Social Services

Connecticut's citizens volunteer and give to charities at above average rates.  Through taxes, they additionally contribute to a state social services budget that surpassed $5 billion in 2006.

Indeed, over 26% of Connecticut 's budget – or 35%, including corrections – goes towards social services.  And yet the average Connecticut citizen knows little about how this money is actually spent.

Why don't we understand our tax dollars at work? The truth is, most of us don't have the time or the patience to navigate the bureaucratic giant that administers social services and, as a result, Connecticut's social service industry has been able to operate unaccountable to the taxpayers who help fund it.

To help ensure that the value of each dollar spent on social services is maximized to help Connecticut's neediest, the Yankee Institute is now using research and analysis to explore the uncharted world of social services, finding ways to make the system more efficient and effective.

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Serving Connecticut’s Neediest Citizens through Job Training   (long version)

Employment challenges represent a common thread through the otherwise diverse stories of Connecticut’s disadvantaged citizens. For recipients of social services (from ex-offenders to at-risk youth to displaced workers), challenges for attaining employment can seem insurmountable. Especially in troubled cities such as Hartford, Bridgeport and New Haven, education and employment outcomes of Connecticut citizens are grim.

Programs that give disadvantaged individuals the skills needed to achieve local employment benefit families, communities and taxpayers alike. Connecticut should strengthen its job training efforts to ensure that disadvantaged citizens achieve selfsufficiency. By focusing on proven best practices in job training, policymakers and program administrators can maximize the value of social services dollars spent on our state’s neediest citizens. Read More...

 

HELP WANTED

Serving Connecticut’s Neediest Citizens through Job Training   (small version)

How may Connecticut’s disadvantaged citizens benefit more from taxpayers’ generosity?

Connecticut spends more than five billion dollars per year on social services, and yet poverty, unemployment and underemployment persist, particularly within immigrant and urban minority populations. In addition, many of the state’s disadvantaged citizens lack the support they need to lead healthy, independent lives.

Through demand-driven job training programs, Connecticut’s neediest citizens and taxpayers may receive maximum value from each dollar spent on social services.

Investing in job training is worthwhile because when one individual attains financial independence through employment, family, community and state feel the benefi ts. In high-demand fi elds such as nursing, advanced certifications through training programs can significantly increase potential earnings. Read More...

Briefing Paper

April 2007

Connecticut's Social Services Breakdown

Dozens of agencies, hundreds of employees, and thousands of clients. Federal, state, municipal, and nonprofit collaboration. Funding. Connecticut's system of social service delivery can be a complicated and confusing concoction, difficult for even the most seasoned experts to digest. For this reason, the Yankee Institute's "Connecticut's Social Services Breakdown" has distilled social services in Connecticut into a succinct, manageable snapshot, understandable to those of us outside the bureaucratic monstrosity that administers social services.
 
This report uses a four-pronged approach to comb through Connecticut's tangled system of social service delivery. Sections one and two present basic data for selected state and municipal agencies. Section three categorizes social services according to type of service. In section four, an analysis of social services in Connecticut is derived from the experiences and perspectives of various experts throughout the state, particularly from the nonprofit sector.
 
For researchers and taxpayers attempting to shine a little light in the social services black hole, this report should provides clarity on the basics.

Read More... 

Urban League Provides Second Chance for Success

Urban League of Greater Hartford President and CEO James Willingham, describes the organization’s programs as a repertoire that promotes personal responsibility and self-sufficiency by fusing academic, employment and "life skills" education.

From pre-GED courses, to credit-building assistance, to training for high-demand careers in Connecticut, Yankee’s social services analyst Natalie Kindred recently learned more about how the Urban League of Greater Hartford’s,(ULGH) programs help individuals completely transform their lives.

Receiving Honorable Mention by the U.S. Department of Labor for its pharmaceutical training program for at-risk, out of school youth in 2006, ULGH provides pharmaceutical training to participants, with opportunities of internships and employment at local businesses such as CVS and Hartford Hospital. By ensuring that program participants have undergone "employability" training, ULGH eliminates the guesswork inherent to high-turnover and high-demand hiring; as a result, ULGH has forged trusting partnerships that benefit program participants, businesses, and taxpayers.

"The Urban League really gives people a second chance," said Genene Rosa, a past client, now employee, of ULGH's comprehensive job training and life skills programming. Polished, professional, and articulate, Rosa recounted her life as an addict prior to contacting ULGH, where she experienced constant instability due to bad credit and a dearth of job experience and skills. Six years after becoming a participant in ULGH's programming, Rosa is married, a homeowner, and enjoys a successful professional life that she "loves" at ULGH.

Like other outstanding organizations delivering job training and career development courses, the Urban League of Greater Hartford's programs are designed to improve self-sufficiency, earning potential, and quality of life.