Danbury, Conn., received a three-year, $450,000 grant to implement the Danbury WORKS initiative, which focuses on reducing underemployment and unemployment among low-income immigrants. The team connects nonprofits and employers with education and worker-training institutions in Danbury that help the local workforce increase its skills and find jobs.
Steve Osemwenkhae/Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
Problem 
DanburyWORKS focuses on changing outcomes for underemployed or jobless Danbury residents who are immigrants and people of color and don’t have the resources needed to build job skills and increase education.
Strategy
DanburyWORKS is taking a two-phase approach that builds capacity and infrastructure in phase one to ensure success in phase two. The first phase focuses on trust, learning, and child care. The initiative builds trust by establishing a sense of community among diverse people. It supports learning by coordinating various English-language learning services into a unified and seamless system. It increases access to affordable, high-quality childcare by developing 20 new family childcare providers.
Phase two will focus on jobs, education, and training. DanburyWORKS will expand the number of secure jobs for immigrants, low-income individuals, and communities of color by connecting them to coordinated employment navigators, while addressing child care needs, language acquisition, and transportation. It aims to improve education and training consortiums by better aligning and coordinating existing services. And it will train community leaders by using local adult education and training programs to teach advocacy skills, while creating civic and workplace opportunities for residents to practice those skills.
Vision
DanburyWORKS envisions a city where all families can thrive, and is working to reduce the poverty rate by 5% among immigrants and communities of color.
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The Team
- City of Danbury
- United Way of Western CT
- Community Action Agency of Western CT
- YMCA
- Danbury Public Schools
- Danbury Adult Education
- Naugatuck Community College
- Danbury Chamber of Commerce
“What Working Cities is doing is really helping lift people up and giving them the support that they need so that their families can thrive. It’s about language—helping people who speak a different language acquire the language skills that they need, so they can bring their full authentic selves. It’s needing to be connected to the right jobs, training, and education so that people can help support their family. We’re working really hard to build trust between members of the community so that we can help people understand what we’re trying to do.”
Melvette Hill, Danbury WORKS