For example, Board member Arthur White leveraged his unique
experience in founding two successful national non-profits
(“Reading is Fundamental” and “Jobs for
the Future”) with his role as Educational Advisor to
the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to conceive our Connecting through
Literacy: Inmates, Children and Caregivers (“CLICC”)
project. CLICC is a program to improve the literacy and family
relationships for at-risk children who have a parent in prison.
Arthur’s project applies ground-breaking email technology
to allow joint reading and discussions from remote locations,
healing broken relationships in the process of improving literacy
and employment-related computer skills for the children of
inmates and their parents and caretakers.
Use these links for more information about Connecticut Appleseed’s
current projects.
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Hartford H.E.L.P.
Sometimes, simple legal assistance can be the key to getting someone off the streets and into a more secure and productive life. Volunteer attorneys can often help homeless individuals with their need for a birth certificate or drivers license, with applying for social security or appealing the denial of benefits, or with clearing up minor criminal matters that are preventing the individual from getting housing or applying for a job.
Such legal issues can often be resolved in a few hours, or by making telephone calls. In addition to helping homeless adults obtain lost or missing identification or expunging criminal records, attorneys can provide valuable legal advice in practice areas issues such as housing, immigration and domestic and family law. (more)
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Keep Kids in School: Improving School Discipline
Over time, school districts in Connecticut have developed policies, practices, and philosophies on school discipline that have created an all-too-frequent pathway that is commonly termed the "schools-to-prison pipeline". The size of this pipeline is considerable: during the 2005-06 Connecticut school year, there were 60,650 students suspended or expelled and 152,849 school days lost due to suspension or expulsion. Evidence is clear that out-of-school suspensions and expulsions correlate with dropout rates and Connecticut's juvenile justice caseload.
Connecticut Appleseed responded by launching a project to help redirect school districts' disciplinary policies toward retention and away from suspension and expulsion. The project aims to minimize the percentage of disciplined students who become entangled in the juvenile justice system. (more)
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Dental Care for Disadvantaged
Children
With glaring disparity by race and income among Connecticut’s citizens in terms of oral health, Connecticut Appleseed first adopted in 2004 a program to broaden the oral health delivery system to more disadvantaged children. In the intervening years, Board members Peter Libassi and Dr. Michael Perl prompted the Connecticut State Dental Association (CSDA) and its members to undertake a series of pro bono initiatives which provided several thousand children and adults with free dental care. By impressing upon CSDA the importance of developing a pro bono culture and sparking CSDA’s resolve, Peter and Michael have vastly expanded the scope of volunteerism among dental professionals.
(more)
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Education: Removing Barriers to Parental Engagement
Well-informed parents are critical both to improving the achievement of individual students and that of school systems. The educational advocacy role of parents may not seem worthy of a headline, but better engaging parents and realizing their potential can make a real difference in our children’s academic performance. Our work to enhance parental involvement is a centerpiece of Connecticut Appleseed's project portfolio. It includes two projects described under the "Education – Past Projects" prompt and continues in 2010.
Parents aren't always aware how to work within the legal/bureaucratic process at school districts and individual schools to ensure that their child gets the necessary support; as a result, parents at many times feel frustrated, isolated and unsure of their legal rights. Our Parents' Access to Information project is providing legally-based but easily accessible informational guides and public parent forums to help parents feel more confident about their ability to navigate through the educational system and work with schools and school districts on their child's behalf.(more)
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Mental Illness and
The Criminal Justice System
The criminal justice system is often unfair to defendants with mental illness, with key personnel having limited knowledge of the needs of those suffering from these illnesses. To address this problem, Connecticut Appleseed coordinated pro bono legal services that were volunteered to write a handbook directed primarily at attorneys representing such persons to help familiarize them with mental health issues under Connecticut law. In 2007 we distributed the 80-page handbook, entitled “Mental Illness, Your Client and the Criminal Law” to attorneys throughout the state.
Later in 2007 the Connecticut chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI-CT) contacted us to say that they saw a tremendous need for a similar handbook – but one directed at parents and other advocates rather than targeted at attorneys. After recruiting pro bono legal assistance from the NYC office of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton (“Sheppard Mullin”), Appleseed collaborated with NAMI-CT to develop a new guide that will help parents know how to navigate Connecticut’s criminal justice system as it relates to adults age 18 and up with a mental illness. (more)
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Elder Law Education
Connecticut Appleseed’s Elder Law project gives Connecticut’s older adults of modest means, their families and caregivers an opportunity to learn more about the many legal and financial issues that confront them. After a 2005 symposium at Quinnipiac University School of Law offered a series of educational workshops on these issues, we distilled the information presented that day into Appleseed’s “Connecticut Elder Law Resources” book.
We substantially updated our book in late 2008. To date, its distribution of this document in a workshop setting at 37 senior centers throughout the state has helped more than 1,250 seniors to better understand their legal rights and entitlements and to assess their legal needs. (more)
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Expanding Access to Financial Services
Connecticut Appleseed is spearheading a collaboration of financial institutions, community partners, and state and federal banking regulators to connect unbanked and underbanked state residents with mainstream financial services – including affordable checking, savings, and credit opportunities.
An estimated 19 percent of Connecticut households either have no checking or savings account, or use fringe financial services rather than their own dormant accounts. These residents need help avoiding predatory and other high-cost financial services so that they can save, build the credit histories needed to access credit, and accumulate assets. But before these population groups will be integrated into Connecticut's mainstream financial system, our state's banks need to understand how to improve their outreach and expand the products and services that they offer to those who are unbanked or underbanked.
(more)
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Literacy Connects Inmates
& Their Children
The educational and emotional toll on the 2 million-plus
children with parents in prison is devastating. Many
inmate parents are severely depressed due to parent-child
separation, do not want their children to know they
are in prison and avoid both visitation by and communication
with their children. In their absence, their children’s
educational and emotional development stagnates or regresses.
Indeed, it is the children of the incarcerated who are
the innocent victims of our justice system. (more)
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