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:

  1. How many Hartford youth are served by UNITY programs (unduplicated count)?   

  2. What are the characteristics of Hartford youth who participated in the programs?   

    • Age, gender, ethnicity & race   

    • Location of residence and service access   

  3. 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    

  4. 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