Danbury is among five Connecticut municipalities to win the Reserve Bank's Working Cities Challenge. The competition encouraged applicants to improve the lives of low- and moderate-income residents. 12-percent of Danbury residents live below the federal poverty level, despite the unemployment rate being 4.2 percent.
Danbury will use a multiyear grant of $450,000 to reduce the number of immigrants and people of color who are in poverty by 30 percent within 10 years.
Danbury is one of the most diverse in the state of Connecticut, with 45-percent of residents speaking a language other than English. Connecticut Voices for Children reports that the cost of childcare between 2009 and 2017 rose by 5 percent while real wages fell by 10 percent during the same period.
Phase One of the plan will focus on building trust among diverse cultures in Danbury by creating language acquisition programs and increasing access to affordable, quality childcare. Phase Two will help participants move into job and educational training programs to improve economic self-sufficiency.
A grant presentation will be made to the 5 municipalities this afternoon.
The Working Cities Challenge, launched in 2013 in Massachusetts, builds on Boston Fed research that identified cross-sector collaboration and leadership as the key ingredients in resurgent smaller cities across the country. The Working Cities Challenge in Connecticut builds upon the success of the initiative in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
