Providing Resources to Strengthen Families

Making Connections in Hartford is a 10-year family strengthening and neighborhood change initiative of the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore. The Casey Foundation is the philanthropic arm of UPS. The UPS founder, Jim Casey, started the Foundation in 1947 with his siblings who gave it their mother’s name. The primary mission of the Casey Foundation is to foster public policies, human-service reforms and community supports that more effectively meet the needs of today’s vulnerable children and families.

Making Connections in Hartford is one of 10 similar place-based initiatives that Casey supports in cities around the country. The other Making Connections cities are Denver, Des Moines, Indianapolis, Louisville, Milwaukee, Oakland, Providence, San Antonio, and Seattle.

Each Making Connections community shapes the process to meet its own unique situation. However, the Casey Foundation’s ongoing support requires that the process remains results-based, data-driven and responsive to the authentic demand of the residents who make-up the target population.

In Hartford, the Making Connections' site team and its community partners focus on two primary objectives:

Increasing the number of families in the Frog Hollow and Upper Albany neighborhoods that are economically successful and who have family-sustaining work and the opportunity to save for a better future.

Increasing the number of children in these two neighborhoods who enter school healthy and prepared to succeed.

Making Connections and its partners take a two-generation approach to strengthening families. This involves working to ensure that families and parents succeed economically and that their children also are prepared to succeed.

2007 Performance Results. Making Connections' partners track and periodically report their results. Click here to see the progress of their collaborations.