Mystic — Dozens of women — and a few men — packed the ballroom of the Hilton Mystic on Friday morning for the Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut's annual Celebration of Women Breakfast.

It was a chance for the Community Foundation to reflect on the programs that ran last year with financial support from its Southeast Area Women & Girls Fund, and to encourage donors to continue their support.

"In my humble view, philanthropy is not about charity, but it's about a deep commitment to equity and equality," said Maryam Elahi, president and CEO of the foundation. She added, "By lifting women and girls in our community, we're lifting families in our community."

The keynote speaker was Elsa Núñez, president of Eastern Connecticut State University for the past 12 years. Elahi commended Núñez for increasing the graduation rate of Latinos from 20 to 68 percent in six years.

Núñez said of supporting the foundation, "It's not because we believe in charity; it's because we believe we have a damn obligation to be a safety net in this country for people who don't have a mother or grandmother to give it to them."

She thanked the people in the room for their part in helping break the cycle of at-risk families. Talking about the importance of having a supportive family, Núñez said that "the world becomes a very, very dark place" when mothers and grandmothers are not present in a child's life.

She cited four roadblocks to success for women and girls: domestic violence, homelessness, hunger and lack of access to education.

And she recognized local organizations working to remove those roadblocks, such as Safe Futures, Covenant Shelter of New London, Martin House, New London Adult & Continuing Education, and Higher Edge.

Núñez shared the story of Liliana Figueroa, a 2015 New London High School graduate whose childhood involved an incarcerated father and a heroin-addicted mother.

Working with Higher Edge, a youth social services organization that gets grants from the Community Foundation, Figueroa enrolled at ECSU and is the recipient of the Tim West Memorial Scholarship.

Figueroa, a criminology and sociology double-major, explained in a video that she wants to work in corrections or policing.

Last year, the Southeast Area Women & Girls Fund, one of four women and girls funds through the foundation, awarded more than $100,000 in grants.

This helped fund a mentoring and leadership program for girls at Bennie Dover Jackson Middle School, a Writer's Block Ink theater program for teens to promote healthy relationships, enhancements to senior health care through the Visiting Nurse Association of Southeastern Connecticut, legal services through the Immigration Advocacy & Support Center and more.