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Catalyst CT values its partnerships with fellow nonprofit and community-based organizations. By uniting our efforts to tackle challenging issues, we create coordinated solutions around a shared neutral table to amplify our ability to make positive change in communities we serve.
We are proud to lead or be an active member of the following groups:
Catalyst CT collaborates with PT Partners and Fairfield University’s Center for Social Impact on this innovative three-year study generously funded by The Tow Foundation. Amplifying Resident Voices (ARV) assesses, designs, and implements evidence-based solutions to persistent gun violence in Bridgeport’s low-income public housing communities. Our project team works from the assumption that the people most impacted by violence are not the problem. Instead, our approach centers on housing residents as the solution.
As co-leader with the Alliance for Community Empowerment, Catalyst CT convenes the Bridgeport Area Nonprofit Collaborative (BANC). BANC brings nearly 60 nonprofit leaders from the greater Bridgeport region together to collaborate and share information, making an exponential impact in our community.
In 2014, the State of Connecticut established the Juvenile Justice Policy and Oversight Committee (JJPOC) to oversee continued juvenile justice system reform. Today, Connecticut is widely considered a model for how states can improve their juvenile justice systems, enhance public safety, and enrich youth outcomes. Increasingly, young people who are charged with minor offenses are diverted from court involvement and instead receive behavioral health support and other effective Restorative Practice interventions.
One of several similar teams across Connecticut, Catalyst CT convenes Bridgeport’s Local Interagency Service Team (LIST), encouraging collaborative efforts around juvenile justice issues. Local stakeholders, community organizations, and state agencies coordinate, communicate, advocate, and plan around juvenile justice issues. The goal is to divert youth from the juvenile justice system and to support justice-involved youth with needed services. The team comprises representatives from the juvenile court, juvenile probation, juvenile detention, DCF, boards of education, behavioral health service providers, parents, child and parent advocates, funders, employment training organizations, parents, and the faith-based community.
Catalyst CT is an active member of the Racial and Ethnic Disparities (RED) Reduction Committee, convened by The Center for Children’s Advocacy. This committee meets regularly to advocate for policies and practices affecting youth in state education, law enforcement, and justice systems that address the over-representation of persons of color at various points in the justice system. Bridgeport’s committee also includes representatives from the local public schools, the Youth Diversion Team, the Bridgeport Police Department, the local Juvenile Court, Juvenile Probation, the Judicial Branch’s Court Support Services Division, the Department of Children and Families (DCF), and community-based programs.
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