2024 Pathways Grants Support 3,500 Local Women

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Community Fund for Women & Girls, along with other Connecticut-based organizations, commissioned a report to quantify the impact of the pandemic on women and girls in our state. Released in 2021, the Essential Equity report showed that for the first time, unemployment claims were filed by more women than men, and that only six percent of families of color could afford high-quality childcare. 

The findings made clear that the childcare challenge and other stresses shouldered by working women were made worse by the pandemic. But these stresses were not new and the work to address them was already a focus of the Fund, which has invested in working women since its founding. This long-term work informed its latest grants program, Pathways to Economic Security for Women. 

Pathways grants support workforce training, employment and entrepreneurship and invest in wraparound services such as childcare, transportation and housing. In 2024, Pathways grants totaling $115,000 are funding 10 nonprofits working in these areas, supporting over 3,500 local women. 
Since inception, the Community Fund for Women & Girls has awarded over $2 million in grant dollars; through its Pathways to Economic Security program, $504,440 has been awarded to 18 organizations serving Greater New Haven. 

Havenly, Inc., a New Haven-based cafe and support organization for refugee women, is using its Pathways grant to add daycare for participants in its six-month commercial kitchen training program. The women also learn digital and financial literacy and receive career coaching. Havenly provides the women with a community of trust and dignity, along with a living wage. The pandemic created unique challenges for mothers in the Havenly program, as schools and daycares closed. For refugee women, it was already challenging to find affordable, culturally competent childcare. Caterina Passoni, one of Havenly’s co-founders, knew it was time to consider adding childcare to the Havenly program. 
“We brought 12 graduates of the Havenly fellowship together to try to imagine what a daycare could be,” Passoni recalls. “Several of them had experience with daycare before coming to the United States, and their input was critical.” 
With the Pathways grant, Havenly is able to secure a location that suits their needs and will allow the daycare program to grow. Havenly is working in partnership with fellow nonprofits All Our Kin and Cercle for help with designing the space, as well as licensing and training Havenly constituents as childcare providers. They are hoping to open the daycare program in the spring of 2025. The grant will cover the deposit once they find the space.  

“The Pathways grant accelerated our shift from vision to action,” says Passoni. “It came at the perfect time, and gave our community hope when hope was hard to come by.”

Another Pathways grant recipient, Christian Community Action Inc. (CCA), is using the funds to provide direct financial assistance to the women it serves. The assistance is paying for classes (including online classes for GED and higher education), work clothes for women starting new jobs, childcare and other costs that present barriers to women’s employment. “Having the Pathways grant has accelerated our ability to provide these services and help more people,” says Charmain Yun, executive director of CCA. “Before the Pathways grant, we had very limited funds to assist folks who wanted to go back to school and we didn’t have any funding to help with childcare expenses, which meant we were limited in our childcare referrals for any women who wasn’t already employed.” 
When nonprofits expand their service offerings to help women and families solve multiple challenges in spaces centered on dignity, the outcomes for the families are stronger — with positive impacts that resonate throughout the whole community.

2024 Pathways to Economic Security for Women Grant Awards

• Christian Community Action - $10,000
• CitySeed Inc. - $10,000
• CMWP Foundation, Inc. - $10,000
• Community Action Agency of New Haven - $10,000
• Havenly, Inc. - $10,000
• Life Health & Wellness Center - $10,000
• Manufacturing And Technical Community Hub - $15,000
• Spanish Community of Wallingford - $10,000
• Winning Ways, Inc. - $15,000