Connecticut has long been known as the “land of steady habits.” But the new head of one of the state’s most-prominent business-development organizations wants to see it forge a reputation for inventiveness.

Onyeka “Ony” Obiocha has been named the new executive director of CTNext, a state-backed agency that develops programs and provides funding to help startups and early-stage businesses grow in Connecticut. Drawing on his experience building and supporting new firms, Obiocha sees the opportunity for CTNext to play a key role in Connecticut becoming a major hub for entrepreneurship and innovation.

“As a Connecticut native, I’ve always said that Connecticut has everything it needs to be successful,” Obiocha said in an interview. “I’ve always been excited about the potential here. Providing opportunities for businesses to blossom is something I could not say no to.” Read More

Having achieved its fundraising goals on schedule, The Jackson Institute of Global Affairs will open as a school at Yale University this fall, becoming the first new professional school established at Yale in more than 40 years. Plans to transition the current Jackson Institute to a degree-granting school were first announced in 2019, targeting a fundraising objective of $200 million for its endowment.

“The transition from the Jackson Institute to the Yale Jackson School occurs as communities around the world are facing profound challenges: climate change, war, migration, pandemic, resource scarcity, and political division,” said Yale University President Peter Salovey in a letter to the University community.

“The complexity of these problems calls for solutions built from great breadth and depth of knowledge, expertise, and perspective. By bringing together scholars, policymakers, and practitioners in political science, economics, history, law, and other fields,” the new school will greatly enhance Yale’s “ability to answer that call.” Read More

At their recent meeting, the board of directors of CT Humanities (CTH) awarded 624 non-profit museums and cultural, humanities, and arts organizations a total of $16M in CT Cultural Fund Operating Support Grants (CTCFOSG). The CTCFOSG are part of $30.7M of support allocated to CTH over the next two years by the CT General Assembly and approved by Governor Ned Lamont.

The CTCFOSG will assist organizations as they recover from the pandemic and maintain and grow their ability to serve their community and the public, connect K-12 teachers and students to strong humanities and arts content, and improve their information technology and digital infrastructure.

This funding underscores the commitment Connecticut’s leaders have made to address the health and wellbeing of the people and communities they serve. “In addition to anchoring communities and contributing to the economic engine of our state, the arts and humanities help us make sense of and address today’s biggest challenges in ways that help us learn from one another, be resilient, and co-create paths to move forward,” says Dr. Frank Mitchell, CTH board member. “There is so much joy in this endeavor,” Mitchell adds. Read More

February 8 at 10 a.m.

CTData Collaborative along with the CT Fair Housing Center and the Aurora Women and Girls Foundation will unveil a groundbreaking analysis exposing Connecticut's eviction crisis that reveals, for the first time, 'who is being evicted.'

In addition to the report, we will also be releasing a data platform that makes eviction data available to the public.

CTData Collaborative and the Connecticut Fair Housing Center have analyzed five years of eviction filings to better understand housing instability in Connecticut.

In Connecticut, prior to the pandemic, landlords filed over 20,000 eviction filings a year. These filings occurred almost exclusively in the state’s major cities, and four of Connecticut’s cities are in the top 100 evicting cities in the country. Read More