FAIRFIELD COUNTY
BUSINESS JOURNAL March 21, 2016 | VOL. 52, No. 12
4 | 55 YEARS OF DESIGNING YOUR ONLY SOURCE FOR REGIONAL BUSINESS NEWS
17 | SPECIAL REPORT westfaironline.com
Kennedy Center asks lawmakers to not cut funds
Dottie Kellersman, auxiliary president of the Kennedy Center in Trumbull shares her story of raising a child with disabilities. Photo by Reece Alvarez
BY REECE ALVAREZ ralvarez@westfairinc.com
A
s Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and the state aim to balance a looming deficit of more than $500 mil-
lion for the 2016-17 fiscal year, nonprofits such as the Kennedy Center in Trumbull, which has been serving intellectually and physically disabled people for more than 50 years, are buckling
under budget cuts. “When I first started 37 years ago, families moved here specifically because they recognized the quality of services that were being offered by the state
of Connecticut and the private nonprofit service providers,” said Martin D. Schwartz, president of the Kennedy Center, at its annual legislative breakfast on March 11. “I haven’t seen that over the past six, seven years,” he said. “In fact, it is quite the opposite. Families are saying that they are leaving Connecticut because the service delivery system is not what it had been.” Schwartz said services have already been impacted in lieu of past cuts to state funding, which has left the organization constantly fundraising, which is not a sustainable strategy for the future. “For the past six years we have had funding cuts every year,” he said. “We are constantly going to the same well, the same people, and how many times can they give? The fact of the matter is at this point it is really impacting our services.” “We are looking at a 5.75 percent cut next year and 3 percent cut this year, I don’t think people
could think this works and expect things to continue,” he said. The breakfast at Chip’s Family Restaurant in Trumbull was attended by several regional state legislators and featured tearful testimony from the parents of individuals who depend on the Kennedy Center and similar private disabled-service providers to care for their children and provide a quality of life for them and their families. “These services enabled my family to live a normal functioning life,” said Jeanne Sinclair, director of cardiovascular services at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport and the parent of an adult child with severe Tourette syndrome. When faced with the choice of quitting her job to take care of her child, taking on unsustainably expensive private in-home care or relinquishing her daughter to the state, it was the Kennedy Center » KENNEDY, page 6
Breast cancer conundrum
BY REECE ALVAREZ ralvarez@westfairinc.com IT HAS LONG BEEN KNOWN that Connecticut has higher incidence rates of breast cancer in women and men than most of the nation. But perhaps even more surprising is the fact that in Fairfield County, barriers to preventative care and
WEALTH AND RACE AMONG VARIABLES FOR HIGH RATE IN COUNTY late-stage treatment persist for those lacking insurance. “Even in this day of the Affordable Health Care Act we still have patients who are uninsured — patients who can’t afford to pay their deductibles or premiums or even their co-pays,” said Mark Melendez, a plastic and recon-
structive surgeon with offices in Fairfield, Shelton and Greenwich. Melendez, also a member of the Connecticut board of directors for the Susan G. Komen Foundation — the largest organization dedicated to ridding breast cancer — recently presented findings from Komen’s “2015 Community Profile: An Assessment of Breast Cancer in Connecticut,” at a press conference at the state capitol in Hartford. The study detailed not only the state’s unusual high rates of breast cancer, but also the socioeconomic factors that skew » CANCER, page 6
From left, Mark Melendez, Fairfield County plastic surgeon and member of the board of directors for the Connecticut branch of the Susan G. Komen foundation; Denise Rivera Coladonato, mission and grants coordinator, Susan G. Komen Southern New England; Lori van Dam, Susan G. Komen Southern New England CEO, and Connecticut Community Profile study team members Christopher Papallo and Elizabeth Schwartz. Photo Courtesy of the Susan G. Komen Foundation.