Our Work

In our first two years of operations, the Center has emerged as a driver of innovative reform, as well as a go-to resource for community consultation.

Our experience demonstrates our 1) ability to bring key players together in pursuit of a common interest, 2) position as a trusted, neutral party whose views are based in research, engagement, and sound judgment and are thus taken seriously by policymakers, and 3) organizational capacity for developing creative, ambitious solutions in a highly professional, efficient and effective manner.

Through engagement, planning and collaboration, we develop and support high impact initiatives that address issues most critical to the people of the city and to breaking the current cycle of poverty, violence and disinvestment.  The following projects are examples of how we:

• Assess community needs, assets, and issues that are most critical to the people of the city and to breaking the current cycle of poverty, violence and disinvestment,
• Build solutions informed by best practices and innovative ideas, and
• Connect and integrate our efforts across sectors.

Rather than try to impose top-down reforms that may have worked in other cities, we work with the Newark community to build systemic change, harnessing the unique assets of our community to meet its unique needs.

We are in the process of updating our website and materials, so please find below only a partial list of our collaborative change efforts.

Community Youth Mapping

Youth from the ages of 14-21 spent this past summer giving to their community by observing conditions in targeted neighborhoods throughout the city and giving input on how and where they would like to see change happen. See the Youth Mappers in action in this short video.

In just 8 weeks, the Youth Mappers charted the condition of 10,700 lots. The following maps plot the locations of abandoned and vacant properties in three target neighborhoods, which the City of Newark can use to plan neighborhood improvements with our Strong Healthy Communities Initiative and Master Plan partners.

• Map 1: Neighborhood Surrounding Thirteenth Avenue School in the West Ward;
• Map 2: Neighborhood Surrounding Sussex Avenue School in the Central and North Wards;
• Map 3: Neighborhood Surrounding Brick Avon Academy in the South Ward.

Newark’s Master Plan

Newark’s Master Plan lays out a vision for the City’s future. It is also a guide for development, conservation, and other investment activities to help ensure we are working towards common goals for the good of our communities. It’s our city, and it’s our future. As Civic Engagement partner for the Master Plan project team, the Center is organizing a year-long series of opportunities for Newark community members to share their knowledge and insights.

Please check out the Master Plan website for more details and to find a listing of all workshops: newarkmasterplan.com. See photos on our Facebook page, and local coverage of the workshops at Patch.com.

Community Court

With partners the City of Newark, the Newark Municipal Court, the Center for Court Innovation and the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, the Center for Collaborative Change helped to launch Newark Community Solutions. Executive Director Laurel Dumont played an integral role in tailoring this best practice program to for Newark.  After nearly 5 years of planning, the innovative court reform program provides Newark’s judges with the ability to sentence low-level offenders to a combination of punishment and help – with community service performed in Newark’s wards and social services that focus on offenders’ underlying problems.  The opening ceremony took place on June 16, 2011 in the municipal council chambers. Click here to see the Press Release or Star Ledger article for more details on how this ambitious community justice initiative will combat crime and improve public confidence in justice. If you are interested in serving on the Community Advisory Board for NCS, please fill out the application form here.

The Strong Healthy Communities Initiative: Developing Healthy Hubs

In 2010, the Center led the collaborative development of Newark’s Strong, Healthy Communities Initiative (SHCI). Facilitating discussions and working groups that involved over 50 participants from the nonprofit, corporate, philanthropic, and public sectors, the Center developed a multi-sector, holistic and sustainable approach to improving community wellness and arresting the cycle of poverty in several low-income neighborhoods. This work secured $15 million from the philanthropic collaborative Living Cities, to be matched by local philanthropy for a three year effort to develop systemic long-term approaches to establishing and maintaining individual and community wellness in Newark.  Through SHCI, a collaborative partnership will develop several “healthy hubs” throughout Newark — neighborhoods in which we will develop new school-based health clinics and concentrate ongoing initiatives related to access to fresh and healthy foods, and affordable housing.  Participating organizations presently include those listed here.

• Living Cities’ Press Release
• Article in the Star Ledger

“We are honored to be only of one of five cities across the nation to receive this prestigious award,” said Newark Mayor Cory Booker. “Thanks to the leadership of the Center for Collaborative Change and Prudential, this philanthropic investment will strengthen Newark’s Strong Healthy Communities Initiative which will empower our most vulnerable residents by providing them with the resources they need to overcome significant challenges. Together with our community partners, the neighborhood revitalization we achieve as a result of this initiative will help us continue to build a stronger, safer, and prouder Newark.”

For more details about the initiative, you can read the project narrative, or view a logic model showing how the efforts of the partnership will result in meaningful and measurable improvements in individual and community wellness in Newark.

Community-Police Relations

Through our preliminary needs assessment, the Center identified Community-Police Relations as a prevalent concern among Newark’s many stakeholder groups that has been insufficiently addressed by existing resources or approaches.

At the invitation of the Newark Police Department, we partnered with the Department in reviewing and revising its community relations strategies.  As a part of that work, we completed a first round of Community-Police Relations Surveys focused on getting in-depth, open-ended responses from over 500 Newark residents from throughout the City. Results from that preliminary survey and more about our Community-Police Relations work are available by clicking here.

City Grants Administration

With support from the Victoria Foundation, the Center is investigating the CDBG grant administration process in order to help nonprofit organizations receive overdue CDBG grant funds, and ultimately to propose reforms of the CDBG grantmaking process for future grant cycles.  To learn more about this project, click here.

Community Needs Assessment and other Past Projects

In July, 2010, we completed a year-long, citywide needs assessment of people living and working in Newark to determine the city’s most pervasive unmet needs, as well as untapped resources and un-integrated efforts. To learn more about this work and our other past projects, please click here.