The Tow Foundation honored with national 'Critical Impact Award'
May 21, 2008
Wilton, CT (May 21, 2008) — The Tow Foundation was honored recently by the Council on Foundations with its national "Critical Impact Award." The award was given in recognition of The Tow Foundation's successful Juvenile Justice Initiative, a funding strategy that supports advocacy and programs to help reform Connecticut?s juvenile justice system and improve outcomes for the state's most vulnerable children and youth.
Emily Tow Jackson, executive director and trustee of the foundation, accepted the award at the Council on Foundations' annual conference in Washington, D.C. attended by close to 3,000 philanthropic leaders from across the nation. Ms. Jackson said she hoped the award would draw attention to the role of foundations and the impact they can have on society's most critical issues.
"There are many noble and serious causes that need our attention, intellect and resources," Ms. Jackson said. "None are more serious or critical to address than the conditions faced by children and families caught in a vicious cycle of failure that often leads to incarceration. As a foundation, we play the unique role of facilitator, convener, researcher, funder, champion and partner. It gives us great satisfaction to help those on the ground working with youth, families and public systems, and those who advocate on behalf of the disadvantaged to help them achieve their goals."
The Council on Foundations is a national nonprofit membership association of approximately 2,100 grantmaking foundations and corporations with combined assets of more than $282 billion. The Council helps the field be more effective and responsible and provides its members with services to do their best work. The Critical Impact Award was created in 2007 to honor and recognize foundations that have had a demonstrated impact on the common good — locally, nationally or globally — and that can serve as models for others in philanthropy.
In presenting the award, Council President Steve Gunderson said, "The Tow Foundation's success in helping to reform the juvenile justice system in Connecticut and reducing the number of children and adolescents incarcerated has been extraordinary. In bestowing the 2008 Critical Impact Award on The Tow Foundation, the Council acknowledges your foundation's innovative leadership and bold vision in advancing the common good through effective grantmaking."
The Tow Foundation was founded in 1988 by Leonard and Claire Tow of New Canaan, CT to formally advance their philanthropic support of breakthrough medical research, higher education, the arts, and services for disadvantaged children and families. The foundation's Juvenile Justice Initiative was created in 1999 after extensive research of Connecticut's juvenile justice system and the realization that few foundations had taken on this cause.
"We encourage our colleagues to learn that we must break away from the concept that only government can make things possible," said Leonard Tow. "Individuals and small organizations can make big things happen, both to public systems and populations. Helping those who are less fortunate, filling gaps and adopting orphan societal issues are examples of how foundations can serve as catalysts for systems change."
Since 1999, the foundation's Juvenile Justice Initiative has awarded grants totaling more than $5 million to nonprofit agencies and advocacy groups based primarily in Connecticut with the goals of reducing the numbers of children and youth detained and incarcerated and increasing community-based services for these young people and their families to improve their future outcomes. In 2001, The Tow Foundation became one of four founding partners of the Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance. Through this coalition, the foundation has helped influence the state to make reforms of several punitive policies and was directly involved in the creation of Connecticut's first juvenile justice strategic plan. The Alliance and the foundation advocated the successful adoption in 2007 of a law that, effective January 2010, will raise the age that a youth can be adjudicated as a juvenile from 16 to 18, a policy that is supported by national research.
In addition, over the time period of The Tow Foundation's reform efforts, there has been a drop in juveniles referred to court from 15,386 during the 2005-2006 fiscal year to 12,482 the following year, and a decrease from more nearly 800 children incarcerated in 1999 in the Connecticut Juvenile Training School, the youth prison in Middletown, to 189 in 2007. At the same time, state funding has increased significantly for community-based mental health, education, vocational, case management, restorative justice and other services to help divert youth from the justice system or ease their transition back home after incarceration.
For more information about The Tow Foundation and its strategic grantmaking, visit www.towfoundation.org. The Tow Foundation is a member of the Youth Transition Funders Group, a coalition of national and regional foundations that advocates nationally for system reform and services on behalf of juvenile justice, foster care and out-of-school and struggling youth ages 14 to 24. For more information about the research and reform work of these foundations, please visit www.ytfg.org.
A description of the Critical Impact Award can be found at the Council on Foundation's website at www.cof.org.