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Norma F. Pfriem Breast Care Center
Charter Oak is supporting an initiative to provide breast cancer screening and diagnostic services for at least 35 uninsured, underserved women at the Norma Pfriem clinic at Bridgeport Hospital. Research has shown that early detection of breast cancer improves a patient’s prognosis.
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Lawyers for Children America
Lawyers for Children America recruits and trains volunteer lawyers to provide pro bono legal representation on behalf of abused and neglected children. Charter Oak is making it possible for the organization to provide legal services to approximately 75 Bridgeport children embroiled in the child welfare system.
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Connecticut Legal Services
Charter Oak’s grant will allow Connecticut Legal Services to offer legal assistance to Bridgeport families enrolled in a supportive housing program.
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Connecticut Association for Human Services
An independent statewide organization that works to reduce poverty and strengthen families and communities through advocacy, the Connecticut Association for Human Services makes it easy for those eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit to apply for it. CAHS operates the Greater Bridgeport Family Economic Security Coalition, which with the help of Charter Oak’s grant runs eleven volunteer income tax assistance (VITA) sites in greater Bridgeport during tax season. In addition to money they may receive through tax credits, VITA site participants save a significant amount of money by using the free tax preparation service instead of paying tax preparers. They also have the opportunity to connect with organizations and businesses in the community that can help increase their economic security.
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Child FIRST
Child FIRST (Child and Family Interagency Resource, Support and Training Program) serves young (birth through five years), at risk, underserved children and their families in greater Bridgeport. Recognizing that the setting in which children spend their first few years greatly impacts their cognitive and emotional development, staff complete in-home assessments of children and intervene by connecting families to relevant social service agencies. Charter Oak’s grant will help support Child FIRST for three years, beginning in the fall of 2005.
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Bridgeport Rescue Mission
The Bridgeport Rescue Mission provides free shelter, clothing, meals and a faith-based drug- and alcohol-rehabilitation program to homeless people in greater Bridgeport. The mission serves about 175,000 meals a year. Charter Oak donated 500 cases of canned vegetables to the mission.
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Connecticut Food Bank
The Connecticut Food Bank is the largest centralized source of donated, emergency food in the state. Its five warehouses and distribution sites serve 560 feeding programs, including soup kitchens, food pantries, shelters and adult and children’s day care centers. The food bank provides food for about 250,000 people every year. Charter Oak partners with companies like Seneca Foods to donate tens of thousands of cans of food to the food bank.
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Fairfield ‘08
A coalition of local non-profits dedicated to expanding the amount of affordable housing in Fairfield County, Fairfield ‘08 plans to build 1,375 units of affordable housing by 2008. Charter Oak’s grant allows
Fairfield ‘08 to hire a Housing Development Specialist who will help coordinate this ambitious project.
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Family ReEntry
Family ReEntry provides counseling and services for offenders, ex-
offenders, pre-trial defendants and their families. It provides
rehabilitative counseling services and psychoeducational programs
with the goal of reducing violence, crime, abuse, and neglect. Family
ReEntry’s programs are mandated by the state but the budget is filled
only about a third by government grants. With Charter Oak’s grant,
Family ReEntry will be able to hire a case manager to address basic
survival needs, eventually helping clients transition back into society
and reduce recidivism rates.
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Operation Hope
Operation Hope works to end homelessness by providing shelters,
transitional housing and related programs and services to some
4,000 people in Fairfield and Bridgeport. Charter Oak’s original grant
to the organization allowed Operation Hope to employ an additional
clinical case manager, so the organization could serve at least 40
more families. Charter Oak awarded Operation Hope its second grant
to help fund a full-time development director. The addition of this
position will allow Operation Hope to grow and stabilize its
infrastructure to meet the demand for solution-focused housing and
service programs among low-income individuals and families.
As a yearly project, Operation Hope and the Charter Oak Foundation receive and distribute over 100,000 pounds of canned goods throughout the greater Bridgeport area.
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ReFocus Outreach Ministry
ReFocus Outreach Ministry, a home for addicted homeless women and their children, helps its residents get clean, teaches them life and job skills and then helps them transition into society, eventually finding homes and jobs. ReFocus is run by Martha Melvin, who was also homeless and addicted for several years, in a large three-story house on the East End. Charter Oak’s grant allows ReFocus to hire a part-time case manager.
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RYASAP
RYASAP attacks the root causes of substance abuse by involving
children and teenagers in their communities. Charter Oak’s grant is
enhancing Youth As Resources, an after-school program in the
Bridgeport schools.
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Original Works
Original Works provides a creative outlet for Bridgeport adolescents
interested in drama. Original Works involves its 30 students in plays,
television documentaries and song and dance routines. The students
write their own material and perform for the public and in local
schools. Original Works is often its students’ sole exposure to the
theater.
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Music and Arts Center for Humanity
The Music and Arts Center for Humanity (MACH) is a non-profit
community school for the arts in Bridgeport that uses art to teach
tolerance, understanding, creative expression and communication.
MACH will use Charter Oak’s grant to pay for general operating
expenses.
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Greater Bridgeport Adolescent Pregnancy Program
The Greater Bridgeport Adolescent Pregnancy Program educates its
students about pregnancy and HIV prevention and services for
teenage parents and their babies. GBAPP’s clients include inner city
minority adolescents and young adults who are at risk for early
pregnancy and HIV/AIDS who reside in Bridgeport. Many are/were
clients of the criminal justice system; actively using drugs; homeless
or runaway youth; and teenagers and young adults from racial and
ethnic minority groups who traditionally do not link up with the
health and social systems. Charter Oak’s donation allows GBAPP to
continue an educational program for teenage fathers.
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Burroughs Community Center
Burroughs is a community center in the heart of Bridgeport. It houses
and subsidizes the rent of several nonprofits and provides a meeting
place for almost 100 more, including Charter Oak. Burroughs
received its most recent Charter Oak grant in support of its after-
school program.
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Teach for America Connecticut
Teach for Americas is the national corps of outstanding recent college
graduates who commit two years to teach in urban public schools
and become lifelong leaders in expanding educational opportunity.
Teach for America opened its Connecticut site and places its charter
corps in new Haven public schools in September 2006. The
expansion from New Haven to Hartford and Bridgeport public schools
is part of Teach for America’s plan to increase its current corps of
4,400 members to 7,500 teaching nationally in more than 30 regions
by 2010. Under this plan, 250 corps members will impact more than
21,000 Connecticut students in the 2010-11 school year.
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Reconnecting Youth
Reconnecting Youth (RY) is a school-based prevention program for high
school students who are at risk for school dropout. RY uses a
partnership model involving peers, school personnel and parents to
deliver interventions that address the goals of decreased drug
involvement, increased school performance and decreased emotional
distress. Charter Oak’s grant will enable the program to continue at
Bridgeport’s Harding High School.
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The Parent Leadership Training Institute
The Parent Leadership Training Institute was established in 1997 to
teach parents leadership skills so they can help improve the health,
safety and learning of children. PLTI recruits parents from Bridgeport
and trains them on a retreat and at two 10-week sessions. Charter
Oak is once again supporting PLTI.
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Housatonic Middle College Program
Through the Housatonic Middle College Program, over 100 Bridgeport high
school seniors will have the opportunity to take math and reading
classes at Housatonic Community College. The classes will be team-
taught by high school and college teachers. The program aims to
reduce the number of students who test into remedial classes upon
entering college.
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Connecticut Association for Children and Adults with Learning Disabilities
The Connecticut Association for Children and Adults with Learning
Disabilities (CACLD) provides individuals, families and professionals
with information, education and consultation related to learning
disabilities and attention deficits. Knowing that early intervention can
help break the cycle of poverty for families, CACLD will use its grant
to purchase educational materials for Bridgeport’s School-Based
Health Centers and Parent Centers.
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Center for Women and Families
The Center for Women and Families works to strengthen women and
families and eliminate violence and abuse. CWF hosts hotlines for
domestic violence and sexual assault. It runs programs for recently
incarcerated women and recently homeless families and their
landlords, among others. For the second year, Charter Oak is funding
a program in the Bridgeport schools that teaches about domestic
violence.
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Caroline House
The dedicated and caring staff at Caroline House teaches English
and basic skills to about 100 women in Bridgeport and provides
childcare for their preschool-age children. Caroline House’s services
are free; its students are among the poorest women in Bridgeport.
Women used to wait up to two years to attend programs at Caroline
House. Charter Oak’s contribution significantly offsets the cost of a
900-square-foot addition to Caroline House that accommodates more
students.
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Career Resources
Career Resources is a workforce development program that primarily
supports economically and educationally disadvantaged adults in
Southwestern Connecticut. Charter Oak’s grant will allow Career
Resources to hire an adult educational instructor, who will spend 20
hours a week helping adults with the literacy and educational courses
needed to complete their GEDs.
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The Bridgeport Public Education Fund
The Bridgeport Public Education Fund is the advocate for public
education in Bridgeport. In addition to running its own programs,
BPEF administers the Charter Oak Scholarship program. Charter
Oak’s grant will offset the costs of BPEF’s signature programs: Mini
Grants for Teachers, MAACS and First Day.
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Achievement First Bridgeport Academy
In 2006 Charter Oak spearheaded the efforts to open an Achievement First school in Bridgeport. A K-8 college preparatory school for urban students opened in September 2007. Achievement First is a charter school management organization started in July 2003 by the leaders of Amistad Academy, a high performing charter school in New Haven, CT. A non-profit 501 (c) 3, Achievement First aims to bring scale the dramatic,life-changing student achievement results produced at Amistad by creating a school system of achievement-gap closing charters schools in New Haven and Connecticut. Achievement First Bridgeport Academy is the first of Achievement First’s Connecticut schools in open in a city other than New Haven.