of $18.45 per person each week, up from $17.78 last year (and $15.16 four years ago).*

I am not a hunger expert. Yes, I have access to research and information which helps us understand the nature of food insecurity in our communities. But the real experts are the people who are living this reality every day - our neighbors who have great resilience and find creative ways to stretch their budgets. Like the seniors on fixed incomes who wait in line, sometimes in the rain and snow, to get a bag of healthy food from our mobile pantry; working parents who still can’t make ends meet and skip meals so their kids can eat; and households that have had an unexpected job loss or medical emergency and suddenly can’t afford to put food on the table. These are the experts we can learn from.

Our challenge now is to broaden our approach. Food distribution at food pantries, shelters, and community kitchens is a critical lifeline for many people. It’s an important part of the solution, but not the entire solution. Hunger is bigger than food. In order to truly find an end to hunger, we must also address the systems that intersect with food insecurity: poverty, housing, employment, education, healthcare, and more. We need to include and amplify the voices of the people who experience hunger, and engage partners from all sectors of our community to add their unique perspectives.

Through this collaborative and systemic approach, I believe we can create a community where everyone knows where their next meal will come from. This may seem idealistic, but I know it’s possible when I think about the tremendous community effort that makes Foodshare work, especially at this time of year. Right now people from all walks of life are taking action to make sure our neighbors have a turkey to celebrate Thanksgiving.

This holiday season, I encourage you to please support your local food bank and consider how you can help throughout the year. Hunger is a community-wide issue that needs a community-wide response, whether you volunteer, donate, or contribute your skills. Working together, we will make a difference.

  _________________________________________

Miranda Muro is the Director of Policy and Program Impact at Foodshare. Foodshare is the Feeding America food bank serving Connecticut’s Hartford and Tolland Counties. In partnership with the food industry, donors, community leaders and volunteers, Foodshare works to maximize access to nutritious food and other resources that support food security. And, because hunger is bigger than food, Foodshare collaborates with anti-hunger organizations, policy makers, and the broader community to build effective solutions to end hunger. For more information, visit www.foodshare.org.

* Source: Gundersen, C., A. Dewey, A. Crumbaugh, M. Kato & E. Engelhard. Map the Meal Gap 2017: Food Insecurity and Child Food Insecurity Estimates at the County Level. Feeding America, 2017. http://map.feedingamerica.org/

PERSPECTIVE: 10 Reasons Why Starting a Captive Insurance Company in CT is a Great Idea

by Michael Maglaras  A captive insurer is an insurance company that is wholly owned and controlled by a parent company, an association or a group, to insure its own risk. The owner can reinvest savings back into the operation.  Captive insurers are not just for large corporations but play a very important role for many small and mid-size employers.  Connecticut businesses can always benefit from an extra competitive edge to succeed and grow, and captive insurance can often provide that unique, cost-effective and profitable competitive advantage. There are 10 solid reasons to start a captive insurance company in Connecticut:

1. Workforce Talent and Skills in Abundance

Connecticut is home to a wide-ranging population of smart, resourceful employees who think big and work hard.  The workforce in Connecticut is well-educated, highly industrious with deep knowledge of insurance practices, functions and operations.  Connecticut ranks #1 nationally in insurance employment as a percentage of total employment and #1 in the U.S. for the greatest concentration of actuarial talent per worker.  This uniquely talented, creative workforce is meeting today's challenges, defining tomorrow's captive insurance innovations and setting the stage for the future of the industry.

2. Competitive Operating Costs for Captives

Connecticut’s operating costs are highly competitive and among the lowest in the U.S. in the insurance space.  A wide variety of business facilities are available at highly competitive costs, with prime office rents among the lowest in the Northeast. Cost efficient insurance is readily available, and tax and investment professionals are abundant.

3. New CT Captive Insurance On-Line “Tool-Kit”

A new online resource for business owners exploring ways to control insurance costs and manage their risk, “CT Captive Solutions for Business,” has recently been launched by state Insurance Commissioner Katharine Wade.  The toolkit includes instructions on licensing a captive in Connecticut, a list of recognized captive managers, FAQs and Insurance Department contacts.  Click here for the new “Toolkit.”

4. Innovative New Captive Policy Law

The General Assembly passed Public Act 17-198 (An Act Concerning Captive Insurance Companies) this year, with broad bi-partisan support.  The new law, which went into effect on July 1, created a number of new innovative policies that make Connecticut a tremendous domicile option for new and redomiciling captives.  The law allows the insurance commissioner to waive capital and paid-in surplus requirements for certain captives and lowers the minimum surplus requirements for sponsored captives.  It also establishes an innovative new category of “dormant captive insurers” so businesses can stay current through different economic cycles and re-start quickly as new business opportunities present themselves.

5. Insurance Sector Strength

With over 1,400 insurance companies licensed to do business in the state, Connecticut’s insurance industry is one of the largest in the world and a key part of Connecticut’s economy.  Connecticut Insurers write more than $32.8 billion in premiums annually and contribute $13.7 billion to Connecticut’s Gross State Product (GSP).  The state also leads the nation in insurance payroll, which contributes 5.3% of the total state payroll.  This can be attributed to the industry’s workforce of relatively high-paying occupations including management, legal, computer and math professionals, and business and financial operations.

6. Excellent University & Captive Insurance Linkages

Connecticut’s internationally renowned universities have been key drivers in the development of the region’s technology and knowledge industries.  Home to over 40 colleges and universities, including the University of Connecticut and Yale University, Connecticut’s higher education programs are unique in the nation and the world.

UConn has an undergraduate major in Actuarial Science, which is one of the few Actuarial Science programs in New England.  UConn also has an Actuarial Science Program that has been named a “Center of Actuarial Excellence,” one of only 12 chosen by the Society of Actuaries.  In addition, t the UConn School of Business offers an M.S. in Actuarial Science and an M.S. in Financial Risk Management.

At Yale, the Graduate School of Management offers a unique Masters of Management Studies in Systemic Risk for early and mid-career employees of central banks and other major regulatory agencies with a mandate to manage systemic risk.  The year-long program focuses in macroprudential policy, financial crisis management, global financial regulation, monetary economics, capital markets, and central banking.

7. Location, Location, Location!

Connecticut, strategically and conveniently located between New York and Boston, is ideally positioned geographically for captive insurance companies in the U.S. and throughout the world.  Connecticut is within 500 miles of one-third of the total U.S. population and two-thirds of the total Canadian population.  Connecticut offers a robust transportation network including a growing international airport, an integrated network of major highways, commuter rail, Amtrak services, bus rapid transit and bus routes.

8. Strong and Dynamic Insurance Economy

The insurance industry in Connecticut ranks second nationally in gross state product as a percentage of total gross state product and, as noted above, contributes 5.3% or $13.7 billion to Connecticut’s GSP.  Additionally, Connecticut defines “super sectors” for reporting purposes and the insurance “super sector” is the state’s largest by far, accounting for nearly 22.6% of Connecticut’s GSP.  In addition, Connecticut ranks #2 in the U.S. for Insurance activity that drives the largest percentage (18.1%) of the State’s Gross State Product from it’s over 60,000 insurance professionals.

9. Pro-Insurance Business climate

Connecticut has a pro-insurance, pro-captive insurance business climate.  The Department of Insurance and all branches of State Government are committed to developing new captives and encouraging innovation and insurance entrepreneurship.  The State provides potential companies and associations with high quality, abundant start-up tools and a welcoming and flexible regulatory leadership.

Connecticut also provides insurance brokers and producers, captive insurance managers, and tax professionals in insurance fields access to innovative solutions and resources to drive the industry forward, including a collaborative workforce and support from leadership at all levels of State government.  The Connecticut Department of Insurance Captive Division has significant regulatory expertise and a collaborative consultative approach that can help support and grow innovative captive insurance companies.

10. Generous Support and Financial Assistance for Captives

Connecticut provides many options for attractive and lucrative support packages of financial incentives, recruitment and training, research and development support tailored to each captive insurance company’s needs.  The state offers a wide range of programs and services to help companies prosper in Connecticut with financing, tax credits and other incentives including site selection services.

The state works with captive insurance companies in an ongoing partnership to ensure all the necessary support is given from the start-up phase and throughout the lifetime of the captive insurance companies growth to develop and expand the business and to improve legal and financial soundness.  Connecticut also has a strategic venture capital arm and the leading source of financing and ongoing support for innovative, growing companies.

Recent Growth and Success That Speaks for Itself!

In recent years, Connecticut has become known for attracting top-notch innovative captive insurance companies.  Just this year, Charter Communications, the second-largest cable company in the nation, expanded its business footprint in Connecticut by basing its entire captive insurance operations in the state.  The captive, Spectrum Communications Indemnity, Inc. will be the largest captive licensed in Connecticut and will provide coverage for Charter’s workers compensation, auto liability, general liability and employment practices liability.

The State has also recently licensed the state’s first health care liability captive.  That company, Keystone Indemnity Company, Ltd. had originally been licensed in Vermont and is has now elected to re-domesticate to Connecticut.  Keystone is owned by Masonicare of Wallingford, the state’s leading provider of health care and retirement living communities for seniors.

_________________________

Michael Maglaras is President of the CT Captive Insurance Association and owner of Michael Maglaras & Company, a CT based international insurance consulting firm specializing in providing insurance program consulting advice, including self-insurance feasibility testing and other alternatives to traditional insurance programs for a variety of clients.

PERSPECTIVE: Face-to-Face Business in a Digital Age

by Kim Estep If you pay attention, you can practically watch the culture of most industries within the business world going more and more digital with the use of technology. Businesses can run entire departments online, as well as keep digital records of practically everything that happens during day-to-day business operations, increasing the ease of performing in an industry by a significant amount.

With that said, however, person-to-person meeting culture has barely changed. Yes, LinkedIn makes digital networking easier and meetings can be done through video chat, but by and large, the preference of most people in the business world is to meet face to face and network using real human interactions. Have you ever wondered why this is the case?

In-Person Events Are Key

Even with the massive increase in business tech, people prefer to make business contacts the old-fashioned way. Trade shows and industry events are still as large, if not larger, than ever before and they don't show any signs of slowing down. This is because people do business with people they know, like and trust. You don't build a relationship on trust in the digital sector, you do this by meeting face to face and sharing personal experiences.

Here are a few reasons why in-person events are still king when it comes to making business relationships:

• You can unlock new opportunities
• You can grow your business:
• You have a unique opportunity to build and refine your network:

A Case Study: FUBU Founder Daymond John

If you've ever watched Shark Tank, you know John, one of the most savvy and aggressive investors in the "tank". Many people know that he became successful as the founder and CEO of the young men's clothing brand FUBU, but few know the story of how he got his start.

He started his business as a young man with practically no business experience, but upon hearing about a large fashion trade show in Las Vegas where he thought he could find potential buyers, he snuck in. The connections he met at this face-to-face event took him further than any digital pitch he ever could've given. He returned home with $300,000 worth of apparel orders, including one from the department store Macy's.

The Bottom Line

Trade shows, industry events and conferences are about meeting thought leaders, peers in your industry and prospective clients and customers, as well as growing your network. For as much as the business world has gone digital, almost everyone is still in the business of making relationships, and in-person events are still the best way to do so.

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Kim Estep is President and Founder of Convention Nation, based in Burlington, CT.  The organization’s website and newsletter provide useful and complete online event information to the Convention Nation, including convention reviews, conference guest speaker analysis, convention location-specific travel and planning tips, real-time event coverage and insider convention information.

PERSPECTIVE: #MeToo - Intervening to Change A Culture That Tolerates Sexual Violence

by Laura Cordes Hundreds of thousands of heartbreaking accounts of sexual harassment, assault and rape are pouring forth online from survivors across the country who are using their incredible courage to hashtag, #MeToo.

Nearly 10 years ago, activist Tarana Burke first used “Me Too” to create space and support for women and girls of color. Last week actress Alyssa Milano utilized the hashtag in the wake of multiple accounts of harassment and assault by Harvey Weinstein. It was a call to action for survivors to demonstrate the scope of the problem. Women and men alike are posting at lightning speed in solidarity.

48 hours later #MeToo was tweeted nearly a million times. Facebook reports that 45% of its American users have had friends posting "MeToo" messages.

These numbers are not, however, merely a trending topic, or a social media moment.

Sexual violence - in all its forms - continues to be pervasive, predominately perpetrated by people known to us, and grossly accepted and minimized by the very people and institutions who have the power to intervene and to create communities where such behavior is never tolerated.

These hashtag stories bear witness to the reality that women and girls in particular are subject to harassment, discrimination, unwanted touching and violence at nearly every age and stage of our lives. It happens at work, on the street, in the home, on trains, at school, and on the playground.

As advocates in the anti-sexual violence movement, these stories are all too familiar to us. Last year alone, our member sexual assault crisis services programs worked with over 6,500 child, adolescent and adult victims and survivors of sexual violence across the state. More than 15% were men and boys.

Beyond illustrating the staggering numbers of assaults, the MeToo posts underscore the predatory nature and the patterns of manipulation, coercion, threats, retaliation and violence that perpetrators use to harm others. They wield their power and the illusion of trust to not only target and access their victims but to silence them. They count on others to stay silent too - to be too uncomfortable to say something, to look the other way, or to join them in blaming the victim should they disclose or ask for help.

When survivors speak out, chances are they will not be believed. Most are shamed, shunned, blamed and re-traumatized.

It is no wonder that rape remains the most under-reported crime in this country.

For every Harvey Weinstein, Roger Ailes, Jerry Sandusky and Bill Cosby there is another politician, teacher, coach, salesman, scientist, or bus driver who cat calls, gropes women, threatens job security, coerces vulnerable teens, intimidates or rapes. They are someone’s trusted and loved father, brother, son, friend or spouse. They are people we know, people we trust.

Survivors are people we know and trust, too. They do not owe us their stories, but we owe them compassion, support, and clearer paths to healing and justice.

#MeToo marks a critical moment in our growing national movement to address sexual violence. Driven by survivors, advocates and a growing number of allies, we are unearthing the high rates of sexual violence and increasing calls to hold offenders accountable for the incredible harm that they have caused.

It will take all of our voices to change a culture that tolerates sexual violence. We must commit to do more, to ask our friends and neighbors and family members, the men in our lives to look beyond the fact that sexual violence is a widespread problem, and to take an active role in ending it.

Use your voice to intervene to stop sexist and discriminatory behavior when you see it, to believe survivors, and hold individuals, communities and institutions to a higher standard.

Join us in the belief that sexual violence is preventable, not inevitable.

__________________________________

Laura Cordes is the Executive Director of the Connecticut Alliance to End Sexual Violence.

The Alliance (formerly CONNSACS) is the statewide coalition of nine community based sexual assault crisis services programs whose mission is to end sexual violence and provide high quality, comprehensive and culturally competent sexual assault victim services.

PERSPECTIVE: Liberating Public Data – Easier Said Than Done

by Sasha Cuerda For the past few years we have been working with the Connecticut Secretary of the State (SOTS) on initiatives related to the business registration data that they process and manage. These are the official data set of record for businesses that are required to register to operate within Connecticut.

However, accessing these data has been historically difficult. The office’s CONCORD system was built and optimized for the important work of managing transactions around business filings and registration. It was not designed as a system to be search or analyzed for data. The data are also old, with data going back centuries, which is both good and bad

When we started on this project we were faced with a significant initial obstacle. We were given raw data on a CD-ROM and a "data dictionary" that consisted of a photocopied database schema. Variable names were not particularly readable and while some of the relationships could be inferred from the table names, there was a lot of information that was missing. Another technical challenge was that most of the values were stored as character strings.  This meant that the validation of data being input was taking place in the application that staff used to input data. We couldn't rely on the database to have done much work to catch "mistakes" that made it through the business systems. Therefore, many of the input errors such as spelling mistakes or typos remained in the data.

For example, we had to determine a solution for the many instances where a business has both a "primary" address and also a mailing address. If you've ever had to fill out a form online where your address is required, you've probably encountered a case where you are presented with a check box that gives you the option to use your primary address as your mailing address.

Checking that box usually results in all of your address data being copied, or sometimes that system will grey out the form fields and keep you from editing them. Regardless, something is happening that captures the fact that both address are the same. Most likely this means that when the data are saved to a database, the same data are entered in both fields. This didn't seem to be the case with these data.

Additionally, we encountered businesses with a primary address and no mailing address, which was easy enough to reconcile (the assumption is that they are the same). But we also encountered the opposite, where a mailing address was present but no primary address. This poses a challenge. Does this mean that the business does not have a physical location? Is it a business on paper only? Or was there a data entry error resulting in the wrong set of address fields being updated? If the registering agent filled out a paper form, did they leave primary address blank? These inconsistencies make seemingly trivial questions, such as how many businesses were formed in town X in time period Y, hard to answer.

Given these issues, the first step in bringing these data into a modern, flexible, search context was to build out the data dictionary and develop an understanding of the values that were present in the data. We conducted informational interviews with staff and contractors, explored the range of values in the data and bit by bit, built a model of how data flowed, what it meant, and how it was structured in the context of the regulations and procedures that business owners go through when submitting information to the Secretary of the State. Once we were confident that our model was accurate and complete enough, we set about building the search system (http://searchctbusiness.ctdata.org/).

The search interface offered by the CONCORD system is quite fast, but suffers from a few significant limitations, primarily that there is limited support for wild card searches (e.g. a search for pizza will not find pizzeria) and that the search is very character/word sensitive.

For example, say you wanted to search for businesses that contain the term "New Haven" in their name. This probably indicates something about where they are located, but it might also be used as a name by housing developers or in a variety of other circumstances. With CONCORD, you'd get roughly 26 pages of results, all for businesses starting with "New Haven". However, you won't find the Advanced Nursing & Rehabilitation Center of New Haven, LLC, Peoples Church of New Haven, League of Women Voters of New Haven, or any number of other businesses whose name features but does not start with New Haven. Moreover, if you want to search for a business whose address is in New Haven, you cannot. These were two problems we wanted to resolve.

The Secretary of the State also wanted to support searching by place and by date of formation. We handled this by building a search index table that would allow us to very quickly find matches and return enough information to the user for them to decide if they wanted to explore a given business in more detail.

In the course of doing this work, we've worked with folks from other state agencies. Given the importance of business activity, a number of state agencies place high value on the business registration data. However, the structure of the live database limited how data could be extracted and analyzed. Our workflow enabled us to support more free-form exploration of the data on their behalf and led to a number of additional projects where we linked these data with other internal datasets.

Recently we worked with a state agency to develop a methodology to link businesses registered with SOTS with internal and third party data. Linking business names is hard to do manually. In some cases, it is possible to handle look ups on an ad hoc basis, but bulk work is very time consuming. Moreover, it is quite common for businesses to use slight variations of their names in different contexts, particularly small businesses. They might be required to add something to their name when registering to avoid name conflicts, but in practice they may advertise themselves with a simpler name.

Businesses also can formally change their name with the Secretary of the State, but those changes are almost certainly not reflected in other datasets and databases. Larger companies are often structured in complex ways for legal purposes; it may attach one name to a company when discussing it in policy terms, but from a legal perspective, that business might exist as groups of distinct entities. All of these issues make matching lists of businesses challenging, so much so that there is a technical term for the problem: entity resolution.

Entity resolution takes two forms, grouping entities that can be functionally considered one "business" for a given context, and linking different representations for the same underlying entity.  We were able to conduct a number of matching runs using business name, address, city, and the name of principals to build out a list of linked entities and eliminating the need to try to manually link hundreds of thousands of entities.

We have more to do with these technologies and with these data. We want to add a map interface to our business search portal, which would enable users to search for businesses within a certain geographic area, making it possible to ask questions like: How many businesses were formed in our main street district since we altered the zoning? Further, since we’ve undertaken this work, more powerful open source solutions have been developed and we would like to optimize our search backend with these new offerings.

Liberating this data has been a fun challenge.  It has demonstrated to us the value in investing in open source solutions and approaches and we have also learned by making these data open, the value it has for many users across the state; not only other state agencies but also economic development organizations, regional planning associations, and chambers of commerce.

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Sasha Cuerda is Director of Technology at the Connecticut Data Collaborative. He is a software developer with experience building data visualization tools, developing database systems for managing spatial data, and developing data processing workflows. He is also a trained urban planner and geographer. This article first appeared, in a somewhat lengthier version, on the website ctdata.org, the Connecticut Data Collaborative. 

PERSPECTIVE: The Social Media 'Leash' Can Choke Anyone

by Adam Chiara Social media gives everyone access to the most powerful communication tool in history, but that power can also be used against anybody.

Like the proverbial dog on a leash, companies, public figures, and even private citizens can be choked by those who have a massive social following. Those with social power can target anyone online using intimidation or shaming, which can leave us all to be potential victims.

Companies

Let’s look at a recent case: Ann Coulter’s battle with Delta Air Lines. Put aside who was right in the matter; that’s really not the point here. What’s important for is to apply the concept of what happened to future issues.

Coulter did not just complain, which even a celebrity has the right to do. Instead, she chained a leash on the company and tried to choke it. 

After insulting the airline and its employees, she then used a form of intimidation; Coulter tweeted pictures of passengers who had nothing to do with the incident and tried to embarrass them.

That is a threat from a company’s perspective. Coulter gave a clear message — if you anger me, I will even shame your customers.

Companies should of course be held accountable, and social media is one way to do that, but an organization should not be in the position where if something goes wrong, they are forced to act in fear of blackmail.

Yes, this day it was Delta, and they have not made too many friends lately. But tomorrow it could be a smaller company. Maybe a local place that has been a pillar to your community. Do you trust Coulter, or any other person with social power, with the ability to tarnish a business’ reputation indefinitely?

Private Citizens

It’s not just companies who must fear the wrath of an angry person with power. The social media leash can be tied on you by our president.

In 2015, when an 18-year-old college student told the presidential candidate Donald Trump that she didn’t think he was “a friend to women,” Trump made sure to humiliate her on Twitter.

“The arrogant young woman who questioned me in such a nasty fashion at No Labels yesterday was a Jeb staffer! HOW CAN HE BEAT RUSSIA & CHINA?,” Trump tweeted the next day.

The Washington Post reported that she then began receiving calls, emails, and Facebook posts that were threatening and were often sexual in nature.

“I didn’t really know what anyone was going to do,” she was quoted saying in the Post. “He was only going to tweet about it and that was it, but I didn’t really know what his supporters were going to do, and that to me was the scariest part.”

Whether you support Trump or not, understand what he did here. He either intentionally or ignorantly signaled for supporters to intimate this young woman. Why? To send a message — go after me, and I will go after you — only I have more power.

I’m sure there are some who just read that and would argue something along the lines of “she deserved it.” Again, that day it was her, tomorrow it might be your child who is targeted by a public figure.

Cutting the leash

If your tweet isn’t retweeted, does it make a sound?

The answer is no.

The reason why someone with millions of followers has so much power is because they know their post can be amplified. But if that tweet does not get spread, it will be lost in the river of endless content.

So even if you agree with something that was posted, it would be wise to take a moment and think before you share it.

What kind of precedent is this creating?

What if this post was directed toward an institution or person whom I care about?

Is this post advancing a dialogue or is it intended to intimidate or humiliate?

After considering these questions, then you can ultimately decide if you are going to help strap the leash on or not.

____________________________

Adam Chiara is an assistant professor of communication at the University of Hartford. He has worked as a legislative aide in the Connecticut General Assembly, as a journalist, and as a public relations practitioner. He's on Twitter at @AdamChiara. This article first appeared in The Hill. 

PERSPECTIVE: The Significance of Investing in Early Childhood Education

by Silvana Alarcon As a Connecticut native and a student at Dickinson College majoring in Psychology and minoring in Education and Spanish, I hope to make an impact in the early childhood education field by focusing on children with special needs. I have taught children how to swim with SwimAmerica and how to build Legos with Play-Well Teknologies, but I wanted to learn more about how children learn inside and outside of classrooms.

This summer I was fortunate to intern with the Partnership for Early Education Research (PEER) at The Consultation Center at Yale University. PEER is research partnership that works with the school districts and early childhood education providers of Bridgeport, Norwalk, and Stamford to support the use of data to inform education for young children. During this internship I achieved more than what I was hoping for: I learned about early education research and met many collaborators who are involved in the early childhood education system of Connecticut.

A specific part of what I learned from my internship at PEER is that the education system is a tall ladder of influential people who affect the children at the base of the ladder. Teachers, principals, district leaders, and state leaders from the Connecticut State Department of Education (SDE) and Office of Early Childhood (OEC) all influence the educational experiences of young children. These students are the future leaders of the nation, and educators and researchers should work together to raise students to be the people we want to see lead the world. Collaborative research can benefit multiple stakeholders by addressing educators’ needs and using readily available data to inform educational policy and practices.

The younger years of children are crucial because the brains of the children grow extremely rapidly between birth and the age of 8. Specifically the brain undergoes rapid cognitive development as well as linguistic and motor development in the first 3 years of life. By the age of 5 children have developed problem-solving skills and pre-literacy skills. Children are constantly learning from the environment and behaviors surrounding them.  Early brain development has a great influence on children’s long-term outcomes [1].

The first teachers in a child’s life are their parents. Parents teach their children how to speak, tie their shoes, and care for their bodies. However, school teachers also have a very important role such as teaching reading, mathematics, and appropriate social interactions. However, the role of a school teacher is different than parents because the teacher is someone outside the home who teaches the students how to connect with the outside world.  The students spend many of their waking hours with the teachers, building a foundation for future learning. Alongside parents, school teachers support children by providing motivation, skills, and lessons.

Effective early childhood education programs can produce positive outcomes because of the skilled teachers, small class sizes, strong curricula, and rich linguistic environments [1]. Early childhood education teachers have a significant role in the transition between the home and the K-12 school environment.

For this reason, it is powerful that PEER focuses its research on the age range of Pre-K to third grade. Because of children’s rapid growth in learning during these early years, I believe that Connecticut needs to focus more attention on educational opportunities, student services and family engagement programs that serve young children.

Collaborative research, which engages stakeholders in identifying research questions that will produce useful results, can help Connecticut provide quality education for children, which would increase the success of the students. I have truly enjoyed learning about the preschool and early childhood education systems, and I am very grateful for PEER and the work it is accomplishing in this area.

___________________________

Silvana Alarcon is a senior at Dickinson College studying psychology and education. She is a native of Norwalk, CT who received education from Kendall Preschool, Columbus Magnet School, and The Montessori Middle School, as well as the Harvey School in Katonah, NY. 

The Partnership for Early Education Research (PEER) is an alliance among early childhood stakeholders in Connecticut that engages in collaborative research focused on children from birth through age 8. By pursuing questions developed in collaboration with its members, PEER aims to produce rigorous, actionable research that can inform early childhood education policy and practice at the local and state levels, increase access to high-quality early childhood education, and reduce disparities in educational outcomes. Funding support for PEER is provided by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES) and the Spencer Foundation.

Resources:  Center on the Developing Child (2007) A Science-Based Framework for Early Childhood Policy.

PERSPECTIVE: State Cuts will Mean Ballooning Costs; People with Traumatic Brain Injury Left Without Services

by Julie Peters Numbers matter. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of death and disability in the United States.  TBIs contribute to about 30 percent of all injury deaths. TBI was the diagnosis in more than 2.5 million ED visits. (www.cdc.gov). There were over 36,000 TBI ER visits in CT alone in 2014 (CT Dept. of Public Health).  Every 21 seconds in the US, a person sustains a brain injury.  5.3 million Americans currently have a long-term need for assistance to perform activities of daily living as a result of TBI.

The Brain Injury Alliance of Connecticut (BIAC) has been Connecticut’s resource for those with brain injuries and their families for over 35 years, and is the only organization that offers support to survivors and their caregivers while providing prevention education completely free of charge. BIAC’s brain injury specialists field thousands of calls each year, requesting our help.  Our 20 support groups provide peer support. We provide education and training to professionals who serve individuals with brain injury, assuring that they have the most up-to-date information possible.

Because Connecticut has no department of brain injury, and no mechanism to assist its residents with information regarding brain injury, they have contracted with BIAC for over 30 years to provide helpline, support, and community education on behalf of the Department of Social Services. Calls to 211 are referred to BIAC.

So when the State is considering a budget that would entirely eliminate BIAC’s funding, and a loss of up to 40 percent of our entire budget, the results could be catastrophic for those who need our help.

People like Linda, a 63 year old woman who contacted BIAC, is one such example.  Linda’s electricity was scheduled to be turned off, and her medical benefits, food stamps and cash assistance had all been discontinued as she had not remembered to fill out the redetermination paperwork.  She was out of her prescribed medication and was unable to see a doctor.  She had no medical insurance nor any medical transportation.  Additionally, Linda does not drive and has minimal family support.

All of the reported issues posed a significant health/safety risk for Linda within the community. Linda was not able to successfully complete the steps and activities necessary for her to pay bills or respond to mail which led to repeated discontinuation of benefits putting her housing and healthcare at risk. HelpLine staff were able to provide her with assistance in response to all of her concerns.  Calls and emails were made on Linda’s behalf to facilitate her obtaining services.  Together we were able to prevent the electricity from being turned off, an application was made for fuel assistance, medical insurance, food stamps, cash assistance were all reactivated.

Michael, a veteran injured during his second tour in the United States Army, contacted BIAC via his Veteran’s Affairs office. He was struggling with significant health issues, as well as cognitive challenges, behavioral and marital problems – decades after his initial injury from a fall. Navigating daily life became increasingly more challenging for him.  His BIAC brain injury specialist connected him to community based resources, including a physician who has successfully assisted him with medication. Michael remains independent and has also learned how to proactively advocate for his needs to be met in and outside of the VA system.  He credits his progress and significantly increased quality of life to his relationship with BIAC.

State funding for BIAC is an investment that pays off substantially, ensuring that those in need have access to lives of wellness, dignity and fulfillment.  In the short time it took you to read this article, at least 5 people in the U.S. sustained a brain injury. This could be your neighbor, your co-worker, your family member, or you.

Think about it – every number equates to a person, and every person has a name and a face – and a story to tell. Should funding for BIAC be severely reduced or eliminated, the State will experience ballooning costs as those who contact BIAC have nowhere to go for help.  They will end up in hospitals, long-term nursing facilities, or on the street.  And those numbers will matter to all of us.

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Julie Peters, CBIS, is Executive Director of the Brain Injury Alliance of Connecticut, which provides critical resources and support to brain injury survivors, their families and caregivers while educating individuals throughout Connecticut about brain injury awareness and prevention.

PERSPECTIVE: How Connecticut Businesses Are Doing More For People With Autism

by Lucy Wyndham Even as the number of children with special needs increases in Connecticut schools, businesses are creating sensory-friendly environments to accommodate the growing population of children and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). In fact, while there are examples in Europe, the UK, and Australia of retail centers working to accommodate their ASD customers better, small businesses in Connecticut might just be leading the way in the United States.

What Do Sensory Issues Have to Do With Autism?

Autism is a mental condition present from early childhood. Children and adults with autism are characterized by difficulty in forming relationships with other people due to difficulty in grasping social skills, and difficulties in using language and abstract concepts.

Sensory issues are especially prevalent for ASD individuals, as they likely have issues processing information take in through the senses. Where a fluorescent light in a store might not even be noticed by a typical person, a person with autism might find the light physically painful, and might respond in ways that seem aggressive or violent.

Can Autism Help Us?

Growing research indicates that neurodiversity, i.e. the idea that neurological differences like autism are the result of normal variations in the human genome, might actually be a competitive advantage. However, even as the number of children with autism increases, people on the spectrum are largely considered unemployable.

Companies like EY, which created a pilot program to bring new hires with Asperger’s, and airports across the globe that are creating quiet rooms in for children with sensory issues, are at the tip of the spear of a new movement to capture ASD customers and increase ASD hires. Connecticut firms are not far behind.

Sensory Friendly Accommodations

The Connecticut Science Center in Hartford provides over 150 hands-on exhibits for young people, as well as a state-of-the-art 3D digital theater and four education labs. However, for young people struggling with sensory overload, the bustling sounds and bright lights make it nearly impossible to navigate for families with autistic children.

The Science Center has created special Sensory Friendly Hours in the past, and now has a Sensory Friendly Day planned. Visitors with special needs can enjoy a special sensory-friendly theater presentation, lowered PA volume, and dimmed lights for the hours of the event. What’s especially attractive to families about events like these is the lack of stigma.  Families know they’ll be entering an environment that understands and cares, and is truly a judgment-free zone.

Even theaters are beginning to provide sensory-friendly film experiences for families. Last summer, select AMC theaters hosted special film viewings with the lights up, the sound turned down, and an open invitation for audience members to move around, be active, and make noise. The program was jump started with a parent request, and over 300 children and parents attended the first screening.

It’s a Great Start

Making conducive physical accommodations available for those with autism is helpful and popular with children on the spectrum, but businesses don’t have to stop there. One of the most valuable things a company can do is educate staff and employees on autism, enabling staff to be resources in a supportive environment for children and adults. 

Also, businesses can:

• Change how they hire (moving away from interview-based hiring practices to low key, informal tasks and projects)
• Offer more online experiences so ASD individuals don’t have to go into the store
• Dim the lights, and make more use of natural light
• Create quiet rooms or break away spaces
• Provide noise canceling headphones and fidget spinners
• Lower the noise

Autism impacts over 1% of the worldwide population, but with nearly 1 in 3 young adults on the spectrum disconnected from work and school, businesses must do more to accommodate for the neurological differences autism causes. Special hours and program just for customers with sensory processing issues are a great start, but most Connecticut firms continue to strive to do more to hire ASD staff and to accommodate ASD customers.

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Lucy Wyndham is married to a guy on the autism spectrum. It's a wonderful and interesting ride, which has opened up her eyes to a new way of seeing the world. She is also a writer, content manager, and a mother to two wonderful daughters.

PERSPECTIVE - How to Attract and Retain a Young, Skilled and Energetic Workforce

by Kayleigh Lombardi and Christine Schilke Connecticut can be tough for young people, that’s for sure. A telling example of this was shared at a recent forum on the economic impact of exclusionary zoning when a representative from the manufacturing industry told the audience how he’d recruited a young, skilled professional from the south, offering him an alluring $25 an hour wage to keep pace with Connecticut’s cost of living — more than double the $11 an hour he was making back home. Yet, it wasn’t enough.

After about two years, the young man decided to head back south. His reasoning: that even making more than double his salary, his costs — like paying $1,000 monthly rent — were simply too high for him to be able to afford to stay in Connecticut. His decision that he could have a better quality of life somewhere else, even earning less, is a scene being played out by millennials all across the state. The high costs of housing, college debt, transportation, and a myriad of other factors, mean that today’s millennials face a far tougher environment than their 1990s peers.

The data is pretty stark: despite being more educated, today’s young people are less likely to be employed, earn less overall, and, not surprisingly, are more likely to live with their parents or roommates. What’s more, the cost of that higher education lingers, hampering their ability to get ahead. With an average college debt of $34,773, they can little afford Connecticut’s housing costs — the 3rd highest in the nation — meaning our state’s young workers are starting their professional lives in the red and with little to spare for other expenses like a car, healthcare costs, or retirement savings.

Connecticut’s inability to retain young people has become increasingly evident over the past several years, resulting in dour headlines as major companies pick up stakes and move to those locations that are attracting young talent. An interest in lively downtowns, a variety of housing options, walkable communities, access to transit, and availability of jobs and economic opportunity are topping their lists, according to numerous studies and reports.

Recognizing the need to attract and retain a young, skilled, and energetic workforce, the Partnership for Strong Communities and Connecticut Main Street Center are partnering on Young Energetic Solutions (YES). YES is a statewide initiative aimed at empowering young people to create a vibrant Connecticut — a Connecticut where young people want to live. Building on the value gained in partnering with like-minded programs and organizations, YES is continuously forging partnerships with a variety of groups, in order to act as a resource for young people to effectuate positive change.

By engaging and educating young people to participate in their towns, on their local committees, or on statewide initiatives, YES works to support change in communities, expand the state’s housing options, and ultimately strengthen the state’s economy. Empowering young people to participate meaningfully in their neighborhoods and towns can develop a strong sense of ownership and belonging.

Participation at a local and state level allows young adults to provide necessary input into important decisions surrounding affordability, zoning, density, and transportation, as well as proactively address housing needs across municipalities.

Bolstering the millennial generation with dynamic, connected communities is a good thing for older and younger generations alike, as amenities such as walkability, access to transit and a variety of housing options are beneficial to all of us. Dynamic communities and diversity in housing are also economically fruitful, as the younger generation replaces retiring workers, providing the revenue towns and cities need in order to offer critical services to residents. With a fresh supply of young people and families to create that demand and potentially move into larger single-family homes as they grow their families, new opportunities to downsize will be available to our older residents stuck in large homes they may no longer want or need.

While our state clearly faces daunting budget challenges, there is hope. There’s growing consensus around the need to attract and retain young people, an increasing demand for information about what can be done and what’s working elsewhere, and a willingness to be innovative in our response. YES is finding a niche as this resource, building a network of young people and organizations that recognize the need for more millennials to stay and come to Connecticut, with the goal of incorporating young people’s perspectives into planning and design. And while we don’t claim to have all the answers, having the support of our respective organizations behind us means that we have access to experts in the realms of affordable housing and downtown revitalization — two key components in attracting this valuable demographic.

Beyond our work, there is much positive progress in the state. Efforts to improve the connectivity and appeal of our communities are everywhere— from Windsor’s revised website that lists available local board and commission seats, to Hartford’s revamped zoning code, or from Simsbury’s new multifamily housing to New Haven’s miles of bike lanes, change is coming to Connecticut. YES aims to add to these efforts by spurring more civic engagement among young people, while offering new ideas, best practices, and ultimately policies around how to attract and retain millennials.

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Kayleigh Lombardi is a Policy Analyst at the Partnership for Strong Communities. The Partnership is a statewide nonprofit policy and advocacy organization dedicated to ending homelessness, expanding the creation of affordable housing, and building strong communities in Connecticut.

Christine Schilke is Communications Director for the Connecticut Main Street Center, whose mission is to be the catalyst that ignites Connecticut’s Main Streets as the cornerstone of thriving communities. CMSC is dedicated to community and economic development within the context of historic preservation, and firmly believes that when our downtowns are great, they’re great for everyone, attracting young talented workers, creative thinkers and entrepreneurs, and in turn powering Connecticut’s economy.

For more information on YES, visit www.yesct.org or email yes4ct@gmail.com.

This article first appeared in the Summer 2017 issue of Connecticut Planning, a publication of the Connecticut Chapter of the American Planning Association.