HARTFORD, CT – A new report from Dalio Education shows the personal side of the crisis of disconnected and at-risk youth in Connecticut, and a leader of the organization says housing is at the center of the issue.
The report, which was conducted by Community Science, uses the experiences of 74 young individuals who shared their stories to analyze the plight of disconnected and at-risk youth in the state, and to make policy recommendations.
It builds on the original report on the state’s “unspoken crisis” of 119,000 at-risk youth, which was researched and compiled by the Boston Consulting Group in October 2023.
Andrew Ferguson, co-CEO of Dalio Education and a former New Haven school teacher, said Monday that the new report represents in clear detail the stories of the individuals who participated, and their struggles with issues like education and housing.
Ferguson said that the most shocking part of the new study, to him, is the lack of secure, stable, affordable housing.
“It strikes me every time I hear it,” he said. “And I know, from my own personal experience, young folks who have incredible talent, but because they have insecure housing, every time they have a new opportunity, sometimes they fall back because they don’t have the security that you or I might enjoy.”
According to the new report, only 6% of the 74 individuals who were interviewed were able to access formal housing support. 33% said that they were forced to find other means of survival – which meant relying on friends and family.
24% said they wanted a place of their own.
At a “data walk” Monday put together by Dalio Education – which Ferguson said is another way of presenting the data gathered from learning about the experiences of at-risk youth – advocates, legislators, and members of the public took the time to see the analysis and data for themselves.
There is a bill before the House that could address some of the issues facing disconnected youth in Connecticut.
The legislation, House Bill 5213, is currently awaiting action. It would charge the Two-Generational advisory board with creating a strategy that would, among other things, identify opportunities for interagency collaboration and state-wide expansion of shared data centers for the purpose of assisting and supporting at-risk youth.
Legislative leaders were coy when asked about the bill Monday, but said that it should be voted on sometime before the end of the session.
House Majority Leader Jason Rojas said Monday that some financial issues with the bill needed to be worked out, but that it should be voted on in his chamber “some time this week.”
Rojas also said that issues regarding the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and the sharing of student data between school boards and juvenile review boards were being sorted out with an education attorney.
His sentiments were shared by his counterparts on the other side of the aisle.
House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora used some of the same language, and said that he feels the bill is something that should be addressed before the end of the session.
Collecting and protecting data, Candelora said, needs to be a priority.
“It is important for us to collect the data. I mean were just seeing in the city of New Haven that over a third of the students are still chronically absent,” he said.
Candelora said that honoring student data privacy, when dealing with data sharing, is important.
“Hopefully this bill will encompass each district and how they do their data collections, and how they interact with other agencies,” he said.
Leading off the data walk, Ferguson said that the process to affect change for disconnected youth has a critical first step:
“It starts with listening to young people,” he said.
