Connecticut Voices for Children

CT Voices envisions a thriving and equitable state where all children achieve their full potential. We are a research-based advocacy organization also known as a “think and do tank”- with an aim toward economic justice. Our mission is to provide trusted, quality research, recommendations, and advocacy that advance public policy and investments to improve the well-being of Connecticut’s children and families, specifically those that have been historically disadvantaged.

Our research and recommendations are fundamental to family economic security and the undergirding fiscal and economics. We work with impacted communities to build shared knowledge, co-create policies, and advance issue campaigns and advocacy. We believe that our state’s social and economic well-being depends upon the dismantling of policies that perpetuate poverty and criminalize poverty, as well as the creation of policies that advance inclusive growth policies that ensure pathways to opportunity for all our children, youth, and families.

To foster policy changes, CT Voices conducts research and analysis on a variety of challenges facing Connecticut’s children and families, including but not limited to education, health, housing, rights, justice, family economic security as well as tax and budget topics. We co-create policy recommendations with partners and share our knowledge with interested parties. We host informational forums that bring Connecticut and national leaders together to share “best practice” thinking on a variety of policy issues. Our research & policy reports are widely cited by community-based organizations, elected officials, and news media. Our policy priorities include Family Economic Security, Fiscal and Economics, and Emerging Issues.

Our values lead our strategy, and they are embedded in all aspects of our work. One of our core values is to be community-centered (the others being equity, integrity, impact, and learning mindset); we believe listening to multiple viewpoints is important but public policy discourse in Connecticut does not adequately include the voices of children and families impacted by public policy. In order to ensure we are executing our values, we engage directly with community members and amplify their voices in our work. CT Voices works through partnerships to share knowledge and collaborate where it makes sense. We build coalitions of community members and stakeholders invested in ensuring family economic security and growing Connecticut’s economy, turn them into movements, execute issue campaigns, and advance a comprehensive policy agenda.

CT Voices is a founding member of the CT Juvenile Justice Alliance, the CT Early Childhood Alliance, and Better Choices for CT. At the national level, Connecticut Voices is a state partner with a number of organizations that share our vision and values. But because policy change is often possible only through legislation, Connecticut Voices works to advance—through the Connecticut General Assembly and state agencies—the sound policy and budget choices necessary for the well-being of our youngest residents and their families, and Connecticut’s future.

CT Voices brings together a talented staff with diverse backgrounds in law, community organizing, employment, public health, education, taxes, family economic security, housing, immigration, juvenile justice, early childhood development, and public policy. We are well situated to engage in the work we intend to undertake. Four of our five Senior Leadership Team members identify as people of color. We also have new capacity to execute comprehensive campaigns.

At the highest level, we have helped to change the policy-setting culture in the state to become more data-driven and research grounded. Our consistent, credible, non-partisan voice has led to concrete policy changes.

More than 190,000 Connecticut low-income households now receive a strong boost from Connecticut's Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) – a policy that CT Voices advocated for since its inception. This credit for working families is a vital support that helps low-wage parents make ends meet and stay out of poverty.

Connecticut has begun the process of transforming its early care and education system to become more streamlined, integrated, and accessible to families. Through our research and advocacy work, we built support for the establishment of a Connecticut Office of Early Childhood, charged with coordinating the state's early care programs and improving access for children and parents. Within the K-12 system, our work has shed light on the correlation between school funding, relative educational opportunity, and actual student achievement.

We are particularly proud of our successful efforts to promote revenue-raising policies to ameliorate the state's large deficit and prevent drastic cuts to services that support the most vulnerable children and families. Lawmakers have adopted many of our recommendations, including the combined reporting of corporate income, a more progressive personal income tax, and an elevated cigarette tax. In addition, we led a successful effort to re-categorize unfunded pension liability outside of the constitutional spending cap, freeing hundreds of millions of dollars for spending on critical human services.

Additionally, our advocacy has helped to protect funding for critical programs, such as Care 4 Kids, School Readiness preschool programs, and School-Based Health Centers. Our research and advocacy also contributed to the ultimate restoration of parent eligibility in Medicaid (HUSKY A) to 155 percent of the Federal Poverty Level, which meant that 13,500 parents did not lose coverage. Our research and advocacy contributed to increased understanding of the challenges faced by children in state care and improvements in the child welfare system. Care 4 Kids also received a small increase that will be used to increase reimbursement rates and teacher pay. In the area of juvenile justice, we successfully advocated for increased funding for the Judicial Branch to provide an appropriate continuum of placements and services for justice-involved youth.

Despite challenges due to COVID-19, our extensive research and analysis supported 15 reports with fact-based policy recommendations co-created with partner organizations in 2020. We formed a fiscal coalition and published a comprehensive roadmap for an equitable recovery; our network has become more extensive than it has ever been. We will continue to expand our fiscal coalition and utilize our growing capacity to take action on legislative priorities.