One Pager Community Messengers Final

Community messengers The CM provides first-hand information
in and to the community
The Bridge to Success (BTS) community messengers’ initiative
provides information from the community to the community.
Community messengers (CM) inform Waterbury residents about
the resources that the city have to offer. Each CM carries material
on multiple city resources related to basic needs, BTS, health
care, education, substance abuse, volunteer activities, housing,
and more to inform their “neighbors” in casual settings such as
the supermarket, doctor’s office, or bus stops. There is a CM in
every part of the city.

To become a CM, community members (usually parents) go
through leadership and resource trainings.1 Because the focus of BTS is to lead collective impact informed
by data, each CM is required to collect data and report on the resources provided to the community.

Between January and June 2017, there were nine CM active in the 1,250 people served
city of Waterbury. Collectively, they engaged in 763 encounters to 2,356 resources provided
provide information to individuals (620 encounters) and
organizations (90 encounters).2

Most people who received community resources was female (70%). The majority (69%) was between 19
and 40 years old, a quarter (26%) was above 40, and 6% was 18 or younger. About a third (31%) of the
resource recipients had a child younger than five.

Top-5 resources provided by CM Each CM has information on 14 city resources. In 80% of the
interactions, the CM provided information on more than one
34% resource. On average, the CM provided information on 3.3
26% 25% 23% resources (st. dev. 1.871) per encounter.
18% The figure on the left shows the top-5 of the frequency certain
resources were provided. Additionally, the CM handed out
information on: substance abuse (16%), positive youth
development (15%) afterschool programs (13%), housing
(13%), mental health (12%), and healthcare & nutrition
(11%).3

BTS News Volunteer Family Parent Literacy &

Activities Engagement Leadership Reading

& Activities

1 Leadership programs are offered through a partnership between BTS and the community outreach program of the Waterbury Hospital. These
programs include: People Empower People (PEW), Parent Leadership Training Institute (PLTI), and Parent Supporting Educational Excellence
(PSEE). (For more information visit: http://www.waterburyhospital.org/community/community-outreach/). BTS trains the CM on community
resources and provides them with support and a monthly stiped.
2 In 57 instances, the CM did not provide data on who was served, in four instances the CM served both an organization and a person.
3 Information on certain resources was provided only 10% or less: basic needs, mentoring, school information, childcare/ preschool, special needs,
and post-secondary education. In 44% of the encounters the CM provided information on other resources.

© BTS, 9/25/2017