Community leaders in Hartford have launched a grassroots effort to maintain a summer jobs program for Hartford youth after a nonprofit that helped run it fell into financial trouble.
Former employees of the Blue Hills Civic Association are campaigning to preserve youth employment opportunities that the organization previously coordinated.
Blue Hills was the largest provider of youth jobs in the greater Hartford area through the Summer Youth Employment and Learning Program (SYELP), a statewide initiative to provide work opportunities for low-income youth. Its program was thrown into uncertainty in April when the nonprofit was forced to lay off its staff after its state funding was jeopardized.
Mz. Cherell Banks, a community organizer and former employee of Blue Hills, said that left several hundred kids in limbo.
“I had a couple of youth that sat at the store or just walking in the neighborhood, and they like, ‘Miss, what's up? Is what they saying true? What's going to happen? What's up with summer youth employment?’” Banks said.
Banks and other former employees met with state officials and showed up to public hearings at Hartford City Hall over the past several weeks to voice their support for the program.
“Just because we get laid off, don't mean the work stop,” Banks said. “This is what we do. We build relationships. We invested in the youth and in the parents, so we can't leave them hanging.”
The program typically runs from July through the middle of August. With the start approaching, former Blue Hills employees have been working to stand up a reconstituted version.
State and city officials are also contemplating how to maintain the jobs that Blue Hills provided. SYELP funding is administered by Capital Workforce Partners, a regional workforce development board. It works with community providers such as Blue Hills to provide jobs.
A spokesperson for Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam said the mayor’s office has identified community organizations that can take on additional kids this summer, including Our Piece of the Pie, a local nonprofit.
“The City of Hartford’s top priority is preserving access to meaningful work experiences and pathways to future success for Hartford youth,” Arulampalam said in a written statement. “Thanks to our partners at the state, the city will be able to continue supporting meaningful summer employment opportunities for Hartford youth without interruption.”
House Speaker Matt Ritter, a Democrat who represents Hartford in the state legislature, said he’s been hearing from residents about the importance of keeping youth engaged over the summer. Ritter said the state will continue to allocate money for SYELP programs in Hartford.
“Those kids will not see a loss in the summertime,” Ritter said.
Formed in 1962, the Blue Hills Civic Association has long been an important service provider in North Hartford. However, an incident last year developed into a financial calamity for the nonprofit.
Records provided to the state show it lost $300,000 in a wire transfer fraud, but was slow to notify state officials of what transpired. As a result, officials from the Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) have temporarily frozen all funding to the organization, and clawed back about $1.5 million in state grant money.
DECD spokesperson Jim Watson said the money can’t be used until a forensic audit is complete. The department will hire a private accounting firm to examine all state and federal money awarded to the nonprofit over the last three fiscal years, Watson said.
“Unfortunately the accounting issues are growing and mounting, and not lessening,” said Ritter, adding, “I think they are on the right course. I think a forensic audit is an important thing here given the amount of money in question.”
Staff members from Blue Hills and the chairperson of its board did not respond to requests for comment. In a letter to the community in April, former Blue Hills Executive Director Vicki Gallon-Clark stressed the organization’s financial records were routinely audited in the past, and “have always been transparent and strong.”
“What happened was not mismanagement — it was a cybersecurity breach, something that has affected even the largest and most prestigious institutions,” Gallon-Clark wrote.
Arunan Arulampalam's father-in-law is Gregory B. Butler, who is a member of the Board of Trustees of Connecticut Public.
