Dalios Double Down on Connecticut’s Youth

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Dalios Double Down on Connecticut’s Youth

2025-12-17 23:25 Last Updated At：23:31

WESTPORT, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 17, 2025--

Ray and Barbara Dalio through Dalio Philanthropies announced today that they are joining the Dell family in seeding the new Trump Administration investment accounts with an additional $250 per child for approximately 300,000 children in Connecticut.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251217847942/en/

Following the Dell model, the funds are initially targeted for children who live in a Connecticut zip code where the median income is less than $150,000.

Inspired by Ray’s personal start as a young investor and Barbara’s decades of experience working closely with at-risk and disconnected young people in Connecticut’s schools, the Dalios see this commitment as a natural extension of their efforts to provide equal opportunity and are excited to help catalyze Secretary Bessent’s “50 State Challenge” in support of the state they call home.

“Barbara and I believe strongly in the importance of equal opportunity and believe this initiative is an important step in that direction,” said Ray Dalio. “I have lived the American Dream. At an early age, I was exposed to the stock market, and it changed my life. By providing children with savings accounts that compound over time, we are providing them with early insights into financial literacy and a path towards financial independence. I applaud President Trump, Secretary Bessent, Michael Dell, and many others who have spearheaded this initiative. I am hopeful other philanthropists will join in this effort to help close the opportunity gap by contributing in their home states. As we enter the holidays, I can think of no better gift than the gift of opportunity.”

Over the last two decades, Barbara Dalio has devoted herself to supporting public schools, teachers, and youth-serving organizations in Connecticut, working in a bipartisan way with the state and with local municipalities.

“Spending time in Connecticut schools and with our young people, I’ve seen firsthand the spirit of our youth. They have a lot stacked against them and we need to give young people a better chance for success. By helping them invest early and emphasizing financial literacy, in a small way, we can hopefully provide them with a better chance,” Barbara Dalio added.

To date, the Dalio family and Dalio Philanthropies have collectively donated over $280 million to nonprofit causes and organizations in Connecticut, including public schools and educational institutions, arts and cultural institutions, libraries and historical centers, food banks and shelters, parks, and other community organizations. This is Dalio Philanthropies’ second initiative in partnership with the Dell family. In 2020, during the COVID pandemic, the Dalios purchased 60,000 laptops supplied by Dell to support children who would not otherwise have access to virtual education. During that time, the Dalios also provided grants for childcare to support more than 1,000 children of health workers across the state of Connecticut and secured protective gear for community hospitals when it was otherwise unavailable.

Outside of Connecticut, Dalio Philanthropies works nationwide to provide equal opportunity in health care, education, and microfinance because the Dalios believe that these are fundamental building blocks of a just society. In 2021, they helped found the Dalio Center for Health Justice at New York Presbyterian Hospital with a $50 million grant, and they were instrumental in helping launch Grameen America, which has now provided more than $6 billion in loans to American small-business entrepreneurs. To date, Dalio Philanthropies has provided over $127 million in grants and impact investments to support economic empowerment.

The Dalios are signatories of the Giving Pledge and have contributed more than $7 billion dollars to Dalio Philanthropies for charitable distribution.

About Dalio Philanthropies

Dalio Philanthropies, founded by the Dalio family in 2003, supports a diverse range of organizations to help catalyze positive change around the world across core focus areas of education, economic empowerment, arts and community, health and wellness, and the ocean. In addition to these focus areas, Dalio Philanthropies supports three primary Operating Programs: Dalio Education, which champions education and youth development in Connecticut; OceanX, which combines science, education, and storytelling to unlock the ocean’s sustainable potential and drive global impact; and Endless, which promotes digital access and empowers people by turning passion into skills. Since the inception of Dalio Philanthropies, the family has committed over $7 billion to philanthropic causes.

Spanish police evict hundreds of migrants from squat deemed unsafe

BADALONA, Spain (AP) — Police in northeastern Spain carried out eviction orders Wednesday to clear an abandoned school building where around 400 migrants were living in a squat north of Barcelona.

Knowing that the eviction in the middle of winter was coming, most of the occupants had left to try to find other shelter before police in riot gear from Catalonia's regional police entered the school’s premises early in the morning under court orders. Judicial authorities had ruled the building was unsafe.

While the eviction was completed without violence, there were moments of tension when people who were losing their homes had to walk past armored officers.

But officers of Spain's National Police detained 18 people on suspicions they were residing in the country without authorization, lawyer Marta Llonch told The Associated Press.

The squat was located in Badalona, a working class city that borders Barcelona. Many sub-Saharan migrants, mostly from Senegal and Gambia, had moved into the empty school building since it was left abandoned in 2023.

“Putting 400 people onto the street in winter just before Christmas, you have to have a hard heart to do that,” said Younous Drame, a 50-year-old man from Senegal who was among those forced to leave.

The judicial order obliged the Badalona town hall to provide the evicted people with access to social services, but it did not oblige local authorities to find housing for all the squatters.

Llonch, who represents the squatters, said that many people would surely end up without shelter in the cold.

“Many people are going to sleep on the street tonight,” Llonch told The Associated Press. “Just because you evict these people it doesn’t mean they disappear. If you don’t give them an alternative place to live they will now be on the street, which will be a problem for them and the city.”

Many of the squatters lived from selling scrap metal collected from the streets. Others had residency and work permits but were forced to live there because they couldn't afford housing during a cost-of-living crunch that is making it difficult even for working Spaniards to buy or rent homes. That housing crisis has led to widespread social angst and public protests.

On leaving the school, people loaded their belongings onto carts, some used as trailers led by bicycles, to haul them away.

The Badalona town hall will offer temporary housing to some 30 people, according to El País newspaper. Another 60 people are being attended to by Catalonia’s regional social services, which could end up offering them temporary housing as well, regional officials told the AP.

The conservative mayor of Badalona, Xavier García Albiol, asked the court to evict the people from the old public school.

His Badalona town hall had argued that the squat was a public safety hazard. In 2020, an old factory occupied by around a hundred migrants in Badalona caught fire and four people were killed in the blaze.

After the eviction was complete, García Albiol visited the school site and declared that “what is unacceptable in this country is that Spain’s government lets absolutely everyone in.”

Like other southern European countries, Spain has for more than a decade seen a steady influx of migrants who risked their lives crossing the Mediterranean or Atlantic in small boats.

While many developed countries have taken a hard-line position against migration, Spain's left-wing government has said that legal migration has helped its economy grow.