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March news & updates

March 11, 2025

SAVE THE DATE

Sign the NEW MOA and become a member of Norwalk ACTS today!

Check to see if you or your organization have signed the new MOA?

CEO CORNER

As Black History Month comes to a close, we reaffirm our commitment to addressing racial and social inequities in our community. Black history is a testament to resilience, progress, and the ongoing fight for justice—values that guide our work every day. In March, we celebrate Women’s History Month—a time to honor the leadership, strength, and achievements of women who have shaped history and continue to drive change in our communities.

In February, our Early Childhood Community Advocate Jennifer Murray-Mayhew and I were delighted to join Isabel Almeida of United Way of Coastal and Western CT for a panel discussion hosted by the New Canaan Community Foundation about The Survival Budget: Understanding Poverty for Local Working Families. It is essential to continue these conversations about collective impact, systems change, and the ways children and families are affected.

Across our Early Childhood Development Initiative and Social Emotional Health Initiative, we remain committed to supporting Norwalk’s children and youth from cradle to career. With the leadership of our Early Childhood Development Manager, MJ Chironna, our community advocates hosted another successful pilot of the Parent Café at South Norwalk Elementary School, where parents/caregivers and children participated in a fully Spanish-language workshop. Additionally, our Social Emotional Health Manager led a valuable parenting chat in collaboration with YL Trapped, Human Services Council, Norwalk Pubic Library, and Youth Business Initiative, focusing on helping youth navigate their social lives.

Looking ahead, we are excited to host our next quarterly convening on March 25, 2024. If you're new to Norwalk ACTS, these gatherings provide a great introduction to our cross-sector collaboration. This session will highlight our Data Cornerstone in partnership with the Norwalk Public Schools Data team, exploring how data informs decision-making and examining the 2024 Norwalk Youth Survey Data,

I hope to see you there!

BACKBONE UPDATES

Happy International Women's Day!

What We're Reading

MJ is reading The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins. This theory “teaches you how to protect your time and energy, and focus on what matters to you” and how to stop giving your power away. One of MJ’s favorite sections is about how to effectively balance supporting people without rescuing them.

PARTNER FOCUS

Congratulations to Norwalk ACTS Board Member, Dr. Julie Corbett, President & Founder of Corbett Education Consulting, LLC.

Last month, Julie passed her dissertation, "Seats of change: An examination of how equity-focused pipelines mitigate the disproportionate racial representation of school boards." Included in her research is her work with the Norwalk ACTS Civic Influencer Program. To learn more about her research, visit her website. Great work Julie. Thank you for your partnership!

Our 2nd cohort of the Civic Influencer Program started in late February. We are happy to have 16 participants from over 10 Norwalk organizations.

CORNERSTONE UPDATES

Major data updates on our Norwalk Data Dashboard

Social Emotional Health

2024 Norwalk Youth Survey results

Early Childhood

2024-25 PreK attendance rate
2024-25 ASQ, KEI, and DIBELS results

Norwalk Public Schools

2024-25 student enrollment counts
2023-24 absenteeism, discipline, & 4-year HS graduation rates

College & Workforce Readiness

Postsecondary enrollment, persistence, and 4- & 6-year graduation rates

Calling all Out of School Time Providers

The weather is warming up! Please update your summer 2025 offerings in our Out of School Time Program Locator

Registrar of Voters & Elections Administration

For the first time in over 60 years, the Norwalk Common Council and the Reapportionment Committee have worked to redistrict our community to better reflect population changes and ensure neighborhood continuity and representation.

More information can be found on the Norwalk Voters & Election website or the Registrar of Voters new Facebook Page

Legislative Action on Special Education Funding

In an unusual move, the Connecticut General Assembly convened emergency sessions—weeks ahead of their regular schedule—to address a critical issue: special education funding. The House and Senate jointly passed legislation allocating an additional $40 million to support special education programs for the current school year. The bipartisan effort responds to growing concerns from schools and municipalities struggling to cover rising special education costs.

This decision also reflects a growing split between the legislature and Governor Ned Lamont regarding state spending priorities and fiscal management. The Governor maintains that the spending increase would exceed the state’s legal spending cap. After exercising the use of a line-item veto to remove this funding from the broader bill, negotiations with legislative leaders the following day resulted in a compromise restoring the funding through a source outside the scope of the budget cap.

While local school districts now have more support to meet the rising costs of special education in the current fiscal year, this compromise isn’t without a caveat: the funding source is the same money the Governor planned to use for his Universal Preschool Endowment. Much more to come as the session continues… Read more about the C2C Coalition Advocacy here.

Danbury Collective Civic Engagement Series: March 11 Spanish Flyer

Spanish & Haitian Creole Flyers

SPECIAL EDUCATION RESOURCE FAIR

SUN, MARCH 30TH, 2- 5 PM

STAMFORD JCC

On March 30th, Special Education Legal Fund & Special Education Equity for Kids (SEEK) present our Special Education Resource Fair. Attend one of our 3 parent panels, visit with 40+ special education & special needs providers, and meet other families in this one-of-a-kind event!

Norwalk Public Schools' Lift as we Climb: Lessons for the Next Generation Series

In honor of Black History Month, take a listen to 4 amazing interviews of Black Leaders in Norwalk!

Greg Burnett, Common Council Member

Brenda Penn-Williams, President Norwalk NAACP President

State Representative Kadeem Roberts, 137th District

Jasmine Prezzie, Norwalk Public Schools Board Member

INITIATIVE UPDATES

SEH PLEDGE

We have launched our SEH Pledge Campaign for youth-serving organizations leaders to sign to engage all social emotional health stakeholders. Let's all commit to available training and resources to support the social emotional health of all Norwalk youth!

Our Early Childhood Community Advocates have been out in the Norwalk community increasing awareness about the importance of early childhood development and sharing resources & referrals about services to support families and children ages 0 to 5.

We look forward to seeing you at the Early Childhood Celebration at the SoNo Collection & at the SoNo Library for our Play Group!

Free AI Training for

CT Residents

As a partnership between Google and Charter Oak State College, this free training opportunity is available to CT residents. Learning generative AI, which are tools that can compose documents, generate images, help program code or perform other work is essential for the workforce of the future. Learn more about the training here

For any questions regarding the Connecticut Online AI Academy, please contact Jon Draper at jdraper@charteroak.edu

Are you a college student looking to get involved in our democracy, make a difference in your community, and get paid in the process?

Become a part of the next generation of election workers! The 2025 cohort application deadline is midnight March 28! https://ow.ly/frJ650V8Ws1

The City of Norwalk’s Department of Public Works is hiring an Engineering Summer Intern! This person will have the opportunity to work with licensed civil engineers. For more info, please email your cover letter & resume to dpwconstruction@norwalkct.gov

FCCF Scholarship due April 8th

Apply today for a scholarship through Fairfield County’s Community Foundation! Whether pursuing an accredited college track or vocational training, we’re here to help students chase their dreams and build brighter futures. One application could yield up to 4 scholarships.

Application Deadline: April 8, 2025

You’re eligible if you’re:

✅Graduating from an eligible high school in Fairfield County

✅In good Academic standing, with a minimum GPA of 2.7*

✅Planning to attend an accredited 2- or 4-year educational or vocational institution

For more information, visit here

Community Partners: In Focus

Our partners aligned with our mission have great employment opportunities. See below:

Positive Directions - Executive Director

Positive Directions - Clinical Director

CT Data Collaborative - Program Evaluation Specialist

Horizons 6-week Summer Program Faculty & Staff

Horizons at New Canaan Country School Tutor

The Strategy Group - Office Manager

Norwalk ACTS uses a Collective Impact approach that brings people, organizations, and systems together, in a structured way, around common goals to achieve social change. It is rooted in the belief that no single organization or entity alone can create lasting social change on its own.

Norwalk ACTS

[www.norwalkacts.org]

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