Part of the role of a community foundation is to unite resources to address pressing needs in the community. In our backyard—the 23 towns and cities which make up Fairfield County—the critical needs clearly stand out.
The Foundation is committed to tackling those needs and making the county a better place for the children of tomorrow. We bring together policy makers, nonprofit leaders, community leaders, fundholders, private funders and other experts to work together to close the achievement gap in our public schools, increase affordable housing, help immigrants succeed in Fairfield County communities, and improve the long-term economic security of low-income working women.
We invite you to join us in making a difference in our own backyard. By supporting these countywide initiatives, you become an architect of needed social change.
Increasing Affordable Housing
Closing the Achievement Gap
Improving the Economic Security of Low-Income Working Women
Helping Immigrants Succeed in Fairfield County Communities
Strengthening Nonprofit Organizations
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development considers housing as affordable if it costs no more than 30% of the occupant's income. In the Stamford-Norwalk region, a renter must earn at least $60,000 a year to afford a two-bedroom apartment. Yet the median household income in Stamford is less than $47,000, and a minimum wage worker earns $14,800. In Danbury, a home buyer must earn over $80,000 a year. Yet Danbury's teachers and police officers with five years of experience earn less than $59,000.
What's Being Done
For years, the Foundation has made grants to address this complex problem. We expanded our efforts, and in 2005, we brought together corporate, family and community foundations, individual donors and local United Ways to pool funds and work in partnership to create new affordable housing.
The Fairfield County Collaborative Fund for Affordable Housing was officially launched in November 2006. Based on a model operating in Hartford, the collaborative fund makes general operating support grants to nonprofit affordable housing developers in Fairfield County.
The fund is managed and held by the Local Initiatives Support Corporation. Created 25 years ago by the Ford Foundation, LISC is a national nonprofit that brings financial and technical resources to inner city communities.
The initial result: $400,000 in Year-One grants have been awarded to four qualified nonprofit housing developers and 482 new affordable housing units are in the pipeline.
To learn more about why all of us need to be concerned about the lack of affordable housing, read How Affordable Housing Benefits Everyone.
Visit Fairfield County Fund for Collaborative Housing for more information about the Collaborative Fund.
Fairfield County has one of the highest overall academic achievement rates in the nation, yet, at the same time, one of the country's largest gaps in performance between Caucasian children and low-income children of color.
In 2007, 47.3% of black third graders in Stamford tested at or above proficiency in reading, while 95.1% of New Canaan third graders—statistically all Caucasian—tested at or above proficiency.
Also troubling, 65.9% of Latino sixth graders in Danbury tested at or above the State Department of Education’s proficiency level in mathematics, while 97% of Westport Caucasian sixth graders tested at or above proficiency levels.
Students lacking basic academic skills are at elevated risk for poverty and associated high rates of crime, incarceration and poor health—which bear huge costs for society and squander lives once full of promise.
Improving the academic achievement of our urban public school students is one of Fairfield County’s most critical needs.
What's Being Done
Research has found that after teachers, principals have the largest school-based influence on student academic performance.
One strategy for closing the achievement gap is to make sure our urban public school principals are thoroughly trained and supported to run schools where teachers excel, students thrive, and parents and the community are engaged—while staying within budget.
In Fairfield County, we face a school leadership crisis as well as an opportunity. Over the next five years, half of the principals and assistant principals running our urban public schools will retire. Bridgeport public schools will lose close to 80% of their school leaders.
The Fairfield County Community Foundation Fund for Academic Excellence is embarking on launching and funding the School Leadership Initiative to help fill this leadership void. A multi-year undertaking, the initiative will cultivate a diverse group of public school principals who will serve as instructional leaders, entrepreneurs and agents of change for the county’s urban districts.
No other philanthropic entity is focusing on this important issue, nor are there any nonprofit organizations specifically addressing this need in Fairfield County.
To learn more about the Fairfield County Community Foundation Fund for Academic Excellence, visit Fund for Academic Excellence on our website or contact Rebecca Wolfe, Program Director and Director of the Fund for Academic Excellence, at 203.750.3200.
While many women and girls in Fairfield County enjoy affluence and security, others are struggling.
Too many women living in Fairfield County are falling between the cracks because of limited education, low-paying jobs and the high cost of child care. Shockingly, in the wealthiest county in the nation, early half of female-headed households with children under 5 live in poverty.
Even single mothers with good jobs have to choose which bills they can pay. To cover the most basic expenses, a Stamford family with one adult, one pre-school child and one school-age child needs an annual income over $61,000. A family in Greater Danbury needs over $58,000.
Yet the median annual income for women working full time in Fairfield County is $45,070. Those lacking advanced education are really suffering. In 2006, women who did not graduate from high school earned an average of $19,253. Those who did graduate from high school earned $26,146.
What's Being Done
In 2007, the Fairfield County Community Foundation Fund for Women and Girls published the first research study about the status of women and girls in Fairfield County, titled "Holding Up Half the Sky".
Based on the findings of the report, the Fund will focus the majority of its grantmaking on helping low-income working women achieve economic security.
For the next five years, the Fund will invest in and collaborate on approaches that include:
- Increasing women’s earning potential by helping them get education and training so they can move up into higher-paying jobs
- Preparing adolescent girls for their futures so they are educated and trained for tomorrow’s job market, and
- Fostering social change so all low-income working women in Fairfield County can achieve long-term economic security.
No matter the volatility of the immigration issue, the reality is that Fairfield County needs new workers to counterbalance the exodus of native-born workers in their twenties and thirties and the retiring baby boomers.
Over 110,000 immigrants live and work in Fairfield County. In general, the immigrant groups with the highest poverty rates have been in the United States for the shortest time and are not yet proficient in English.
Research shows that the best-educated workers earn the highest wages, regardless of whether they are immigrants. For immigrants to move out of poverty, they need to further their education. Before they can do that, they need to become proficient in English.
Learning English is the cornerstone for immigrants assimilating into our communities.
What's Being Done
The Fairfield County Community Foundation Fund for New Americans supports English as a Second Language classes; citizenship classes and legal services; mainstream and grassroots organizations that deliver culturally competent social services, education and health care; vocational training; training in developing financial assets; and promoting public understanding of the role of immigrants in Fairfield County.
To learn more about the Fairfield County Community Foundation Fund for New Americans, please contact Yolanda Caldera-Durant, Program Director, at 203.750.3200.
Nonprofit organizations are the agents for solving community problems. Yet too often their effectiveness is hampered by insufficient funding for basic operating expenses and the need for ongoing training and professional development.
What's Being Done
With the support of donors, we help nonprofits become more effective and sustainable through direct grants, and by offering training and professional development opportunities.
For instance, we award grants for financial management and fund development. Workshops provide training in strategic planning, leadership development, program assessment and other topics. This support helps agencies operate at peak efficiency, gain the most good from every dollar and improve sustainability.
How You Can Help
To learn more about how you can support the Foundation's countywide initiatives, including affordable housing, contact Sharon Reiss, Director of Development, at 203.750.3200. You can also make a tax-deductible contribution to any of the Foundation funds below by clicking the "Donate Now" button.
Fairfield County Community Foundation Fund for Academic Excellence
Fairfield County Community Foundation Fund for Women and Girls
Fairfield County Community Foundation Fund for New Americans
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