Across Connecticut and the nation, a persistent challenge remains: how to ensure that young people — especially those from under-resourced communities — can transition successfully from higher education into meaningful, long-term careers.
Meeting this challenge requires more than well-intentioned programs or one-time interventions. It demands comprehensive, long-term solutions rooted in collaboration, innovation, and sustained investment. Public-private partnerships, coupled with forward-thinking philanthropic initiatives, are showing what is possible when organizations align their efforts to build stronger pathways from college to career.
Hartford Promise exemplifies this approach. For more than a decade, the organization has helped more than 1,300 Hartford Public School graduates pursue postsecondary education through a combination of scholarship support and wraparound services. Their success is evident: today, Hartford Promise supports approximately 500 students in college annually and has celebrated more than 400 graduates to date.
Now, through its new Reaching Beyond initiative, Hartford Promise is expanding its support to help students transition from college into the workforce. The program offers mentorship, career readiness training, and professional networking — all aimed at ensuring students are not only academically prepared but professionally connected and career-confident. This initiative also enhances the local talent pipeline at a time when Connecticut employers urgently need skilled, diverse workers.
The Connecticut Health and Educational Facilities Authority (CHEFA) is proud to invest in this effort through a $475,000 Enterprise Capital Grant over the next three years. This targeted philanthropic investment will deepen the career-aligned services Hartford Promise offers, expand its employer partnerships, and better position hundreds of Hartford students for long-term career success.
This kind of strategic partnership represents the direction we must move in — bringing together public agencies, nonprofit leadership, and the private sector to tackle systemic challenges with coordinated, innovative solutions.
As a quasi-public agency, CHEFA is uniquely positioned to respond creatively to emerging community needs. CHEFA provides flexible structures through its various grant, bond and loan programs, that enable it to align resources with promising initiatives like Reaching Beyond – driving both individual opportunity and broader economic impact.
Research shows that 73% of college graduates who start their careers underemployed remain so even 10 years later. For many Hartford Promise Scholars — first-generation college students working to overcome generational barriers — career success is not just a personal milestone; it’s a catalyst for economic mobility and community advancement.
By supporting organizations like Hartford Promise and investing in programs that intentionally bridge the gap between education and employment, we are strengthening Connecticut’s future — student by student, solution by solution.
Sivan Hines, is president, Hartford Promise. Jeanette W. Weldon is executive director, CHEFA.