CONGREGATIONS ORGANIZED FOR A NEW CONNECTICUT INC

Building Relationships:
CONECT’s work begins with relationships. Our team works hard to build trust in one-on-one and small group meetings both inside individual congregations and among our diverse membership. Through active listening, we discover critical issues to tackle and identify those leaders who are ready to take meaningful action.

Developing Leaders:
We focus on leadership development in our communities. Through a discipline of planning, taking action, and evaluation, leaders learn the best way - ”on the job” - from their own organizing experience. CONECT also invites leaders to attend formal trainings offered locally, regionally, and nationally.

Strengthening Congregations & Institutions:
When appropriate and when invited, CONECT will assist our members’ efforts to organize and strengthen their own faith communities using our relationship-building and leadership development tools.

Making an Impact:
Our efforts form the foundation of a powerful collective voice that demands change on the social, economic, and political issues affecting our families and our communities. Our involvement in statewide and national campaigns complements our work to make an impact on local issues like community safety, police reform, and education.

CONECT’s BROADER IMPACT:
• CLEAN SLATE CRIMINAL RECORD EXPUNGEMENT: Starting in 2019, CONECT led the campaign to get Connecticut to adopt a Clean Slate policy. Clean Slate will automatically erase the criminal records of people who have returned to the community after incarceration and remained crime-free for an extended period. People with misdemeanor and lower-level felony records will be eligible after seven and ten years respectively, except for sex crimes, domestic violence crimes, and certain gun charges. After three years of effort and building a broad base of support and allies from around the state, the Senate and House passed Clean Slate in May 2021 and Gov. Lamont signed it into law June 10, 2021, making CT only the fourth state in the nation to adopt a Clean Slate law and arguably the strongest thus far in the nation. Experts estimate that as many as 200-300,000 people in Connecticut will benefit once it is fully implemented in January 2023 with greater access to jobs, housing, educational programs, professional licenses and more. Clean Slate is a victory for racial justice, community safety, and economic growth.
• REAL DATA: Working with Health Equity Solutions in 2021, CONECT’s Health / Mental Health Team pressed for action by the State of Connecticut to have private health providers and appropriate state agencies collect Race, Ethnicity, and Language (REaL) data from patients and clients in a standardized format. This voluntary collection of standardized, anonymized, and aggregate data will allow for more detailed study of health disparities and inequalities and more targeted interventions and treatments for the most affected communities and populations. While health disparities have long existed and been studied, Connecticut has never a large, robust Eventually strong legislative language was rolled into Senate Bill 1, which garnered bipartisan support in both the House and Senate and was signed into law by Gov. Lamont on June 14, 2021.
• $200 MILLION IN HEALTH INSURANCE SAVINGS: CONECT led the fight back in 2011 to force the state Department of Insurance to hold public hearings whenever insurance companies asked for major rate increases, expecting the public scrutiny would be a damper on rate increases. Our Healthcare Team won a deal in 2011 for up to four hearings per year on rate increase requests of 15% or greater. After using this deal for the first time in 2014, our team improved upon it by getting the Department of Insurance to agreed to hold hearings on rate increase requests of 10% or greater. In total, after hearings each year from 2014 to 2021, which resulted in lowering the rates approved, CONECT’s pressure and scrutiny have saved CT consumers at least $200 million in total!
• MAYORAL & FEDERAL ACTION ON GUN VIOLENCE: CONECT has played a key role in the Do Not Stand Idly By campaign, which we developed in collaboration with sister organizations in the Metro IAF network. Rev. Anthony L. Bennett has represented CONECT in the national leadership of this campaign. To date, 172 cities, counties, and states around the country have signed on to the effort to use their buying power to press gun manufacturers to prevent illegal gun sales and to invest in developing safer, “smarter” guns. In 2018, the Do Not Stand Idly By partnered with the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility to pass two shareholder resolutions pressing Sturm Ruger, Inc. and American Outdoor Brands Corp (Smith & Wesson) on these issues.
• IMMIGRANTS: CONECT has led key fights to make CT more immigrant-friendly:
• IN STATE TUITION: First, in 2011, CONECT led the successful campaign to allow undocumented young people to access state universities and colleges at in state rates. This change made college accessible for the first time to many immigrant youth, and hundreds, if not thousands, have enrolled and graduated since this law was passed.
• DRIVER’S LICENSES: Then, in 2013, CONECT led the successful Safer Driving Campaign to allow undocumented immigrants in CT to get a Driver’s License. This law took effect in 2015 and since that time 80,000 have gotten licenses, allowing them to register their cars, buy insurance, and drive legally and safely.
• EAST HAVEN POLICE DEPARTMENT: CONECT supported and organized with St. Rose of Lima and others to dismantle the racist East Haven Police Department, which was profiling and abusing Latinos and immigrants. Ultimately, four officers were criminally convicted and a Justice Department Civil Rights Division investigation led to a 54-page consent decree to improve their practices and training. This consent decree became a model used by the Obama Administration’s Commission on 21st Century Policing.
• ON-GOING SOLIDARITY WORK: Since 2017, CONECT has worked to support immigrant, Muslim, and other vulnerable communities, organizing two solidarity assemblies, a prayer vigil, letter writing drives, legal consultation sessions, and more. These efforts have been aimed at both resisting anti-immigrant policies, but also at supporting immigrant families and communities as they weather these threats.

• MENTAL HEALTH PARITY: With CT ranked worst in the nation in “out of network” charges for mental health care, CONECT’s Healthcare Team worked with the CT Parity Coalition in 2019 to pass a new law requiring insurance companies to report data to demonstrate compliance with state & federal law that health care coverage for mental health and substance use disorders can be no more restrictive than for medical and surgical benefits.

• LIMITING RESTRAINT & SECLUSION IN CT SCHOOLS: Alarmed by studies documenting the use of restraint and seclusion more than 30,000 times in CT schools, disproportionately with children with autism and children of color, in early 2015 CONECT's Education Team began investigating and taking action on this issue. Working with the state's Child Advocate, CONECT leaders lobbied for Senate Bill 927, which limits the use of these tactics, requires training of teachers and administrators, and mandates parental notification within 24 hours.

• PREDATORY LENDING / FORECLOSURES: In 2010-12, CONECT worked to support individuals and families fighting to save their homes and to gain easier access to banks and mortgage companies to make this happen. Bank of America opened a servicing center in CT for the first time, due to our pressure, and dozens of people saved their homes.

CONECT’s LOCAL IMPACT:
• POLICE REFORM & ACCOUNTABILITY IN BRIDGEPORT: Beginning in June 2015, with a 300-person public dialogue on policing at Bethel AME Church with then Mayor Finch and then Chief Gaudett, CONECT has been pressing for more transparency, accountability, and responsiveness from the Bridgeport Police Department. CONECT followed this dialogue with a 300-person Candidate Assembly in September 2015 just before the Mayoral Primary, where we got commitments from all the major candidates around police hiring, training, and community policing strategies. Then at our 650-peron Winter Assembly in January 2016, we pressed newly elected Mayor Ganim to make good on these commitments. CONECT leaders redoubled these efforts after 15-year-old Jayson Negron was shot and killed by a Bridgeport Police Officer in May 2016. In a series of meetings with Chief Perez and others, CONECT has pressed for a transparent and thorough investigation of the tragedy, Body Cameras for all officers, and de-escalation and racial / cultural competency and anti-bias training for all officers, including veterans. Bridgeport is now implementing an initial Body Camera pilot program, is training all veteran officers in De-Escalation Tactics. CONECT leaders are still reviewing their racial / cultural competency training to scrutinize its quality and effectiveness.
• ADDRESSING HATE SPEECH AND BULLYING IN NORWALK: After hearing dozens of stories of hate speech and bias-based bullying in greater Norwalk areas schools over the last year, CONECT leaders began engaging the Superintendent of Schools, the Police Chief, and the Mayor to press for effective action in the schools. In Nov. 2017, 188 people turned out to a local assembly where CONECT leaders pressed for clear commitments for action. Most importantly, the School District agreed to a daylong teacher training session on hate speech, anti-bias awareness, and effective interventions. CONECT leaders worked with the District and partners to provide training to nearly 1000 teachers and staff in the fall of 2018.
• ADDRESSING RAMPANT VIOLENCE AT SLYCE PIZZA BAR IN HAMDEN: CONECT leaders worked to stop violence and mayhem at Slyce Pizza Bar. Unfortunately, CONECT only learned about this problem after tragedy struck: the April 2016 murder of Jonathan Cooper, the 24 year-old son of Odell Cooper, a long-time CONECT leader from Mount Aery Baptist Church. Jonathan was home for the weekend to visit his family and celebrat