OUR PARTNERS
Dynamic Leaders. Proven Impact. Cradle to Career.
The Ritter Family Foundation is proud to be working in partnership with the following organizations and initiatives:
Alliance for Community Empowerment was designed as the anti-poverty agency for the Greater Bridgeport Area in September of 1964 by the Office of Economic Opportunity. Today, the Alliance aims to work with people toward the eradication of the “paradox of poverty in the midst of plenty in this nation.” Alliance for Community Empowerment serves more than 35,000 individuals annually through its broad range of services in a six-town area, covering Bridgeport, Easton, Fairfield, Monroe, Norwalk, Stratford, Trumbull, and Westport, Connecticut.
For more than 20 years, Child First has been helping to heal and protect young children and their caregivers from the effects of adversity through the power of nurturing caregiver-child relationships. Child First uses a two-generation approach: providing psychotherapy to caregivers and children together in their homes and connecting them with the services and resources they need to make healthy child development possible. Research shows that Child First stabilizes families and improves the health and well-being of both caregivers and children.
The City of Norwalk’s Family Navigator Program was launched to address disparities in access to technology and wraparound services that were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. On the frontlines, the program provides direct supports by helping students and their families identify resources to meet basic needs like food, shelter, childcare, and internet access or connecting them with programs that can help. The Family Navigator program partners with Norwalk Public Schools and encourages families to reach out for assistance to seek support for their children and themselves during these difficult times.
The Connecticut Network for Children and Youth is the home of three initiatives: the Connecticut After School Network, SEL4CT — the social emotional learning alliance for Connecticut, and the Connecticut Children’s Collective. We’ve always been grounded on what children, families, and caregivers need. Founded in 1989 as the Connecticut School Age Child Care Association, we’ve grown and evolved over the years to take on new initiatives while staying true to our core vision of building a Connecticut where children and youth grow up safe, healthy, happy, and well-educated. While 80% of children’s time is spent outside the traditional classroom, we know that focusing all of our efforts on ensuring all kids in our state have access to high-quality, affordable after school and summer programs aren’t enough. With our new broader focus on the whole child, we are also spotlighting the fact that children don’t grow up in a vacuum – they are a part of a family, a neighborhood, a school district, a community. It’s the adults in these overlapping circles that care the most about their children and should have the most to say about what opportunities and supports they all need to achieve this vision. That’s why we’ve clarified our mission to be more inclusive and better describe what we do: We bring people together through strong local and statewide partnerships to help children, youth and families thrive.
Striving for informed decision-making across Connecticut, CTData empowers an ecosystem of data users by democratizing access to public data and building data literacy. CTData Strategic Planning is a new social enterprise that provides training and coaching to help nonprofits align data with the mission of the organization so they can learn whether they are reaching their goals. Organizations learn how to move from collecting data reactively to a proactive and strategic purpose. Data Strategic Planning allows organizations to take ownership over their data, measure their impact, and tell their story through data.
For more than 80 years, Family & Children’s Agency (FCA) has been helping individuals and families throughout Fairfield County and beyond to realize life's possibilities. FCA increases the social and emotional well-being of clients by providing strength-based, solution-focused services for every stage of life. Their work supports children through after-school and summer programming, foster care, and intensive psychiatric services; builds families through parenting education, family guidance, and adoption; stabilizes adults with mental health counseling, substance abuse treatment, and supportive housing services; and cares for seniors by providing emergency alert systems, caregiver support, and live-in assistance so they can stay in their homes.
Connecticut leaders, especially leaders of color and those from underrepresented groups, need more opportunities to learn, grow and lead. Five Frogs, Inc. is building an inclusive movement of courageous leaders with the competencies, mindset, drive, and relationships necessary to create transformational change for an equitable Connecticut. Five Frogs provides individual and group support, helping leaders maximize strengths, learn from experience, and leverage the power of an inclusive community of changemakers.
Future 5 helps motivated, under-resourced students in Stamford connect to their full potential, leading to independence and productive citizenship. Future 5's goal is to connect students to the people, resources, and experiences essential to making the transition to post-secondary education and careers.
The mission of Horizons Bridgeport is to expand academic support, social-emotional learning, and enrichment opportunities for Bridgeport students by increasing its footprint, providing funding, scaling best practices, and developing community relationships that support program growth.
Horizons at NCC's mission is to build brighter futures for under-resourced Norwalk students by providing academic and enrichment opportunities, cultivating community, and inspiring dreams.
KEYS’ mission is to provide free music lessons and performance opportunities to under-resourced students of Bridgeport. KEYS envisions a world where every child has access to the transformative experience of studying and playing music regardless of circumstances.
Our Vision: A community where all children are happy and safe.
Our Mission: Building healthy communities where children and families thrive through prevention, counseling, and crisis services available 24-hours every day.
Our Core Operating Values
INCLUSIVE: We welcome with respect and kindness, the diversity of all people and circumstances;
RESPONSIVE: We act quickly and thoughtfully;
COLLABORATIVE: We bring together strength and compassion for the benefit of children.
Let’s Get Ready envisions a future when students from all socioeconomic backgrounds have the support they need to attain a college education. Through an innovative program model that stands apart from other college access and success programs, LGR serves more than 14,000 students and engages hundreds of college students as near-peer mentors each year. Any student who expresses interest is eligible for services, with students from low-income backgrounds or who are first-generation-to-college given priority.
Make the Road CT (MRCT) is an intergenerational member-led community-based organization working to build power in immigrant, Latinx, and working-class communities in Connecticut to achieve dignity and justice. We do this through community organizing, legal and survival services, transformative education, and policy innovation.
The Maritime Odyssey Preschool exists to provide a safe, supportive and high-quality learning environment for all students, families and staff. It aspires to be an innovative early childhood learning center that prepares each student for success in kindergarten and beyond.
Mid-Fairfield Community Care Center (MFCCC) is a nonprofit community resource and one of the largest providers of child, adolescent, and young adult mental health care in Fairfield County. MFCCC provides trauma-informed, evidence-based interventions and wellness services at our Norwalk outpatient clinic, on an in-home basis, and in school- and community-based settings. Their mission is to ensure equitable access to mental health and community support services that improve the health, resiliency, and quality of life of all individuals.
Mid-Fairfield Community Care Center's Latinx (LINC) Program is designed to deliver confidential, trauma-informed clinical and/or care coordination services to recently arrived Spanish-speaking immigrants enrolled in Norwalk Public Schools. Teams consist of bilingual and bicultural clinicians and care coordinators who work alongside immigrant families to provide support and help promote the overall health and well-being of families as they learn to cope with the unique challenges that impact the immigrant population in the community. Students and families receive clinical (e.g., individual and family therapy) and/or care coordination services. Care Coordination looks to identify community resources and natural supports while promoting permanent connections for the child and family.
Norwalk ACTS' mission is to collectively transform systems by ensuring resources, policies, practices, and power structures actively dismantle racism and drive equitable outcomes for every Norwalk child and young person. Working through a collective impact, systems change framework, Norwalk ACTS convenes cross-sectors of the community to work towards a common vision of having Norwalk be a connected and equitable community where every child and young person thrives academically, physically, and social-emotionally from cradle to career.
The mission of the Norwalk Community College Foundation is three-fold: raise funds for NCC programs and scholarships; invest, administer and distribute funds so that students of all ages continue to benefit from challenging opportunities for self-improvement and intellectual growth; and inspire and engage our community to share talents and resources.
The purpose of NECC’s (Norwalk Early Childhood Council) Equity and Social Justice Committee is to: review and make recommendations to policies using an equity lens; provide learning opportunities to support competency in social justice and equity for directors, teachers, and stakeholders in the field of early childhood education; collect data to drive equity decisions within the council, early childhood programs, and early childhood community; and raise the “critical consciousness” of leaders, teachers, and community stakeholders in Norwalk’s Early Childhood Community.
Serving All Vessels Equally, Inc. (SAVE) is a not for profit community based organization dedicated to the mission of producing transformative change for the youth we serve and the communities they live in. Our Summer Enrichment program served 50 students this year. We were able to help them remove a barrier to graduation by assisting them with completing their Capstone. We also assisted with job placement, training, and enrollment in community college and introduce students to stress relievers in the form of painting, pottery, and jewelry making.
The Norwalk Housing Authority Learning Center’s Student Success Tutoring Program (SSTP) offers one-on-one individually tailored tutoring with our certified teachers and professional staff members to students who are having a challenging time with mathematics and literacy. In addition to our own staff, we formed a partnership with the Harvard Alumni Club which has recruited skilled and motivated teenage and adult volunteers to provide additional daily one-on-one virtual tutoring in math to center students. Our SSTP students meet with their tutor twice weekly for 30-minute sessions. The SSTP strives to support the Norwalk Public Schools by helping to get students at grade level proficiency in the key academic subjects of mathematics and literacy.
Norwalk Public Schools is proud to be the recipient of a multi-partner grant to establish a comprehensive research and data evaluation program. By establishing data capabilities within the district, NPS will be able to better use data to inform instructional practice and improve outcomes for all students. The new research and evaluation program will support the district in establishing in-house data systems, including a data warehouse, data analysis solutions and data visualization tools. Educators will be able to collect and evaluate data in real time to improve daily instruction. Funds will also enable NPS to hire faculty to help with implementation of data driven improvement processes.
Norwalk/Stamford Grassroots Tennis and Education is a year-round, out-of-school time youth development nonprofit whose mission is to build the strength of character and a foundation for success for children and youth through tennis and education. Grassroots' goal is to work alongside youth to support their hard work in building their path to success, on the court, in the classroom, and in life. With a relationships-first, community-oriented, and inclusive approach, Grassroots creates an environment that encourages and empowers students to create their own pathways to achieve their goals.
The Odyssey Family Executive Center of South Norwalk's mission is to work in partnership with families, community organizations and industry leaders to provide access to information, resources and career pathways that will position families to improve outcomes for their children and themselves. This is accomplished through six focus areas that guide the work: Technology Access & Education; Prenatal Support & Education; Health & Wellness; Social Services; Career Readiness; and Workshops. The Center understands that socio-economic disparities are the breeding grounds for generational poverty, and has taken a 2-Generation and collective impact approach towards tackling opportunity gaps that have hindered the families of South Norwalk for far too long. The Center believes that without high-quality educational experiences for both parents and their children, the cycle of generational poverty will continue.
The RISE Network’s mission is to ensure all RISE high school students graduate with a plan and the skills and confidence to achieve college and career success. Founded in 2016, RISE partners with Connecticut public high schools to lead statewide networks where school communities work together to use data to learn and improve. Over the past five years, RISE high schools have improved Grade 9 promotion rates by nearly 20 percentage points, while also decreasing subgroup opportunity gaps and increasing school-wide graduation and college access rates.
RVNAhealth’s vision is a healthy community for all. As a private, nonprofit home and community healthcare provider whose mission is to deliver unmatched, compassionate healthcare when and where it is needed, RVNAhealth serves 35+ towns across Connecticut, offering lifelong care and wellness services to people of all ages, stages and levels of health, from birth to end-of-life — in the home, in the community, and at RVNAhealth.
Regional Youth Adult Social Action Partnership (RYASAP) works to ensure the safe and healthy development of youth, young adults, and families by actively engaging organizations, public officials, and community leaders around issues that matter most to the community. RYASAP serves the most at-risk disengaged and disconnected youth and adults experiencing the impact of poverty, trauma, mental health, and addiction in the greater Bridgeport area and throughout Connecticut through direct service, advocacy, and capacity building. They tackle the tough issues faced by young adults and their families: community violence prevention, gambling/substance misuse, juvenile justice reform, mediation, personal safety, suicide prevention, teen relationships, urban education reform, and youth leadership.
Teach For America Connecticut finds, develops, and supports a diverse network of leaders who expand opportunity for children from classrooms, schools, and every sector and field that shapes the broader systems in which schools operate. Teach For America has served as a critical partner for Connecticut’s highest needs schools since 2006, and supports a network of over 800 alumni across the state who are working across all levels to support equitable outcomes for students. As Teach For America enters its 16th year in Connecticut, the organization is committed to a bold goal: by 2030, twice as many children in communities where we work will reach key educational milestones, indicating they are on a path to economic mobility and a future filled with possibility.
Yancy Forums utilizes a peer-to-peer, proprietary, structured and facilitated process designed to promote both personal and professional learning, in a safe, confidential environment that enhances the Forum Member’s personal performance and the performance of the entity of which they are charged. Forum Members voluntarily share experiences and ideas, and ultimately develop trusted and meaningful relationships that endure.
The Youth Business Initiative is committed to empowering underprivileged youth by teaching and equipping them to become successful entrepreneurs, managers and business professionals.