Hearst Connecticut Media
In the 13 years since former U.S Rep. James Maloney started the Connecticut Institute for Communities, the organization has become a powerhouse of economic and community development for Danbury and surrounding towns.
Maloney started the organization in 2002 with about $6,000 in seed money. Today, the CIFC has an operating budget of more than $12 million. The not-for-profit organization runs a variety of Danbury programs including Head Start, school-based health centers and a community-based health center for low-income families.
While state and federal agencies provide much of the organization”™s funding ”” more than 50 percent ”” experts say the group”™s design and internal mission has helped it become a huge success in a short period of time.
“That”™s significant growth that”™s unusual for a nonprofit,” said Peter DeBiasi, board president of the Connecticut Association of Nonprofits.
Long before he left office, Maloney said he pushed to establish a community development corporation in the city. Most other cities in Connecticut already had such an organization, he said, and Danbury was missing an opportunity.
DeBiasi said community development corporations have access to state and federal grants not available to other types of nonprofits.
- Genecka Vickers in her classroom at the Connecticut Institute for Communities in Danbury. Vickers, of Danbury, is a Head Start teaching assistant at CIFC and a parent of a former Head Start student.
“Very often having a community development corporation is a requirement for funding,” DeBiasi said. “Having one in the city really provides a tremendous benefit to the community and the local economy by accessing funds that otherwise wouldn”™t be available.”
Sitting in his office cluttered with paperwork in every corner under posters of Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi, Maloney said when he left office, he had a number of job opportunities, including lucrative offers as a lobbyist in Washington D.C. But as an attorney with a passion for public finance and community development, none of the jobs appealed to him.
“Cities like Waterbury and New Britain have been benefiting from having their own community development corporation for decades,” Maloney said, “The Danbury area didn”™t have one.”
Having been involved with nonprofits for many years, Maloney decided to create his own.
“We put together a board by recruiting members from the community, and our first project at the time was rescuing the Head Start program, which was being operated on a temporary basis by a for-profit company out of Colorado,” he said.
Relying on government funding can be a slippery slope, particularly when new administrations with different priorities enter the White House.
“When sailing a boat, you always have to adjust the sails to respond to the state of the sea and the direction of the wind,” Maloney said. “One of the big skills is knowing how to respond, and we”™ve been very successful in navigating those waters.”
Maloney, a former member of Congress”™ financial services committee, said having contacts in the nation”™s capital has been a plus.
“I developed a network of relationships over the years that continue to help,” he said.
While Maloney may have the right skills to create a community development corporation, it”™s his hope those qualities will transfer to others in the organization to ensure its ongoing success.
“While most organizations have an external mission, we also have an internal mission to help our employees succeed,” he said. “Every one of our employees has a professional development plan.”
The institute not only encourages career growth ”” they pay for it, providing tuition for associates and bachelors degrees for their employees.
“If the employees have stronger skill sets, the services they provide are that much stronger,” Maloney said. “Doing a first rate job also helps to attract more public and private support.”
By investing in the employees, Maloney said the workers are more passionate about the organization and its mission, and it provides a pool of talented professionals who can continue the work long after he”™s gone.
“Let”™s face it,” he said, “I”™m not going to be around forever. When its time for me to go, I want to leave behind a very strong and robust organization.”
Geneka Vickers, a single mother of two, is one of those employees.
Vickers became involved with the institute as a parent in the Head Start program and volunteered in the classroom.
“I”™d had some experience in child care previously and they asked me if I would like to come and work for the institute as a substitute teacher,” Vickers said. “It was a great opportunity for me because it meant that I could work while still being home for my children.”
Vickers has since become a teachers”™ assistant at the school and is working toward becoming a full time teacher.
“I have a real passion for teaching,” she said. “There is nothing more rewarding than having a student start the school year not being able to speak a word of English, and having a conversation with him in English by the end of the year.”
Mayor Mark Boughton said the organization has provided relief for taxpayers by adopting programs that once relied on city funding, including Head Start and the school-based health centers.
“The institute has become a critical partner for the city in delivering services for the residents,” he said. “The institute can offer the services a lot cheaper and more cost-effectively than the city, which is saving local taxpayer dollars.”
Boughton and other key stakeholders have noted the benefits of the new $15 million health care center the institute is building along the southern end of Main Street. The four-story building, once completed, will serve as the headquarters for the organization as well as centers for pediatric, adolescent and women”™s health-care professionals.
“The facility is going to be a great addition to the downtown,” Tom Devine, chairman of CityCenter, said when the organization broke ground on the medical center in June. “Not only will it provide medical care to the community, it will also provide good-paying jobs in the downtown and it will put more foot traffic along Main Street.”
Hearst Connecticut Media includes four daily newspapers: Connecticut Post, Greenwich Time, The Advocate (Stamford) and The News-Times (Danbury). See ctpost.com for more from this reporter.
