The Governor’s Prevention Partnership (The Partnership) equips, empowers, and connects organizations, communities, and families to prevent substance abuse, underage drinking, and violence among youth and promotes positive outcomes for all young people in Connecticut. The Partnership’s EdCorpsCT will recruit 10 AmeriCorps members who will mentor and support 90 chronically tardy, absent, and behaviorally-referred third-eighth grade students at the Wish School in Hartford, CT in improving their school attendance and engagement. Chronic absenteeism, or missing more at least 10% of the school year, whether excused or unexcused, is a leading cause of low achievement and a powerful predictor of which students will eventually drop out of school. EdCorpsCT members will each be matched with nine students and will work with school faculty and staff to support those students through daily engagement, home outreach, and referrals to wrap-around services as required. Mentoring serves as a powerful evidence-based strategy to reduce chronic absenteeism and promote positive youth outcomes.

FoodCorps recognizes the need to address obesity and diet-related disease where we can have the greatest impact on the most vulnerable children: schools. Schools are where children spend a third of their day and often eat half their daily calories. FoodCorps AmeriCorps members serve alongside educators and local leaders to support community-driven initiatives to connect kids to healthy food in schools, focusing on three areas of service: hands-on lessons (students grow, cook, and taste new foods, which builds their skills and changes food preferences); healthy school meals (the cafeteria experience steers students towards the healthiest options and gets them excited to try new healthy foods); and a school-wide culture of health (as a whole, the school community and environment—from hallways to classrooms to cafeteria to grounds—celebrates healthy food).

Jumpstart is active in 14 states across the nation and in the District of Columbia, bringing together Corps members and preschool children in low-income neighborhoods to help these children develop the language and literacy skills they need to be successful in school, setting them on a path to close the achievement gap before it is too late. This school year, 225 college students from four university partners will serve 552preschool children in Connecticut. Jumpstart Connecticut will recruit AmeriCorps members to provide in-classroom literacy programming to low-income children in public school Pre-K and community-based early education programs in Hartford, New Britain, New Haven, Storrs, Vernon, and Willimantic.

The NESS SEA AmeriCorps Program aims to improve academic engagement and positively impact students’ personal growth in the areas of life skills, self-esteem, self-confidence, and stewardship. Through STEM-based adventure education, classroom sessions complement field experiences including sailing, kayaking, snorkeling, and exploring local tide pool, marsh, and beach areas. The NESS SEA Program takes students out of their comfort zones to increase self-confidence, life skills, and stewardship, as well as out of the traditional classroom to make learning relevant and exciting. AmeriCorps members are trained and certified in lifeguarding, safe powerboating, sailing and kayaking. In addition, members receive training in positive youth development, classroom management, and US Sailing REACH curricula among others.

Prevention Corps members deliver trainings to individuals community health and service providers in SBIRT (Screening Brief Intervention Referral to Treatment), deliver trainings to the community at large in using Narcan to prevent deaths from opioid overdose, work with pharmacies to distribute information on safe prescription medication storage and disposal, and work with local public, private, and faith-based organizations to deliver community educational and/or awareness sessions on opioid addiction and abuse. In addition, Prevention Corps members will leverage an additional 100 volunteers who will be engaged in local prevention councils work to combat substance use in Connecticut.

Public Allies Connecticut (PACT), one of 25 Public Allies sites around the country, meets the emerging needs of the nonprofit sector in Greater New Haven, Bridgeport and Hartford by: 1) creating a pipeline of leaders from diverse backgrounds (race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, education, professional experience, etc.) for the nonprofit sector; 2) increasing the capacity of nonprofit organizations in a cost-effective manner; and 3) strengthening civic participation by promoting service opportunities. PACT’s vision is to change the face and practice of leadership in communities across Connecticut by demonstrating our conviction that everyone can lead, and that lasting social change results when citizens of all backgrounds step up, take responsibility, and work together.

Service to Improve Community Health (STICH) AmeriCorps program will expand access to primary care and preventative health care for communities in Bridgeport, Cheshire, Danbury, East Hartford, Hartford, New Haven, Norwalk, Norwich, Torrington, and Waterbury. At the end of the first program year, the AmeriCorps members will be responsible for increasing the understanding of health insurance literacy of 2,535 unduplicated individuals and changing the attitude of 10,357 unduplicated individuals to feel better equipped to navigate the health care system through health education.