Fairfield County”™s Community Foundation (FCCF) has partnered with six prominent businesses to reduce and eliminate educational disparities within the region”™s schools.
The new endeavor, titled the Fairfield County Corporate Collaborative for Education Equity, is a multiyear effort in which Bank of America, First County Bank, Lapine Associates, Pitney Bowes, Synchrony and Xerox will work with the foundation in supporting local education-focused nonprofit organizations and initiatives via financial contributions, employee volunteerism and expertise, mentorship and internship opportunities and other resources.
The group”™s first funding initiative will support virtual and in-class projects for Bridgeport Public Schools teachers in a $50,000 challenge grant with DonorsChoose, an education-focused crowdfunding platform, and similar campaigns are planned for Danbury, Norwalk and Stamford schools in 2021.
“As business leaders, we have an opportunity to support our community”™s economic recovery while also addressing the educational disparities that impact far too many children and families in our county,” said Marc Lautenbach, president and CEO of Stamford-based Pitney Bowes, who first extended an invitation to the other companies to form the collaborative.
“Now more than ever, supporting education is critical to promoting equity, fairness and opportunity for all. It is unacceptable that entrenched educational gaps sharply divide Connecticut students along racial, ethnic and economic lines. Stepping forward to help reduce these gaps is the right thing for all of us, and for all of our stakeholders.”
Juanita James, FCCF”™s president and CEO, praised her new corporate partners by noting that in “pooling their philanthropic resources, leveraging the influence of their respective corporate brands, empowering their employees, and aligning around specific projects, we believe we can make a meaningful and measurable difference in helping to close some of the opportunity gaps that exist in our region.”
