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Date: 10/7/2021
ENFIELD, CT - The Educational Resources for Children, Inc (ERfC), a nonprofit organization providing after school activities for Enfield children and families appointed Josue Irizarry as its new executive director. A resident of Windsor, Irizarry has over 20 years of experience in nonprofit leadership, community impact and fundraising.
"I am extremely excited and grateful to join the talented and dedicated staff of ERfC," Irizarry said. "I hope to continue to build on the successes of ERfC to ensure that children have a safe, caring environment and all the benefits this organization has to offer." Irizarry started his directorship on Sept 22, meeting with the staff, board members and reaching out to the Enfield Superintendents.
Carole Schloss, ERfC's Board of Directors President was in attendance for part of Irizarry's first day as their new Executive Director. Stating, "I was amazed at how professional, relaxed and intuitive he was meeting with staff members and participating in his first Board of Directors meetings all on his first day. He has the ability to assess and prioritize already what his first priorities will be, meeting administrators at Enfield Public School and major stakeholders in the community."
She continued, "As ERfC's new Executive Director, we are looking forward to Mr. Irizarry investigating, with support from the staff and board of directors, opportunities for new growth and development within the Enfield community and surrounding areas. We are pleased to be collaborating and experiencing this new partnership with Josue."
Irizarry was born in Puerto Rico and grew up in New Britain, CT. He attended Southern Connecticut State University with a Bachelor's of Science in Social Work. After college, he worked as a Youth and Family Director at the YMCA New Britain/Berlin. Then he was an events coordinator at the Peabody Museum where he oversaw their community events and summer camps. After that, Irizarry went to the West Hartford & Tri-Town YMCA as an Executive Director and later on the Association Child Development Compliance Manager for the YMCA of Greater Hartford. As the Executive Director, Irizarry managed a budget of $1.2 million and raised $75,000 annually to provide financial assistance to low-income families and assessed, researched and updated existing programs. At the Glastonbury YMCA, Irizarry oversaw a budget of $1.8 million and was able to increase program enrollment from 1,223 to 1,989. Irizarry has served on various committees at the Board of Directors of Opportunities Industrialization Center, YMCA of Greater Hartford Global Initiative, Wethersfield Early Childhood Collaborative and West Hartford Juvenile Review Board.
"All of my jobs have been working at a non-profit organization with children," Irizarry said. "Growing up as a child, we didn't have much. I wanted to be able to make a difference in a child's life and be able to help families. That's always been a passion of mine and it attributes to this day to try to help families have after school programs and summer camps, to have a place to go to."
He went on to say, "A lot of the work that ERfC is doing fits in the wheelhouse of my experience of doing after school programs, summer camps and community events, so it was a good fit for me. It's a new opportunity for me to be able to continue doing what I love to do."
Schloss said the ERfC Interviewing Committee was comprised of five board members. They were looking for a person who had prior experience with management, budget development and implementation, staff training and management, community involvement and non-profit experience. They were also interested in someone who had experience developing and managing programs for children of different age groups. The Harvest Development Group, LLC, a consulting firm in Middletown, CT working specially with nonprofit organizations was selected by ERfC's Board of Director's Transition Team to lead the recruitment for the executive director. Vice President and Partner Melanie J. Cecarelli stated, "Josue's nonprofit career spans several organizations focused on youth programming and services. His well-rounded background and as an executive director working with community partners, school administrators, staff, and boards aligned with the work and mission of ERfC."
Schloss added, "Mr. Irizarry's experience collaborating with other agencies, besides his organization the YMCA, providing staff training, program development, identifying community needs and strategic planning were also some of the factors that impressed our committee to hire Josue. He also had experience with grant writing, hired and evaluated over 35 staff members, supervised over 200 volunteers, managed childcare programs for over 165 children, and managed 10 elementary schools' after school outreach programs in collaboration with area communities."
One of Irizarry's goals is to provide more services to the Enfield community and surrounding communities; building relationships within communities and collaborating with a variety of organizations. He wants to start meeting with other different community leaders, so they can hopefully in the long run putthemselves in a good position and be able to continue the work that they're doing. He also mentioned being financially sustainable and to be able to provide for families that do come to their programs and are asking for financial assistance or assistance to be able to attend programs that they are raising proper funds to be able to help a family. "It's been a smooth transition," Irizarry said. "ERfC has been very welcoming to me and I'm happy to be here. I'm excited to be working with them and I think in the coming years, we're going to be doing some great things in the organization."