HARTFORD UNITY PROJECT
Project Description:
The City of Hartford Department of Families, Children, Youth, and Recreation (DFCYR) launched the Hartford UNITY initiative in 2021, to help families and youth recover and heal from the isolation and disruption of the pandemic. The UNITY (Understanding the Needs of Today’s Youth) initiative is funded in part by the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) , and provides grants to program providers offering youth recreation, employment, enrichment, and other support services for Hartford children and youth from birth through age 24.
For the first time, starting in 2021, the City of Hartford required all grantees receiving over $5,000 in City funds to join the Hartford Data Collaborative (HDC). The City also requested that the Hartford Data Collaborative integrate the data from the programs and provide overall statistics about the youth who accessed and participated in these programs. HDC will integrate and analyze data from all three funding cycles of the UNITY program (Fiscal Years 2022, 2023, 2024).
Research Questions:
How many Hartford youth are served by UNITY programs (unduplicated count)?
What are the characteristics of Hartford youth who participated in the programs?
Age, gender, ethnicity & race
Location of residence and service access
How many participants are from the following priority populations & locations?
Justice-involved and/or at-risk youth up to age 24
Disengaged, disconnected, and/or opportunity youth up to age 24
Adolescents ages 11 to 13 years old or in Middle School grades (6, 7, and 8)
Young children under 5 years old
Girls under 18 years old
High-need neighborhoods
Enrichment activity deserts
What types of programs are accessed by the priority populations?
Who is Involved?
Evaluator: HDC Staff and Hartford Youth Data Fellows
Current Data Sharing Partners: UNITY and other DFCYR grantees for Fiscal Years 2022, 2023, and 2024 that receive over $5,000 in funding
Philanthropic Support: Data Across Sectors for Health/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (January –August 2022); City of Hartford (June 2022-May 2023)
Project Milestones
August 2021: HDC attends UNITY provider kickoff meeting
April-May 2022: HDC and Youth Researchers link and analyze summer 2021 and mid-year data for FY202 grantees
June 2022: Data Walk with interim findings on UNITY program participation; HDC participates in FY2023 grantee kick off meeting
July 2022: HDC conducts technical assistance/data capacity building for FY2023 grantees
August 2022: HDC links and analyzes full-year data on FY2022 program participants
December 2022: HDC publishes FY2022 UNITY Provider findings report
Planned Future Milestones:
February 2023: Applications for FY2024 are due to the city. HDC links summer 2022 program data
June 2023: HDC participates in kick off for FY2024 UNITY grantees
August 2023: HDC links and integrated data from 45 UNITY providers
Key Findings
Questions about the project? Contact: Kate Eikel; keikel@ctdata.org