Welcome to the Waterbury talks. I'm your host Grant Copeland today's conversation is with Kristin Jacoby. Kristin is the chief professional officer at the United way of greater Waterbury, a nonprofit organization focused on the education. Financial stability and basic needs of the Waterbury region with a career devoted to supporting the less fortunate. Kristin speaks with excitement and experience about the strength of local partnerships, achieving measurable outcomes, the qualities that make Waterbury, such a supportive community and the ways that any person can impact lives, let's join together as the Waterbury talks with Kristin Jacoby. Thank you for providing your perspectives. Kristen. Thank you. It's great to be. So let's start with United way at greater Waterbury, which is so many things. Can you give us a, just an overview of the organization? Absolutely wonder if you just go to our mission and we talk about amplifying resources and investing in approaches that are really just gonna make our community a better place to live and work. And what I love about what we do is it's all about partnership. We are doing things that we cannot do alone, but by working with partnerships, we truly are amplifying all that we do within our Community. It's about helping people. Walk us through some of the aspects of impact areas, if you will, are there particular focus areas that, that United Way has? Yeah. Great question. We have three actually really looking at education, basic needs and financial stability. What we really like to say is. If you have a quality education, it's gonna lead to a stable job and then families will be able to provide for their basic needs. So we feel based on data, community input, and a lot of different work to make sure that we're focusing on the right type of issues for our community, came up with those three specific areas. United Way of Greater Waterbury covers a 10 town region, including the city of Waterbury. Describe if you would the makeup of the region from your point of view, what are the people like and how do they view community involvement in philanthropy? Our 10 town region spans from Southbury to Cheshire, from Thomaston to Wolcott. It's a, it's an amazing region. I grew up in this area and I just feel that there is this whole different sense of loyalty and commitment to our communities. And the Waterbury are urban center that those surrounding towns very much come to the city for services that people are working and living and growing up in towns and maybe moving, living in Waterbury and then moving to the outside town. So there's just this. Amazing level of commitment, an amazing level of loyalty to our community long ago, it was said that Waterbury was the center of the universe. And I believe it with the incredible partners that we're working with that serve this 10 town greater area, that it's just an amazing community where people want to work together to make what's best for our community. And even once again, that Waterbury may be that center. It's all of our 10 towns working together to achieve the outcomes we wanna make happen for our community. It's often misunderstood. I've found that United Way of Greater Waterbury is not a quote unquote chapter of the United Way worldwide organization. What is the relationship between your United way and the United way that's showing on say the commercials that you see on an NFL football game? Oh my God. So what I love about United way is that we are United way. A greater Waterbury is an independent 5 0 1 C three. And what that means is that we are really our own little business. That we do have a United way system that we all work together on common types of approaches, but we are independent. We have local individuals living and working our community, making decisions for our local community. And once again, going back, like we talked earlier about the loyalty in our community. It's all of that. It's all people working together once again to make sure that our community is doing the best it possibly can for people. So, how did you get to United way or greater Waterbury? Where were you prior in your career? So it's interesting. When I got outta college, I actually thought about going into nursing and I was really looking at going back into that field and really, because my mom is a registered nurse with a masters, worked at Waterbury hospital, her whole life, and seeing what she did with nursing was amazing. So. She was on the ground, on the floor doing nursing. She worked in education. She did a whole bunch of different things within her career. And I was really looking at it from a public health perspective. And so then I made the decision that was really more where I wanted to be. And I actually fell into working at the American cancer society right outta college. And I loved it because I didn't start in fundraising. It was more about education prevention, patient services. So really about the people in our community and really. Getting a good feel about what it was like for families and individuals that were going through a cancer diagnosis. And from that, and that passion and belief of helping people ended up in the fundraising side of the house. And from there, it, I just believe in people coming together, I've been able to see amazing things of when. People are coming together, work together for the common good, amazing, extraordinary things will happen. And that was so proven to me with the first really, for life in Cheshire, the event wasn't happening yet wanted to bring it to Cheshire. Everybody was saying, no, all of a sudden you had the right people come around the table and to understand truly what that event was about. It was about. Bringing awareness and raising money to help people, not only with cancer, but what families were going through. And then also to look at research and making sure that you're able to look at the future and how to get cures on the table to help people have diagnosed with cancer. I love doing the fundraising, which I think the original goal was 25,000. First year raised 150,000 second year, 300,000. And up to the $500,000 mark incredible event, all about people coming together in a community for a common cause. And that's what made it wasn't me. It was that community coming together and believing in something so fiercely to make that happen and to be such a success. But it's funny, people would be like, Hey, wait a second. Your goal is 25,000. Why are you pushing to go that much farther? For me and still to this day, we have a huge responsibility to raise those funds, to help people. And that there is no stopping that there is no end goal that you just have to keep pushing forward because there's too many people, whether it's individuals and families that are struggling right here in our community with the different needs that we have through the health and human service lens to help people I personally feel, and our team just has such a massive responsibility. Going from the cancer society to United Way of greater Waterbury, the cancer society, for lack of a better term is a singular mission. It's a singular cause easier for the community to understand the plight and understand how they can contribute. Was it unnerving or did you see it as an exciting opportunity to come to United way where. The mission and the impact is technically much more broad when you're getting into education and financial stability and basic needs and things related to health and literacy and food insecurity. It's a lot to take on was that prospect of becoming the head of United Way of Greater Waterbury, overwhelming, or wast an exciting one for you. It was really exciting. Overwhelming, of course, I so believe in our community and that's something I learned about myself. I've had opportunities to move different places or work in different organizations, but I, when I left the cancer society and I was doing different positions at the cancer society and actually went to the corporate world for a brief period of time, I realized how much I missed our community and working for our community. And I missed being in the center of it all, where you are working with different partners, whether it is the nonprofit community, the corporate community, our municipalities to come together to make great change. I missed that so much in the corporate world. For me, at least you could be at a golf tournament, but were you really there sitting at the table looking at important strategies? Particular solutions. It was exciting for me, especially with a public health background, really exciting. And for me to see the people, once again at the table, our corporate sector, our volunteers that were working together for our greater Waterbury was just completely inspiring. In such the team at United way, I've been blessed to be there for 22 years, but it's the team around me that does so much of this work and the hands on every single day, whether it's answering a call about somebody that is homeless, somebody or family, looking for different services that need to make that connectivity, or really even helping a company venture into that world of corporate social responsibility and having our United way be able to deliver these awesome experiences. That connect people back to the work we're doing. Obviously you're saying the work and basic needs, financial stability education is extraordinarily complex. The solutions are so complex. Nothing is the same every day. And that's why people will be like 22 years. How have you been in one place it's never the same and the complex issues. They change over time, but there's still a lot to be tackled. Seems like some of the. As you've mentioned was having grown up in this area. Yes. Where specifically did you grow up? I grew up in Middlebury and then after college, I lived in Waterbury for a particular time. And then living in Woodbury now. And you've mentioned a little bit about your parents, but tell us about your family. What was the family unit like? Ugh, I, I caught my blessings every day. My mom and dad both grew up in this community in Naga tuck and. Just blessed. When I think about, they didn't have necessarily easy childhoods, they were surrounded by love, but my mom lost her parents at a very young age. And my dad's mom was a single mom working at UN and in the factory. So though there was a lot of love, there were struggles. And when I think about some of those struggles and some of the stories I hear it amazes me what extraordinary parents they are and like things as an adult or as I was aging, what I realized. The opportunities and the specialness of our family, the Sunday dinners. And I was just telling somebody, we went on Sunday drives when I was little, how funny is that now? But it was a thing and how my mom is a nurse. She has a master's equivalent to a master's in public health, you know, and we were growing up, she would work weekends or nights. So my dad would be with us, just that sort of thing of how you're balancing your life once again. So. There was always one of my parents with us, which I think is amazing to think of that today. And so I'm blessed when you think of my college opportunities, the support I had all my life, there was the message that I can do. Absolutely anything, nothing is insurmountable if you put your mind to it. And that is obviously just impacted me my whole life and my perspective on the world. Where'd you go to high? Holy cross high school in Waterbury, went to university of Connecticut. And then I went to Southern Connecticut for my master's in public health. And then I was really blessed to do a special program at Columbia university, which was for nonprofit leadership. I have to say, holy cross though. What an amazing high school I always laughed cuz I loved high school. I loved college. Like I love after college. I'm really blessed to have really long standing relationships and friendships in addition to my family. But I think holy cross was a really big piece of that. I had amazing experience. I was blessed to receive an award from them a couple years ago and going back into the high school and going. Down into the auditorium where I had spent so many of my hours, those four years in high school was really emotional. It actually really took me back that I was so emotion, emotional at being in the room and receiving the award and then having the award be presented with my high school friends and family in the audience. And just once again, just feeling really privileged to be able to go there, to attend that school and to have the time with the people that really helped for me, who I am. Your husband, of course, is Dr. Peter Jacoby, who has been a huge figure in the community for decades, both as an emergency medicine physician and as a philanthropist, you're a dynamic duo. Don't you think? I don't know if you call it dynamic duo, but I'm very, he's amazing. Like he is just a person of joy, but really what's so wonderful about our relationship is both being so committed to our community and be involved. I'm involved in outside United way activities. Peter's highly engaged in the palace theater. So involved in the community and to have that support, I think is really, truly awesome because we're both out there supporting each other, but doing it also together. So I think that maybe dynamic duo is just, we're blessed to have the same values and same belief system and support each other. Being out there in our community, trying to do some good. So some of the good things that United way is doing, I would say are fairly unique as an organization that's impacting the community. Is there a certain aspect of United way or of your role that you enjoy the most? I completely get my energy from people completely. So meeting with individuals and hearing their story and having that level of curiosity of what people have experienced and what their businesses are going through. I just totally enjoy it. I love hearing about people and learning about people and then helping in some sort of way to figure out how United way can be. Part of those solutions, I think is really important. And it was, I think in 2009, where we went through a real. Dive into the work that we're doing, that moved us to those three impact areas that we talked about, but we did real strategic work. We did a lot of research. We did community needs assessment. We asked people in our community, what they believed were the most important needs. And from there we literally developed our three impact areas we developed, what we wanted to achieve in those were the outcomes that we needed were the visions for those areas down to the strategies and tactics of what did we wanna be true for our community. So I think that when you look at that level of work, And really moving from a fundraising allocation organization to a true community impact organization. We are about outcomes and we work with these amazing partners that their feet around the ground doing the work, but coming back to us and sharing that we can show the actual impact that we're making in our community. It is about the number of people we're helping, but those numbers don't do justice because when we help one person say, it's a mom, imagine. Whatever that individual was going through with when they're doing better, how that impact is helping their entire family. And that's what it's all about. So I'm really proud of that work and the work our team did to get us to this place of truly being a modern, United way. It's all about the mindset of growth. It's about the awesome experiences that we could connect people with and love to talk about or affinity groups a little bit later, those awesome experiences that give that connectivity back to this complex. Because, how do you really impart on people? What families are going through? The one thing I've learned in this job and makes you really stop and think is that literally in a second, your life can change. And I feel blessed and I once and I, and I truly so appreciative of my parents and my family and my husband, but things can change really quickly. And I think that's why giving back is so important is to understand it and to be part of it. Because once again, one of the stories that really. Through me for a loop. When I first started was we did this homeless connect fair, and it was a way that United way, and other partners came together to get our homeless population that people lived along the river, off the streets, come in and get haircuts. They get warm dinner, getting their picture, taken of them in their families. That something that people that are homeless may not have. Getting codes, getting healthcare, whatever it was, all these services came together. We're standing at a table and this gentleman walked up who was homeless. And it actually was the cousin of one of my colleagues. And she was thrown because here it was a person that was in her life that they lost touch with. And the story was that this gentleman worked for manufacturing company and he was out on a jet ski and had a traumatic brain injury. At the time his parents were alive and so they helped care for him. But when the parents passed, he had some troubles, he was having a hard time adjusting to this new way of the world for him, that he became homeless, had some other challenges and the family lo just lost him. And so at this time, this gentleman walked up to the table and they reunited, and we were able to help this individual to get a place to live learning a lot. We wanted to do other things for him, clothing or food, whatever that was, but learning a lot about what it was like for that individual, that gentleman's life turned upside down pretty quickly. And yes, this community was here to help that person get back on track. But think about that, how quickly life can change and the health and human services and the programs and services here in our community to help. Just so critical and you'd never really know. I think until you get to that point where something is facing you and you don't really know where to turn. So you mentioned the team that you have at United way, small and really talented size, small and mighty. It's also interesting that the model. Of the organization is really built by local volunteers who serve on the board and serve on various committees. Tell us about that model and tell us how people in this community could join those groups. Sure. It's truly a volunteer led organization and it's funny, like I was brought up that way. Really? You, you turn and you lean on volunteers and. It makes us a better organization. And it, what I love is I always say there's so many people out there so much smarter than me. And so I've been so blessed in my position that I have you. I have Joe Gugliotti. I have turned to the strategic planner at Webster bank to say, Hey, we have this new strategic plan. What are the best practices of how to track this document? There are all these people with all these amazing skills and expertise that we get to bring into our organization. So whether it's a one time opportunity and, or serving on a board or committee and or some of our infinity groups that there's all different ways that people based on what their desires are, can come closer to our organization, but it really is depending on. The local people in our community to make those major decisions of what we're investing in H how we're spending our money as an organization, our strategies, and ultimately who we wanna be as an organization. What do you find is the moment, the moment when people get the power of United way, is there a moment first contribution they make to a campaign? Is it volunteering? What do you find is usually the moment when it sparks, when the light bulb goes on for someone and maybe leads to a lifetime of community involvement or philanthropic involve. I think a lot of it has to do engagement and engagement can be done different ways for different people. But I think it's when it's the heart and solo, the organization becomes apparent. And whether that you're at one of our lunch and learns or a presentation on Alice, you're learning about. The investment process, our community impact process of looking at and reviewing our agencies on so many different levels to make sure that we are making the right investments in the right organizations. There's something that happens to somebody that they personally connect with. I know we were working in one of our large campaigns and I was working with the chairperson and all of a sudden it hit them. My family. Used unitedly services. I never thought of that before, but I had a single mom that our family was struggling. And then all of a sudden realized that particular service was something that United way was investing in. And so the light went off in a whole different way. I think when people start to really connect with the need and they see that hands on, they're part of it, they're experiencing it. I think that's truly when people. Get a feel for the depth of the work that we're doing. And I think it's really important to show the connectivity of it's all of those impact areas together. It's all of that strategy that comes together. Many people don't even know about our United way. 2 1 1, which is a 24 hour, seven day a week resource and referral system for our state, that United ways fund with the state of Connecticut. But you make that call and you realize I might be calling because I'm. You know, an issue with not being able to pay my electricity, but those incredible case workers start to talk you through and ask questions to help understand what other issues may be going on. And once again, that connectivity of the different services, or if there's one issue, what else is out there? That's impacting a family that through these important services in our community can be solved. You mentioned the model having to react and the organization having to be nimble, the pandemic hits, how does United way of greater water respond to that? That was an amazing process. It's hard. When you think back now, what that was like in that March, right? When the world was about to shut down, what was really impactful for us is that right? When that was happening, something very pivotal happened. That Joanne Reynolds, the vice president and community impact received a call. And there was a really, a young mom who was just diagnosed with COVID. Now, remember once again, what it was like back then, it was nothing like it is today. She had two little kids and her husband and lived in a home in Waterbury, no other support system. She had to quarantine herself in a bedroom. Away from her two little people in her life and her husband. I can't imagine what that was like for two little kids, not understanding why for an extended period of time, they couldn't be with their parent, with their mother, be touched, loved, hugged, and they didn't have any other resources and they needed food. And so our team just got in action. Got what we need to get and delivered it to the household. But we were realizing that we need to really look at the systems of what this is gonna look like the next couple of weeks. And what else could be done? Our mayor of Waterbury . Mayor O'Leary was extraordinary. He was ahead of the curve. He had already been meeting with a group of community leaders and officials within the city of Waterbury, but he had moved into action and we had some conversation with him and we were able to just put amazing things into play. One of the things that we did was how are individuals that are not financially stable, even are going to get access to resource or food. If you were taking a bus. To the supermarket. You couldn't get there. If you didn't have a lot of extra money, you couldn't go and buy all the extra toilet paper or the paper towels that people were doing at the time. And so how were these families going to get through at the time, thinking two weeks, nevermind the length of time that the families experience this. So we jumped into action. We created. Uh, fund with the Connecticut community foundation and raise over $789,000 for our community. 100% of those funds were pushed right out to the front lines, in our community of these great partners and nonprofits, making sure that yes, we are nimble, but that they could be nimble, that they could readjust how they were conducting business so they can meet the needs of their clients. Think about a soup kitchen or a food bank when people cannot be coming together, how is that food gonna get back to families? So what we did is just really, and I give Joanne Reynolds Blanda. The credit here is that we're like, all right, let's start funds. The funds were raised, let's start funds and put them in our local supermarkets, LA bonds shop, right. Four corners. The funds will be. And then we can make sure that families that are struggling if they're diagnosed with COVID can have access to this fund. And we are able to get the supermarkets to deliver the food right to the families. Now, remember back then this wasn't happening. And so the city was wonderful and we were able to then work with the city to say, all right, Where can people in the city call to make sure that if they're diagnosed and they need help, where can they actually call and get help? And so we created that system and then we're able to redeploy some of the case workers in our nonprofits to actually be case workers, to help the clients that were diagnosed with other needs. What did they need? And so it was amazing to see that X. Come together. This is, what's so special about this community. People pulled together once again to do what was best at energy and that commitment, what are we gonna do for families to make sure that they can get through this really challenging time? And so it was just an amazing process. And one thing we just worked in the money was deployed quickly into the communities right into those front lines, but it was with the mayor and the Y M C a too, our hospital, our first responders, they had to go to work every day. My husband was one of 'em. He. One of the first people to be helping an individual with the COVID diagnosis, but it was just about responding and moving quickly and being nimble because it was about getting people, whatever is they needed. And through the mayor's leadership, he was saying, yes, it's food, but there are other things that people need. Maybe people need a thermometer. The other things, how are people, how are our, maybe our older population. Needing medicine, how are they gonna get medicine? How are they gonna get to a pharmacy and get what they need? How are they gonna do a copay? And so all of that was being taken care of, and it was just an amazing process. And I, once again, give mayor Larry so much credit to be ahead of that. What I was saying a little we started to talk about was our healthcare workers. They had to be in work every day. And so where would their kids be? And so the Y M a stepped up and through also leadership of mayor. Larry is created in a place that our heroes really were able to make sure their children were in a safe place while they were at work. And so I just think that's such a Testament to our community, but beyond that, we also combined with 15 other United ways to start another fund that was over $700,000 to help people directly. And what we learned is. Individuals needed cash. People needed money to be able to do what they needed to do. And so we were really stepped out of our regular way of doing business. And we started a strategy at mobile wallet cards and individuals that met the criteria that were really our ALICE population. Once again, people working, but still struggling were able to, if they met the criteria able to get a $200 mobile wallet card, it would be sent to their phone and then it would be able to use it for their basic needs. And, you know, we were able to track that information and. Food. It was utilities. Families were really struggling and this really helped them during this time to meet those basic needs, which I think was so important. But that's what I love about our United way. Being that independent 501c3, and yes, there's a bigger United way system, but we get to do what's right for our community. And we're able to help work with other partners to deliver on those mobile wallet cards. We worked with some of our other towns, some of our nonprofits that their feet were on the ground, knowing who needed. To make and deploy quickly to the people in. There's such a diverse community that you're serving. What is United way of greater Waterbury doing in terms of equity initiatives? Yeah. Thank you. The benefit of United way worldwide, which I really turn to a lot for best practices. Any information is to see what else is out there to better understand we do have membership requirement regarding equity. And one of the first things that we've started was we have an equity fund. We just raise a hundred thousand dollars. It's just all happening. But it's funds that we're looking to for our current partners, but also new partners are not working with really grassroot partners to come and send in applications to say, how can they go about this work a little differently? What are they looking to do? And how are they looking to do it? Because there's so many great grassroots organization deeply involved in our community, deeply involved with. Aspects of our community that we can work together with to, to create outcomes. One of the things we've also done in the sense of looking through the DEI lens, diversity equity inclusion, is that the unique role of United way is that great blend of working? Not only with the nonprofits, but our local corporations. And our small businesses, as well as the municipality is that we were able to pull together a diversity advisory council of 20 different individuals. Plus in our community that work at local companies that are doing this work internally to come be part of our team to say, let's look at everything we're doing. We're looking at the worldwide new membership requirements. We're looking at our. We looked at our HR policies to make sure that they were a hundred percent inclusive, but just great work, because there are so many smart people out there we're pulling together that knowledge and that skill base to help our organizations only do it that much better. You've mentioned Alice a couple times and I've always found the Alice figure startling. And it's these people that desperately need a hand up in the community and they're in every community. Yeah. Every town, every area urban, rural, it doesn't matter. Alice seems to be a significant component of the citizenry. Tell us what Alice is and how you're helping Alice people overcome life's challenge. Asset limit income constrained, but employed. So they're individuals working really hard. They're just having a really hard time making it. What I think is so important about our United way has worked with the other Connecticut United ways to produce this report. We're now producing other reports. There's one focused on children. There's one focused on disabilities and how that Alice lens is impacting. Specific populations, but it's about all that we do. It's about every program investment that we're making every initiative of looking at our families and what they're struggling with and people are really struggling. Think about now with inflation and what families are up against. And so it's how do we ignite our community through these programs and services initiatives to come together to help families. And so whether it's job training. Different types of education and looking at that financial stability lens to help people do a little bit better or to maybe even change the job that they're in. It's all of that coming together. It's Alice saves. It's working collectively within these areas of impact to, to drive what's needed. And once again, what's so great about our partners and our community, all of those different nonprofits that we're working through 39 programs, we're investing in 20 initiatives. All of these hundreds of partners that come together to, to think through what we need to do to help people you've been so involved in Waterbury for so many years. What's your view, as you take a step out of United way of greater Waterbury and your specific organization, what's your view on the social and community services offered across the Waterbury region. I believe that the nonprofit field is extraordinary important to the health of any community. That it's a wonderful place for families to go and for people to get help. But it's also about those partnerships, both with our municipality, because the municipality is doing so much great work, but our work together, when you look at the funds, the municipality is bringing in, you're also looking at the funds being spent by nonprofits. That unique combination is really helping our community. And so I see it as. I keep referring to partnerships with these partnerships that are here for people on the ground to make a difference in people's lives. And whether it's right now, immediate needs crisis basic needs needing food shelter, but it's also looking at the longer term. It's about this long term strategy to help people be successful. One of the things I pride our work on is our area in education. It's about early care and education, the little people really getting them ready for school and learning and reading, but it's also what the after school programs and making sure our other kids are in safe places or getting help with their homework that they're with other kids that they're experiencing those true benefits that you find at after school programs. And that I think it's the bigger picture. About the work we're doing in the sense from the actual continuum. And I think that's something that I'm really proud of. So that's a really interesting point. You make about both the immediate impact that can be created by you and other nonprofits and the longer term effect that it has on the folks in the city Waterbury and the Waterbury region are there. Other things to mention there either specific programs that really address both the short and long term or even other nonprofit organizations that while you don't wanna necessarily single them out are really representative of the breadth and depth of supportive organizations in Waterbury. Wow. I mean, there's so many organizations doing so many different, great things and I've talked a lot. The program side, the people outcome. But one of the things that United way really shifted to over the last decade is looking at those initiatives. I mentioned we invest in 20 different initiatives and what I think is so important about them, there's even other partners around those tables, but they're looking at different ways to make community change or looking at. Different ways of approaching things. And so it's not only United way, maybe investing financially in something it's where our staff time is put and that expertise, our community impact team has about looking at the issue or the problem and what type of solutions and best practices are out there. And who do we need around that table right then? And right. To get those solutions to come to life. And so I think that's really important to look at in a different sort of way. So when I think about financial stability and our Vita program, which is volunteers coming to help people that are low income to do their taxes sounds pretty simple, right? But we have tons of volunteers that go through this intense training to help people go through this process might seem simple, but you want people to be in a safe place to get this done, but. That program, the returns are$1.6 million in our community. So people then can provide for their basic needs. And so you're working with people to get tax returns done, but you're also connecting them to all of the other programs in that financial stability realm, which is all financial education looking at job training. Opportunities to incentivize savings. So it's more than just one particular program or experience it's bringing around all of these other types of opportunities for a family to learn about savings and to, and financial stability, which I think is just so important. And at the same time, if a family is there, that they have. Some other need, they can be connected to other services. And so I see our investments in financial stability, whether it's our hu our time and or money is really about prevention. It's giving people that solid foundation, so households can meet their basic needs in the future. And I think that's really, once again, something I'm so proud that our organization is working on. Uh, we talked about volunteer engagement. We talked about financial investments. When you asked me about how people really start to connect with the needs in our community. Another great example is work. We're doing with the reentry center in Waterbury, which is new to the community, but this is a welcome center, which is opened and it's helping citizens transition from incarceration into independence. Now that's really important. It's how to help these individuals that are now showing up in the city to get back up on their feet and to be independent. And I can't imagine what it's like, if you. Came out of a situation that you, you had no support system and what is so cool about what we did is yes, we financially supported this particular program, but what we did was a job readiness bootcamp, and we recruited our emerging leaders, which are our volunteers that are in the age frame of 20 to 40 to come out and do resume building and coaching to these citizens. And. How cool is that, that we not only invested and use our thought leadership, but we also then put volunteers in the center to help people 48 people attended that job readiness fair. And half of those individuals are now in job training programs. I just think that's really important for our community, especially for our businesses, because we know right now that so many businesses need employee. We know that there's just so much going on. Our community posts the pandemic. This is an opportunity to get people in jobs, into job training. They're actually looking at doing another fair, but they're working with a different organization in manufacturing to bring the manufacturers to the individuals, another type of job fair, but to connect people, to get jobs in our manufacturing arena, that's so important. So, if you're not out supporting the Waterbury community, what things do you like to do in the city events, activities, places to go, things to do. What's on your list of recreational things to do in Waterbury. Ah, I love the palace theater ex amazing programs. Everyone should go. Not only for the high quality performances, they have concerts Broadway series, but the building is so beautiful and their restoration. That in our city, I think makes such a difference to go to events there and to be on the stage. It's really a pleasure. And to just know the history of, of that particular venue in our community, I think is really important. I currently serve on the Mattec museum, board of directors. That is another place that has. This incredible artwork and the shows that they bring into the museum that represent even our community or bringing in local artists. I just think it's a jewel and that everybody needs to go and kids need to be exposed to all these wonderful opportunities, right? In our city. You can't beat all the local restaurants either, by the way. I did do some searching on your LinkedIn profile. And I noticed that you follow an interesting set of people, everyone from Melinda gates, all the way over to one of the stars on the Netflix show queer eye. Tell us about some of the people who inspire you. Honestly, it's local people that inspire me are nonprofit leaders, people that give 100% their heart and soul to their organization. In this community and to the people they're serving, those are the individuals that truly inspire me. Our team. They go beyond all the time. And the pandemic was one of the crises that we wanted to make sure that we were deep into to help our community. But there have been other crises also when nine 11 happened or even Sandy hook, it's incredible to see our leaders in our community, willing to come together at a moment's notice to say, what is it we need to do collectively. Right now to make a difference. And those are the people that truly inspire me. I had a call, I think it was last Saturday. Someone called me that spoke to an individual that became homeless. She had a son, her sister was with her that had a four month I believe, and they needed a place to live. Now I'm blessed to be able to do this, but to be able to call St. Vincent DEPA, who stepped right into action. Instantly into action to help this family. And those are the people that inspire me, that the mission, the work they do, it's not a job. It's a passion and it's a belief and it's to take that next step every single time to make that difference. So, yes, there are so many people out there that are extraordinary leaders and extraordinary superstars, but I believe that our community is the place that has the most superstars. Let's take a moment to look back United way at greater Waterbury started in 1942. Are there any things that you say to yourself? Wow. Look at what we addressed. Look at who we helped. Is there some way to quantify that or wrap your head around just the exponential impact that your organization has had? Wow. We have been trying to look at. As you will say, direct effect of all the different things we do. And it's so hard to quantify because when I think about the work in education and our real focus on making sure that our kids have what they need to be successful, not only in school, but in life, that is so critical to what we do. We're just at an event last night, a sparkler event where they have over 8,000 families on this app to be checking in on their children's developmental milestones to give. Parents access to better understand how they can help their kids. How extraordinary is that? Waterbury our office pushed hard to get this to our city of Waterbury to make that difference. And now it's moving and bridged to success is helping to expand that and to Excel that across to our community. But also how do you quantify the individuals that we have been able to move from? Homelessness living in your car or living in a shelter, into a stable place to live with all of those resources around you. So you can provide for your family. I cannot imagine to being a parent or. Being in a family where you felt that you didn't know where you were gonna get your next meal? I don't know how that would feel. I think about the work we do with our families and access issues. I don't know how moms can get one child on a bus to then get on a bus, to bring a child to childcare, to then get on a bus, to go to work every. People that don't have access to healthy foods or with our food strategy. It's very much about healthy foods. We just did stock the pantry with over 40 volunteers coming over 50 companies, a hundred donors, raising food, over 15,000 pounds of food to get right instantly into our food banks to get out to families. We've done so much, and it's not just about one person. About system change and how people have access to job training, but get into a job training and get out with a job. On the other side, one of the most impactful campaigns I ever attended that just threw me for a loop was at a company in Middlebury. And we had asked. An individual that went through a particular job training, came out to be a CNA to come and tell her story about United way, how United we changed her life. So the woman came in and we did this whole formal presentation and people are in a formal room and. This woman gets up and says, I went through a job training. I love my job. They provided childcare. They provided me the resource to be in that training. So I can provide for my family. I love my job and I love United way. And she sat down. I was like, that was extra, like incredible. And then. I was lucky enough to have a real personal and intimate conversation with this individual who had worked all night to get in the car, to then drive to Middlebury, to be part of this presentation. And then we were talking about gas prices and the question was, can you pay for my gas? And I thought, wow. And I did, but you work all day. You have a family, you're tired, but. You were so pleased with the outcome of something our United in our community did that you were willing to come and make that difference and tell your story in fruit book, people you don't even know. That's the type of thing that I think that just thrills me is to really see and talk to people that went through these experiences and are doing great. And so many people that we work with and that are in the corporate world will come and tell me those stories that. Didn't have a lot growing up. They maybe were a single parent and couldn't provide for their family and went to rely on these services, went to community college and is now working in the banking industry or insurance companies giving back to the community. And that's what I just think is amazing. So to quantify that I can't, because there's all these different stories and all these people working together to lift our community. Like we say, it's has not a handout. It's a hand. And that's what I think is so amazing about our community in that I am so blessed to work in a community that I can call the CEO of a company or the person running philanthropy and ask for help. I had a situation where during COVID the food banks needed refrigeration. They needed freezers. They weren't working. They needed freezers to buy more food at a better price. And to be able to have it on hand, we called one donor and literally five refrigerators were purchased and got right into our community to help through so many different experiences that people giving quietly behind the scenes to help. So now let's look towards the future with the role of nonprofit and community organizations in our society, really in flux, where does United way of greater Waterbury fit. And I think our unique role of that bridge between the nonprofit sector and the corporate sector is really important because it's helping getting. Resources people and financial down into our nonprofit sector. We also do capacity building for our nonprofits, which I think is really important. Different organizations go through different growth or different experiences where they might just need a little help. And so we do partner with the Connecticut community foundation it's to connect our nonprofits that are doing great work. With capacity building only. So they can be that much better, whether it's a fundraising plan, strategic planning, we're even looking at lived experience and, and DEI and how we can help our nonprofits in that arena. Making sure that lived experiences are at the table. So I think that's something really important that we do. And having lots of conversations with our nonprofits to have our ear to the ground about what is going on in United ways, role in the community. I think nonprofits are extraordinary, important. I think as we go forward in our community, The world is just different now after COVID. And so working together to make sure that we're doing the right things for whatever those needs are in our community. So I think that's really important. I also, with that equity fund that we just launched, we had 19 applicants and 12 of them are brand new partners. And so going back and saying. Are there some really, maybe smaller grassroots organizations doing great work. And so how do we work together? Our United way is known for our outcome measurement initiative, collecting data. So we can show the change in behavior, the real impact, not just we helped X amount of people, but really what was that change. But we can assume that every organization. Has had access to this type of training or has been part of this type of experience of collecting that kind of data and even the application process. And so very much looking at how could we be more helpful and bringing people into our United way family, because there's just great things happening in our community and how can United way be part of that and be part of that leadership. You mentioned not taking anything for granted. And I think United way greater Waterbury is really getting the next several generations of community leaders involved. Now tell us about some of your young professional youth initiatives and affinity groups. Oh my God. What United way is doing with, we call it affinity groups, but they're basically special groups coming together based on their passion and interests to make a difference. And so thank you to your leadership and Ella. Starter program, which we've been launching now have a trademark for is all about youth leadership. And please feel free to add, but like it's about getting our younger generation 10 to 17 to be part of our community, to see firsthand what is happening through their eyes. And helping us see through their eyes, I think because their ideas and their thoughts and their ways of approaching it is different. It's important. And it can teach us a heck of a lot. And so we have those incredible toolkits that works as help create with us that are ways opportunities can get involved. And it might be just a one time at first, but the whole idea is building that youth leadership and having. These phenomenal individuals take on a project and take it from soup to nuts, making that impact in our community. And this is our future and everything about these generations are a little bit different than the generation before them. So we need to better and truly understand about how they wanna do things and how they do things. And so we can be relevant to them. Also, emerging leaders. We have been doing this for a while and we're really ramping up now, post COVID again, but this is our group of, and I don't know why you call it emerging leaders. They are leaders and they're in the area 20 to 40, but our leaders are serving on boards and there's a lot more individuals that we could really engage in United way. And in our other nonprofits, But having them step up and lead, just like the reentry center, those volunteers brought their own unique expertise to the table to help somebody. It may be what they're doing every day in their field, but nobody really, when you're doing it, I don't think people see the unique expertise and the unique way that they can bring it to life. And so that's another really important group and we wanna make that connectivity. We wanna make sure that emerging leaders or this age group are working together. And so. Get involved, they lead, but also they stay in our community and they work in our local businesses. One of the most important things that I've learned over time, and the research still proves this is that volunteer engagement individuals, especially the younger generations, wanna work at companies that are highly engaged in that they're making impact in a community that the company values it, that they will wanna be at these organizations. They feel valued. They feel heard. That is critical and that's something United way with making sure that we have awesome experiences for people that we can do for our local companies merge together, work together to get their employees out in the community. It's great team building too, by the way, we just launched women United, which is a group that United ways have been doing across not only the us, but globally. We had hesitated to do it for a bit, but Tamika Cole, our chief development officer felt strongly that we had to launch. First event, a hundred women joined great energy. It's about not only raising money, but is these inspirational, strong, beautiful women coming together to decide what they care most about and to then take action and to do something about it. And so from that event and all these events, when you see the energy and the excitement and that level of engagement, hands on learning, talking, being heard, people wanna do. and that is how the world goes around and that's how change happens. So as a female leader, what do you hope other women or girls see as possible for themselves? Everything that the sky's the limit look at Ella Copeland, right? Ella was just our intern, Ella, as we know was Grant's co-chair during their campaign, but Ella, wasn't just the name. Ella came to CEO meetings with me who was more impactful than Ella. Ella had a lot more to say than I did. And people listened. Ella just did a internship with the United way on Upstarters. Our team is already implementing ideas. She just presented to us two weeks ago. That is a, a perfect example of a young woman having ideas, important, thoughts, perspectives, opinions, and taking them. Substantiating them and moving forward on them. And that's what I hope for everyone that in all that we do, whether it's a mom or a daughter or anybody in the family, is that their basic needs are met, that they have the opportunities and educational opportunities. To learn and thrive and do whatever it is in their heart that they wanna do, and that they are financially stable and they can provide for themselves and their families. That's what it's all about and how we go about doing this may change in those particular strategies or investments we're making. But the end of the day, it's making sure that people are living their best life every single day. If I were a business owner or someone with employees, let's say coming to Waterbury, looking at the workforce here, what kind of support can these folks expect from United way of greater Waterbury? If the folks that are around them are in need first and foremost, United way, two one, which is. A statewide resource and referral opportunity that people can call. I mentioned a little bit earlier, but they can connect to all different types of programs and services, not only in greater Waterbury, but across the state. So if they have a family member that lives somewhere else, it goes across all zip codes and that's a really important service. Because it's not about necessarily always the one thing you're calling about, it's about a lot of different things and it could be about a basic need or needing shelter, but it's also about understanding your child's developmental process and where they are. And do you need help if you need access to child care, if you need access to doctors, it's really an amazing resource. And what's so great about it. Is that an individual can. Two 11, but also that if you're an HR person, you can get online and access all of that information and help your employees get to that next step or whatever that is that they may need. We have lots of companies that come to us and talk about an employee that came and they've maybe had a loss or there's something, some trauma going on and how do we help them get connected? I do believe that volunteer opportunity, I believe learning about a community, understanding your community. Understanding what your colleague can be going through. Never underestimating that people have a lot more going on in their life than they know. So I think that access to all of those health and human services, access to information, and then leaning on us to help you engage your community, build team and get really connected to the needs in our community. So what's your view on the city of Waterbury? When you talk with people about Waterbury, what do you say? I believe it's incredibly loyal community that truly from the nonprofit sector to our corporate environment and through our municipality, like people want everyone to do really great and to be having their best life. And so what do we need to do? That coming together to make that happen. And there are just so many times that the nonprofits and, or the corporate sector have leaned on each other to make that happen. I think that people tend to come back to this community to live that they're loyal. They believe in this community. And though maybe if they're living in Waterbury currently, or maybe moved 10 miles away, that there's just this level of commitment that it's about families and it's about working together to make sure we all succeed. This was wonderful. Thank you so much for the time, Kristin. Thank you. Listen to the full series from the Waterbury talks and learn more about the Greater Waterbury YMCA community programs and all the city offers at thewaterbury.com.