In this op-ed by Dan Haar in the The Hour and many other Hearst publications throughout Connecticut, Barbara Dalio is profiled, and her new Partnership for Connecticut is explained.
The mission of the Partnership for Connecticut addresses issues that are not a part of Carver’s current work with school districts, so Carver is not an applicant for funding. Nevertheless, Carver is honored to be such a pivotal element in the creation of this important new initiative that will “…help Connecticut’s disengaged and disconnected youth and young adults (ages 14 to 24) access the educational and career opportunities they need to succeed in life.”
The other article about the Partnership for Connecticut holding its first of 16 town hall meetings at the Carver Community Center includes details of how Ms. Dalio’s philanthropic journey began at Carver years ago, and also comments by Carver alumnus Erik Clemons, chairman of the Partnership for Connecticut.
Barbara Dalio will kick off a series of town hall-style gatherings Tuesday evening to talk about her innovative and unfortunately, controversial state partnership to help at-risk youths — at a place called the Carver Center in Norwalk that has special meaning to the Greenwich philanthropist.
Dalio’s joint project with the state, called the Partnership for Connecticut Inc., combines $100 million from Dalio Philanthropies, $100 million from state taxpayers and, if the plan succeeds, yet another $100 million from other private donors.
It culminates 12 years of work by Barbara Dalio, work that started right there at the Carver Center after the last of the Dalios’ four sons was grown.
She had a lot more questions than answers as a benefactor looking to make a difference for struggling youths in 2008. At the private, nonprofit Carver, which runs after-school and summertime programs mostly in the Norwalk school system, Dalio didn’t want to just write checks and walk away with maybe a plaque on a wall or a building named in her honor.
…The bigger picture came together very slowly, methodically. First, Dalio Education Initiatives helped to build up programs such as the Carver Center, officially the Carver Foundation of Norwalk — named for George Washington Carver, an African American scientist and inventor who died in 1943 in Alabama.
Today, Carver serves 2,600 students, mostly from 17 schools in Norwalk. When Dalio started her involvement, it was basically a single community center.
“She’s one of the individuals who believed in our vision and supported it,” CEO Novelette Peterkin said. “Barbara has a beautiful mind and a courageous heart. She brings out the best in everyuone....She has a passion for these students.”
Dalio deflects the conversation from herself.
These are excerpts of the article that describes the first town hall meeting at the Carver Community Center.
…[Barbara Daio] started her tour at Carver, because it’s where her focus on education began.
Carver is a non-profit that runs after-school and summer programs. It serves 2,600 students, mostly from Norwalk. Dalio has invested heavily in it.
It is also where Erik Clemons, chairman of the Partnership and a former state Board of Education member, said he grew up.
“I was a disengaged and disconnected youth,” Clemons said. He went to four high schools, living in poverty, but said he managed to escape.
Clemons said the goal of the foundation is not just to help students graduate, but provide them with job opportunities. There are an estimated 40,000 disengaged kids in the state, he said.