Joining Forces to Promote Equitable Growth and Opportunity

If Connecticut can evolve into a place where every person born here has an opportunity to succeed, our entire state will prosper.

That’s the idea behind the Connecticut Urban Opportunity Collaborative (CUOC) — a newly formed partnership between Fairfield County’s Community Foundation, Hartford Foundation for Public Giving and The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven.

This first-of-its-kind collaboration by Connecticut’s three largest community foundations aims to develop and carry out collective strategies to identify innovative, scalable solutions to eliminate disparities in our urban centers.

To support this ambitious effort, the three foundations hired Cesar Aleman to serve as CUOC’s director. In this role, Cesar is coordinating a team that includes the chief executives and senior staff at each foundation to:
• Develop collective strategies to dismantle structural racism and advance social and economic mobility.
• Create an actionable plan that builds on each foundation’s individual strengths.
• Build a broad network of relationships with national, regional and local partners.
• Manage collaborative investments and develop and distribute grants.

By working together, the three community foundations have a big goal: to write a new chapter in philanthropy in Connecticut that will expand opportunity to everyone.

Together, we will work to promote greater equity in Connecticut’s major cities.

In turn, we envision a future in which every person in our state has the opportunity to thrive.

For more information about our partnership to achieve equity in our communities, contact Cesar Aleman at caleman@hfpg.org.