Jennifer Leeper

Happy Friday! In this week's eblast, you can read about holiday drives for local refugee resettlement agencies, local happenings, and more. You can click on the links below to navigate between sections.

• Happy Hanukkah!
• Prescription Drug Discount Event with Comptroller Scanlon
• Holiday Toy and Gift Drives
• United Illuminating Update
• Fairfield County Community Foundation Meeting
• Legislative Breakfast with the Jewish Federation of Greater Fairfield County
• Tour of the American School for the Deaf
• Holiday Cheer Around the District
• Childcare Apprenticeship Program
• Experience Fairfield's December Calendar of Events

Connecticut residents can save up to 80% off certain prescriptions at nearly all pharmacies in the state. There's no cost, age restriction, or income restriction to join. To sign up, please click HERE.



For more information on ArrayRx, including a drug price lookup tool, visit arrayrxcard.com. I hope you'll join us on Monday!

Two refugee resettlement agencies, CIRI and IRIS, provide life-giving work for refugees who have recently resettled here in CT. This holiday season they are hosting holiday gift and toy drives. If you are able, please consider giving to someone in need this holiday season.

 

Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services (IRIS) - Holiday Toy Drive 

Current Needs: Toys for children Ages 3 to 10 

You can order online and have them delivered to 25 Main Street, Hartford 06105 (please avoid weekend delivery).

 

Please e-mail Tkimball@irisct.org for more information or visit https://irisct.org/donate/ to donate online.

Connecticut Institute for Refugees and Immigrants (CIRI)-  Winter Welcome Gifts 



You can order online and have any toys or goods delivered directly to 670 Clinton Avenue, Bridgeport CT 06605. c/o Anthony Orfino Volunteer Coordinator 

 

Amazon wish list for our Winter Gear Drive: https://a.co/atQOp9I

• Winter Coats
• Blankets 
• Baby Diapers (All sizes) 
• Baby Toiletries: (wipes, diaper rash cream/ointment, body wash, etc.) 
• Socks (all sizes) 
• Adult Toiletries: Soap, body wash, shampoo & conditioner, razors and shaving cream, feminine products, etc.  

Please e-mail aorfino@cirict.org for more information or visit https://cirict.org/donate/ to donate online.

On Tuesday, December 12 at 2pm, the Siting Council will have a continued evidentiary hearing session to discuss the project that can be attended via Zoom. 

Meeting ID: 817 9454 5353 and Passcode: rV59JL

No public comments will be received, but your attendance alone makes a big impression and shows how much residents care.



If you can, I highly encourage you to attend this meeting today to keep applying pressure.



If you want to submit public comment, you can reach the Siting Council via email siting.council@ct.gov or by regular mail (10 Franklin Square, New Britain, CT 06051).


To read the transcription of the most recent evidentiary hearing, click here.

This process is long, and not always easy, but our continued grassroots advocacy is working, and I look forward to keeping up the fight.

• The infant mortality rate is four times as high for Black babies compared to white babies.
• The median income for Black & Latino households is less than half of the median income for white households.
• Homeownership for white households is almost twice as high as homeownership for Black & Latino households.
• The poverty rate for children ages 0-5 in Bridgeport is nearly 13 times as high as it is in Fairfield.

While these numbers are disturbing and disheartening, there are viable solutions on the table. We discussed how Connecticut's nation-leading Baby Bonds program is a structural way to interrupt generational poverty, and how our expanded Earned Income Tax Credit and bringing back the Child Tax Credit are supporting the working poor.



A significant barrier to promoting prospering families is the existence of the "benefits cliff", which can mean if a family earns a little more income, they then can lose a benefit that is far more valuable than their income increase and therefore, disincentivizes prosperity. We must fix the benefits cliffs that penalize families for doing better for themselves and I look forward to pursuing this essential work in the upcoming session.