creative - gathering ground

CREATIVE NEW JERSEY

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NEWARK'S VIRTUAL CALL TO COLLABORATION

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Newark's Virtual Call to Collaboration:

Collected Notes

2020

What Happened?

CREATIVE NEW JERSEY

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NEWARI{'S VIRTUAL CALL TO COLLABORATION

www.CREATIVENJ.org 2

http://www.creativenj.org/

TABLE OF CONTENTS Newark’s Virtual Call to Collaboration.................................................................................................................6

A Message from the Creative New Jersey Team..............................................................................................8

Meet the Team ...............................................................................................................................................................10

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15th | DAY 1 Agenda Topics....................................................................................12

Topic Title: How can we support the social and emotional needs of Newark's teen girls and equip our girls to lead during this time? ............................................................................................................13

Topic Title: What if Newark communities collaborated to protect children/youth from exposure to community violence, especially gun violence? ......................................................................16

Topic Title: What can I do to feel better? What must I do to be better?.............................................18

Topic Title: Environmental Justice Now - How do we address the health injustices in Newark's water, air and food?................................................................................................................................. 20

Topic Title: How can we make small incremental changes to our City to improve our lives?

Topic Title: How can we bridge the gap between 70% unemployed Americans with disabilities

22

and the workforce?...................................................................................................................................................... 26

Topic Title: What does it take to make nonprofit boards reflect their communities?................... 28

Topic Title: How can we create opportunities to discuss our shared humanity through a Racial Healing Circle process? ...............................................................................................................................31

Topic Title: How can we create public art that is reflective of Newark's diverse communities? ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 33

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16th | DAY 2 Agenda Topics........................................................................................... 36

SESSION ONE NOTES.................................................................................................................................................. 38

Topic Title: How can we support college students with landing strong jobs worthy of their degrees?........................................................................................................................................................................... 38

Topic Title: How can we most effectively partner with residents when prioritizing the Newark's sustainability, climate & resilience action commitments? ....................................................40

Topic Title: How do we meet the needs of residents with disabilities all across the board in terms of quality of life?.............................................................................................................................................. 46

Topic Title: How can we reach parents and help them understand how to best support their child in this virtual environment while juggling everything?.................................................................. 49

Topic Title: How can we create a healthy neighborhood collaborative?............................................ 53

Topic Title: What do you do when breathin' ain't easy? ........................................................................... 55

SESSION TWO NOTES .................................................................................................................................................57

Topic Title: How can we make space for youth voice, leadership and power? (Added After) How do we do this both physically and virtually in these times? ............................................................57



Topic Title: How do we ensure that parks offer the kinds of events and programs that residents want?..............................................................................................................................................................61

Topic Title: How can we combine common goals of health, restoring healthy ecosystems, job retraining, and creating new employment opportunities? ........................................................................ 64

Topic Title: Where’s Your Tree? How do we root and document our conviction, outrage, and dreams in the face of the environmental ruin of the planet and black and brown lives? ............. 68

Topic Title: In what ways can transportation support and enable progress toward social justice now and in the future? .................................................................................................................................72

Topic Title: How can we get the news to the Latino Community that do not have phones or internet access at this time?.................................................................................................................................... 74

MONDAY, OCTOBER 19th | DAY 3 Agenda Topics .......................................................................................77

Topic Title: ¿Cómo generamos procesos de colaboración entre los actores sociales en Newark? How do we enhance collaboration in social stakeholders in Newark?.............................. 79

Topic Title: What if Newark communities worked to understand the intersectionality of children/youth of color who reside in Newark and suicidal ideations?............................................... 82

Topic Title: How can we do all that is within our capability to remain healthy brain and body during this season of COVID-19?......................................................................................................................... 84

Topic Title: How can we hold our stakeholders accountable for providing opportunities to up-skill and advance current skillsets of our residents; which will allow them to pivot into new sectors and become more marketable in today’s job market?.................................................................. 88

Topic Title: How can we use "Opportunity Zones" and 501(c)(2) Real Estate Holding Companies to revitalize Newark?......................................................................................................................... 92

Topic Title: How can we create more connections across New Jersey's Cultural Communities?............................................................................................................................................................... 94

Topic Title: How can we create a more sustainable localized food system utilizing the expertise of our current Newark-based farmers and gardeners?............................................................96

Topic Title: How can we use schools as community organizations working collaboratively with leaders, non-profit organizations, activists, and families to be a catalyst for broader change? ............................................................................................................................................................................99

Topic Title: What if Newark pioneered the way in educating and training our children how to healthily process and communicate their emotions through SEL being taught in school? ...... 102

Topic Title: In a city where there are so many collaboratives and so much discussion about collective impact, what are the complexities/challenges that limit our ability to impact systemic change in the City of Newark and how do we as a community overcome them?....... 105

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20th | DAY 4 Agenda Topics ................................................................................... 107

SESSION ONE NOTES................................................................................................................................................109



Topic Title: As mature leaders and activists, how can we cultivate youth but still give them the space to paint their own personalized pictures of change, justice, and leadership?.............109

Topic Title: How can Cannabis Businesses help Newark?.....................................................................113

Topic Title: How can we make greater use of Parks as outdoor space for meetings, events, resource centers and other purposes during the COVID 19 Pandemic? ............................................114

Topic Title: How can we keep our elders (seasoned citizens) informed, who are not technology savvy pre, during and post COVID19?......................................................................................117

Topic Title: How can we develop a robust general rehabilitation effort for homes in Newark?

Topic Title: What Can We Build Together in Lincoln Park to Create More Wealth for Creative

............................................................................................................................................................................................121

Topic Title: How can philanthropy organize to advance racial justice in Newark? ................... 124

Entrepreneurs? ........................................................................................................................................................... 126

SESSION TWO NOTES .............................................................................................................................................. 128

Topic Title: How can we improve the communication flow of information in the community? ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 128

Topic Title: ¿Cómo empresas y/o emprendedores cómo podríamos generar mayor colaboración e integración en nuestra comunidad?................................................................................... 134

Topic Title: Whom do we speak to about getting the code inspectors to come out on a timely basis once the permit for reopening has been approved? ....................................................................... 136

Topic Title: Newark owns 35,000 acres of the highest ecological value forest in New Jersey— more than twice the area of the City itself—which buffers the City’s five water supply reservoirs. How can Newark best leverage the forest’s sustaining values of: water resource production and protection; accessible recreation; climate resiliency; vast reserve of biodiversity, to improve the quality of life in the City?............................................................................. 139

Topic Title: How can open schoolyards benefit the community? .......................................................141

Topic Title: What systems will help us to create a cohesive public arts ecosystem (Virtual Divide, Community Input, and sustainable practices)?............................................................................ 143

Topic Title: How can we build a network of Trust-ed messengers (individuals and organizations) to disseminate reliable information, promote access to services, and develop networking opportunities for Newark families with children ages 0-3?............................................ 146



Newark’s Virtual Call to Collaboration

~ a 4-day virtual gathering that unleashed imaginative strategic thinking,

powered individual leadership, responsibility and

strengthened personal and professional networks for the betterment

of the City of Newark

Produced by Creative New Jersey in cooperation with the local Newark Host

Team, the Call to Collaboration (C2C) is an inclusive city-wide meeting that

brings together highly-diverse groups of Newark’s residents, business

owners, youth, nonprofit, education, philanthropic, social service and faith-

based leaders, government personnel and others---all who care deeply about

and are working to improve and enhance societal conditions in Newark.

More about the Call to Collaboration in other cities

Newark joins other towns and regions from throughout the state that have

participated in Creative New Jersey’s community engagement programming,

including Asbury Park, Atlantic City, Camden, Hammonton, Highlands,

Morristown, Orange, Paterson, Rahway, Trenton, Monmouth County and the

Skylands region (Sussex, Warren and northern Morris Counties), among

others. The influence of Creative New Jersey’s work in these communities is

demonstrated through dozens of Community Impact Stories which

include: the new Atlantic City Community Fund; the Rutgers-Camden Civic

Action Plan; the Diversity Dialogue Group of Asbury Park uniting voices for

equitable change; Hammonton’s Cross-Sector Health Coalition; and the




https://www.creativenj.org/impact-2/

https://www.creativenj.org/impact-stories/

The Geraldine R.

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IMAGINE A BETTER NEW JERSEY

Creek-to Canal Multi-Sector Collaboration to revitalize Trenton

neighborhoods, among others.

Creative New Jersey gratefully

acknowledges the leadership support of the

Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.

Creative New Jersey fosters collaboration, community inclusion and

creative thinking by convening highly-diverse groups of people with varied

cross-sector skills, viewpoints, backgrounds, and lived-experiences, in order

to advance a community dialogue around critical issues, build and strengthen

diverse community networks, encourage cross-sector and multi-cultural

partnerships, and foster equitable community-based solutions.

More information about Creative New Jersey can be found at

www.CreativeNJ.org or at www.Facebook.com/CreativeNJ




http://www.facebook.com/CreativeNJ

A Message from the Creative New Jersey Team

Connection, Inspiration, and Collaboration in the time of COVID

The COVID-19 pandemic has altered many things in New Jersey and nationally, some of which will remain altered forever. One of the few things that has not changed is Newarker’s passion for their community and making Newark a thriving city.

In March 2020, we were a week away from holding the second in-person Call to Collaboration in Newark when our country shut down. Over the course of the intervening months – as isolation and fatigue from COVID-19 took their toll, and the emotional, physical and mental strain of racial injustice, battles for a complete count on the U.S. Census, and the ramp up to a vitriolic election season continued to raise stress and anxiety in New Jersey’s communities – Newark’s Call to Collaboration Host Team determined that we had to find a way to come together as we had intended, but in a way that was physically safe.

More than ever before, the space to connect with each other safely to address the unprecedented issues we are facing today is essential. And so, we set to work on adapting and building a way for us to hold virtual space for this mandate.

We weren’t sure how the vibrancy of the discussions, the forging of relationships, and the inspiring ideas that we see at our in-person Calls to Collaboration would translate to a virtual setting – but on October 15, 16, 19, and 20 Newark’s Virtual Call to Collaboration welcomed hundreds of people who gathered on Zoom to discuss topics that they had proposed, related to our central Guiding Question:

“In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, an economic downturn, and the rising calls for social justice, how do we unite our diverse communities



and stakeholders to build upon Newark’s rich history, strengthen our city’s identity, and support transformational progress?”

Over the course of four days, Newarkers contributed to 47 different sessions, committed to dozens of actions and were in conversation with hundreds of their peers.

The energy, positivity, commitment to next steps, gratitude, and connections that we witnessed were inspiring – and the passion of all who participated continues to fuel the “transformational progress” that the Guiding Question calls forth.

Newark's Virtual Call to Collaboration was successful because of the people -Newarkers and others who are invested in the success of this great city. We welcomed a diverse cross-section of nonprofit, community, education, arts, and local government leaders, entrepreneurs, and high school students through seniors, among others, all of whom contributed valuable and progressive ideas.

We worked in partnership with ASL interpreters, NJ Relay captioning services, and Eyes Like Mine to expand our accessibility. We also worked with La Casa de Don Pedro and Newark Trust for Education to offer bi-lingual breakout sessions – marking two milestones in our continued evolution to hold space for all voices to have a say in the future of their communities.

In collaboration,

Elizabeth, Kacy, Jeanette and Alyssa The Creative New Jersey Team

9www.CREATIVENJ.org


Meet the Team Newark’s Virtual Call to Collaboration Host Team includes: Co-Chairs Pamela B. Daniels, The Brickerati Kim Gaddy, Clean Water Action

Members Kaleena Berryman, Abbott Leadership Institute-Rutgers University Francis Dixon, New Hope Baptist Church Rashon Dwight, Newark Board of Education Natasha Dyer, Newark Trust for Education Angela Garretson, New Jersey Institute of Technology Suzanne Ishee, NJIT Hub for Creative Placemaking Courtney Johnson, Newark Board of Education Jeremy Johnson, Newark Arts Lavita Johnson, Newark People’s Assembly Donna Kirkland, Trust for Public Land Jennifer Madé, Abbott Leadership Institute-Rutgers University Eyesha Marable, NJ Performing Arts Center Carrie Puglisi, La Casa de Don Pedro Richard Whitten, United Parks As One

Creative New Jersey’s Team: Elizabeth Murphy Kacy O’Brien Jeanette Mitchell Alyssa Calderone

Session Managers: Tanaquil Marquez Kenny Miles Sheldon Steele Millie Gonzalez Danny Campos Carolina Vargas Alli Hartley-Kong Colleen Roche Jacqueline Mestre Connie Isbell



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Spanish Language Translation: Sandra Fernandez, La Casa De Don Pedro Lissette Morales, Newark Trust for Education

ASL Interpreters: Thyson Halley Tabiatha Lee Marcellus L. Hartsfield

Captions provided by NJ Relay and CapTel



THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15th | DAY 1 Agenda Topics

1. How can we support the social and emotional needs of Newark's teen girls and equip our girls to lead during this time?

2. What if Newark communities collaborated to protect children/youth from exposure to community violence, especially gun violence?

3. What can I do to feel better? What must I do to be better?

4. Environmental Justice Now - How do we address the health injustices in Newark's water, air and food?

5. How can we make small incremental changes to our City to improve our lives?

6. How can we bridge the gap between 70% unemployed Americans with disabilities and the workforce?

7. What does it take to make nonprofit boards reflect their communities?

8. How can we create opportunities to discuss our shared humanity through a Racial Healing Circle process?

9. How can we create public art that is reflective of Newark's diverse communities?

10. How can we improve public transportation for all?



THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15TH - NOTES Session A

Topic Title: How can we support the social and emotional needs of Newark's teen girls and equip our girls to lead during this time?

Moderator: Joy Lindsay

Participants: Tiffany Newton, Larando Boom, Rashon Dwight, Shannon Lutz Santos, Kay Reese, Princess Fils-Aime, Tamara Williams, Dr. Antoinette Francis Shearer, Kaleena Berryman

Invite your fellow participants to share their experience and knowledge on the topic

SEL, mastering one's emotions is the key to happiness Potential with young people, young girls need empowerment. Social Worker, spark joy One participant is a mother of a 13-year-old girl. Wants more community action with children with disabilities.

What are the challenges you see we are facing? ● What is needed are proper awareness skills ● You need to be equipped with tools to master your emotions ● Social and emotional learning, awareness, must first come ● Emotions matter. They need to be respected, they are not right or wrong, it is about

understanding one another. ● We do not have the tools to equip these girls to thrive

What is SEL? How is it being taught? ● Social Emotional Learning ● Social part- it is how girls are able to interact and communicate their own emotions. ● Being able to be aware of your emotions, handling this in a responsible and important way ● Very important for girls of color ● It’s about leadership ● What gets in the way of this? It is not being done well in school because a lot of the focus is

on academics. ● Having the arts teaching students with their own emotions ● This has to do with awareness. ● Breathing exercise allows them to be aware of how their bodies feel. ● Really focus on the trauma informed ● What is missing is a trauma informed and healing center



● We have to assume that the students in our schools have dealt or are dealing with a lot of trauma. With COVID it is heightened.

Teen girls are placed into the roles as the caregivers, what can we do to systemically break this?

We need parents to ask for what they want. It is one thing to say I want the school to treat my child fairly another thing to say that I want SEL training in the school

What does it look like when spaces of SEL and empower girls look like? We need to make this a standard. We all believe in it, but we don’t know the technique of this, the structure of it. We need to come together to build this.

Special needs community needs this. Girls need to know that their voice is heard. It takes a community to make this happen. At their age the adults are their voice.

SEL- Is about affirming that our girls do have a voice. We can speak for them, but we have to equip our girls how to speak for themselves and advocate for them.

We need to get programs in the school, perhaps ALI’s program. The major place that kids of color and LatinX people experience discrimination is in school. The system says that they are being anti-social. So, then the students turn towards other things that are not so positive.

Teaching girls to be stronger for themselves. We need to critique the systems. Critiquing white supremacy, policies in our own school. How do we communicate and teach communication?

The fire and passion we have needs to be channeled. Teenage years, that is the most unstable time in a girl's life. Ultimate goal is to express ourselves authentically. We need to get away from this judgment. We need to process emotions and heal from it.

Accountability- Sometimes they are rude, sometimes they are disrespectful. We are learning how to manage and navigate our emotions, but we should be accountable for the expression of these emotions. Let’s not run away from this. Notion of accountability.

Before we hold kids accountable, we have to hold ourselves (adults) accountable. We have to do both. Sometimes you have to ask, are these kids really saying something disrespectful or is this my own ego?

Children need to know that there are consequences to their actions. Accountability is a part of social emotional development.

SEL- so we can all speak the language. Male perspective, there needs to be a balance, so that women know that the men have their backs. Lion analogy. Men have to step up, to communicate, to coexist. How to create that system. Training- Parents can take the same interventions as the kids to lead this in the household as well.

Thinking about girls and women, making sure that men and boys are a part of the conversation.

Next step- how do we get together and bring together our expertise and passion to continue the work and collaborate?



Abbott Leadership Institute overs a training. It is a 5-week program that we hold multiple times a year. It's Called Parents Empowered: Building Your Family’s SEL skills. We have trained over 200 Newark parents and community leaders. There is a new series starting next month that will be virtual. And, ALI pays parents at the end who attended a small stipend. Princess Fils-Aime will be reaching out for her future parents.

SEL is surrounding 5 core competencies which are Self-Awareness, Self Management, Social Awareness, Relationships Skills & Responsible Decision Making and with these tools we may move from survival mode to thriving.

Tiffany wants to have SEL integrated with academics in schools. First by requiring a policy to be implemented by the Board for all schools.



Session B

Topic Title: What if Newark communities collaborated to protect children/youth from exposure to community violence, especially gun violence?

Moderator: Dorothy Handfield

Participants: Ronice MB, Lavita E. Johnson


Statistics said to be from the Mayor: 80% in the city will not experience violence, but the 20% that do experience it, experience all the violence.

We know that guns are the problem, but the question is, where do the guns come from?

We have recently found military grade weapons recently and being a mother of 3 sons, my question is, who is monitoring the house, where did we lose control?

Boys as they transition through adolescence, it becomes a frustrating time and family circumstances cause boys to seek spaces to learn how to be a man and oftentimes turn to the streets.

Young men are being desensitized to physical touch and feelings. Especially in the time of COVID-19. Young boys are seeking attention and aren’t praised adequately for their good behavior if they aren’t athletes or honor roll. They only receive attention when they are behaving poorly. Mainstream media: The video games, media, music, cause these boys to have examples.

Retired Newark PD: It went from watching it on TV to now watching things on the internet. Guns are a part of a lot of people's daily lives and to protect themselves.

Children get easily swayed and fall into the wrong things. Guns are trafficked from out of state.

Street life results in easy access to guns. Their examples become gangs and violence. A lot of the problem is exposure. We have so many kids in Newark and the limits are exposure to the outside world. Many Newark residents don’t leave their neighborhoods.

Owning being a toxic mom. It isn't all on the father. Some people want to pin it on discipline, and we believe everyone knows right and wrong, but now is the opportunity to change and grow.



A lot of these youth have never seen love. If you did not get a hug when you were little, you look up to the poor choices and you adapt those choices. It truly comes down to love in the family.

We leave our girls vulnerable. Social media and the influence - last year social media took over our students minds and mainstream media taints their perspective.

15-year-old - I feel as though everything is retaliation. Some things may make you upset in the moment, but it isn’t worth losing your life. We have to teach our youth that everything does not need a response and that there will be consequences to our actions. How I would do it is about the company you keep. You have to be the one to lead the pack and show that there is more to life than running around with drugs and guns.

Building upon the ideas expressed in the first half of the session, daylight possible actions and solutions that can be taken to positively advance the ideas expressed in the topic.

Solution - Continue to educate and tell our young men and women on how to operate.

We must press on elected officials and the government to enforce stronger sentences and punishment to try to eliminate gun violence.

We must turn to the judicial system to change the outcome of the rising gun violence.

We must break down barriers and biases around education that make youth feel less valuable in educational settings. The folks educating our kids need to inspire and help rid the stigmas and judgements.

COVID-19 is the perfect opportunity to reroute. It is up to us to inspire these young men to change and actively choose a better life.

Positive Reinforcement: The kids can go to the watershed to go horseback riding all day. The city of Newark is providing free services and programming to offer the youth different outlets, such as horseback riding.

It comes down to transformation and inspiration “I see you son” - we have to continue to be inspirations.

We have to speak life and pray for our children. It is a great purpose and calling to inspire our youth. I am a firm believer that we have more men who want to inspire and a mayor who believes in our youth.

What are two actions we can take in the next two weeks?

● Continued fellowship and conversation to network and join together to create initiates and build relationships that intact change.



Session C

Topic Title: What can I do to feel better? What must I do to be better?

Moderator: V. White

Participants: Raevans, V White, Andrea Toro, Corliss Davis, Hillary Kouevi, Tamika Rice, Essence, Sandra Fernandez, Karime Guerra, Tykedia Tolbert

Describe why you proposed this topic

The moderator talked about how she’s a Clinical Social Worker and how she wants to have a conversation about mental health and mental illness. What are the differences between a mental problem and a mental chronic issue you’re having? How do we identify the differences? How do we do things to make ourselves feel better and not worse? And how do we maintain it too?


● I think about my thoughts? I think about the way that I feel better and do better. What is my “self talk?” I walk myself through my thoughts and I know that some days are better than others.

● What can I do to feel better as I’m battling this deadly disease? You have to feel better in your own spirit and your own mind. You might not feel that way at first, but you need to trick your mind. Make it a conscious decision to make myself feel better.

● What is your daily affirmation? You have to find ways to connect to your affirmation.

● You have to acknowledge what you’re feeling at that moment. And know that tomorrow is another day. It’s important to have someone that you can be vulnerable with and letting them know how you feel. Having someone that can listen to how you’re feeling. Find a space where you can collect your thoughts and gather myself together.

● It’s legitimate to have symptoms of depression and it doesn’t mean you are depressed.

● What’s triggering how I’m feeling? I use breathing exercises to help me cope with how I’m feeling.

● It’s important to take in those daily moments. Count to 10. Change your view.

● I start my day off with prayer. I look at my blessings. I give encouraging thoughts as my day goes on.

● Unplug and Recharge.



● How can I be better? From the moment you wake up, think about how can I be better? What can I do right away? Forgiving people and letting go of certain things allows me to do that as well.


Consider the following:

What are the fresh ideas, partnerships, or approaches that would help us take action? ● Reach out to local businesses to share what you are creating in terms of your

product or service you can offer. How can you work with the local community? ● Make daily lists ● Find someone you can express how you’re feeling. Is it a family member, friend,

community person, etc.? ● Have a form of discipline to be better. Make sure to organize your day and keep

structure to your day. -Make sure you put in “me time” in your schedule. ● It’s important to know that you define what works for you. ● Be better for ourselves, so we could be better for others. ● When we forgive ourselves, we can forgive others and let go.

What is in the way of advancing this work? ● Ourselves and once we can get ourselves feeling better, we can work on helping

others feel better.

Immediate Next Steps – ● Making a daily list! Do at least 2 things you didn’t do the day before. ● Step out of your comfort zone. ● Make goals that are achievable. ● What’s next? It could be nothing in my day - just relaxation. What do I need to be my best

self? ● Making a self-assessment - forgiving ourselves and letting go of our baggage.



Session D

Topic Title: Environmental Justice Now - How do we address the health injustices in Newark's water, air and food?

Moderator: Kim Gaddy

Participants: Camillo Mendez, Donna Kirkland, Nicole Miller, Keven Porter, Amy Goldsmith, Tanuja Dehne; Reggie Rosarion, Hellane Freeman, Suzanne Ishee, Nadirah Brown, Pamela Booker, Jennifer Pena, Trevor Howard, Susan Haig

Clean Air ● Transforming Newark from a “Dirty Diesel Town” through 0 Emission Zones & Corridor by

electrifying trucks, buses and equipment used on the streets to create “Clean Air Zones” from its ports via Port Authority, City Hall through switching their fleets, & NJ Transit who has committed to electrifying by 2035.

● Pollution stays in neighborhoods, lungs, blood stream and causes harm ● Transform Newark into a “Healthy City” through clean air

Food Access ● “Food Injustice” is really “Education injustice” and “Economic Injustice” ● There is so much food waste because so many aren’t educated on issues surrounding food -

Education is key! ● Rabbit Hole Farm is an Urban Farm in Newark’s South Ward very near the Central Ward

and a school

Water Access ● Soon we will have “Water Refugees”- globally & locally ● We don’t really think about the source of their water ● We want to make sure that the water we give & provide our children & seniors helps &

nurtures not hurts or is a hindrance ● Community members need information to make good/healthy decisions ● Newark has a large percentage of renters, which means that they do not see the water bill or

any information the Water Commission shares via mail ● Updates to systems that lead to increases in rent, etc. are not communicated ● Stormwater is also a cause for concern

○ When it rains most don’t think about stormwater issues (hair wet, rain boots, etc.) ○ Those who commute, especially in Public Transportation have to be concerned with

flooding caused by stormwater, which may cause delays, rerouting, etc.



○ Stormwater is dumped into fresh waterways, so there is no access to them for enjoyment

● Healthy Water, including Stormwater

Businesses involved ● Which major corps/co.’s in Newark have been doing a lot in Newark have been educating

their employees on the issues so they can be involved? ● Work has been selective in the areas that benefit their companies and has been limited in

scope. ● Interdisciplinary artist who works with Urban Egg Co-Op - a coalition of small farms that

works to bring food to market. ● This was the first time a participant was being made aware of these issues and said that she

would like to go to the next meeting discussing the topic.

Education around environmental justice: ● Agriculture must be brought into the school system. ● The Power of Planting a Seed ● Each One Teach One ● It matters what happens to my neighbors ● Education is essential! ● Get Involved!

Closed asking who would like to continue the conversation and most participants raised their hand.



Session E

Topic Title: How can we make small incremental changes to our City to improve our lives?

Moderator: Gregory Good

Participants: Dana Wise, Carrie Puglisi, E. Aida Sanchez, Perth Mehta, Amina Hilton, Cailean Kok, Pamela Davis, Traymanesha Lamy, Usha, Pam Daniels, Charles Mitchell Sr., Ashaki Goodall, Dana Wise, Caruth, Eastman & Co,


● All experimental until you test it out with the community, if you bring it temporary “this is nice then we test it out”

● “what are the tools lacking for things to be smooth”/for things to run more efficiently than things being run by government”

● What are some things that you have observed that may be worth testing that you’ve seen in other cities that you’ve said hey I wish we could adopt that here?

● Any number of things we encounter. At one participant’s last job, kids were misusing swings, and instead of addressing problem with the kids they just removed the swings

● Government: doesn’t ask: what’s missing from this experience? ● when you look for solution, look for ideas to come along and flow, which solution is not the

best ● a lot of city employees don’t live in the city, if the city is paying you, if you’re a firefighter

and live in the city, kids see it differently and want to become a firefighter because they see it. If you work in the city, you should live in the city, you shouldn’t be taking money out of the city, you should be volunteering it

● residency is a great issue; I feel it’s very difficult for kids to be what they don’t see or can’t say

● Commuters coming into Newark just to work and then they leave ● One participant shared they would love to see some type of incentive to homeowners who

choose to stay in Newark and not give in to the predatory buyers who constantly bombard us all with the texts, phone calls, and mailings to purchase our homes.

● adding on- he touched on a critical point for Newark. One participant was an NJIT student and very active in the entrepreneurship zone and NJIT as a startup hub and how can we retain NJIT students. Even local residents & NJ residents would come to NJIT and move out.

● Newark has a lot of potential- Hoboken has 5G tech, Newark has the capabilities for that, Newark has 3 universities (rich as far as academic). Local neighborhoods/government



agencies→ needs to be a way to make a way to make students stay. Prudential is right there, folks are moving out and coming in to work, when they were living there

● Have friends that love Newark but won’t move, they feel Newark moves too slow. ● Incremental changes→ if we were to show people with incremental changes that Newark

can move quickly without having to make big investment, it might help inspire people to stay

● “Why don’t they stay” is the right question? Speed might be an issue, public schools might be an issue, NPS isn’t the best system, they have bright spots but could do better, it depends where it is that you’re trying to build your life

● Access to resources- not moving. If you’re taxed in Newark at same rate as you are in Bloomfield

● housing: what attracts the young people- housing is one thing. If taxes are high, they are likely to go to people where taxes are low. What attracts people/small businesses/job opportunities

● other restaurants are coming in, but just downtown, if we’re spreading it out. It’s coming, when you get all these companies come in, you have all these things

● I moved right from DC, wanted to stay here even though everyone said don’t move to Newark, now her daughter graduated college and talking about where she wanted to live. Daughter: doesn’t feel like there is a central place, she has to go to different parts of the city (examples named: neighborhoods that have food, dry cleaning, other amenities all in one place). People thinking my daughter, Oh I don’t have to leave my neighborhood to find the services I need”

● One participant shared: The incentives exist as down payment assistance but there is an income cap, I think a tax abatement of sorts for new homeowners in Newark would be great. We invest in the city and our communities. It is a better use of the city’s money rather than the large abatement given to prudential for instance

● suggestions for minute, smallest steps in the right direction, to take the next smallest steps ● Organizers: making sure the voice is heard as far as what everyone wants to see. Knowing

that city of Newark is doing master planning process soon, one participant is working in public spaces

● There exist groups that are collecting this kind of info, this is what people want to have happen. a lot of time development happens “for us, and to us” but not with us.

● I am very interested in the master plan for anchor attractions in various parts of the city. ● Livability movement and walkability movement


● What I’ve seen work, what about community problem solving, at each neighborhood everyone, next generation of Newark residents, innovation and entrepreneurship, large cities: some neighborhoods want to improve/community engagement and community building,




● Nonprofits being engaged ● Tools to address what one participant is suggesting: Placemaking process, 10 minutes to

discuss challenges/opportunities for places you love- you can do that as new development is happening, or existing for public housings

● RESOURCES: Power of 10 and place making, congress of urbanism, strong communities ○ https://www.pps.org/article/the-power-of-10 ○ The great thing about the action plan is that people take ownership off the actions

as well! ● All from very different parts- one participant’s point- everybody in their place can engage

their neighbors ● One participant shared they are a foodie and they would love to have a wider variety of

restaurants within my community. They are constantly going to neighboring communities to enjoy delicacies which could easily be introduced to our neighborhoods and generate more income for our city.

● What are the barriers to someone having a vibrant restaurant here- parking, lighting, safety, awareness?

● Parking meters: people move their cars when there are meters- in between spaces- to make ● Restaurants/parking ● Restaurants might be great, but if you see trash everywhere- that sounds a message- if you

drive around for 5 blocks and can only find one trash can, no wonder there’s a lot of litter. That’s very small, very simple, just make sure every day the fronts of the stores are swept.

● More than a few large community cleanup activities, there should be a robust campaign to just make sure the litter and trash are removed every day!

● This can lead to retention as well. if you are involved in solving neighborhood/community issues that will engage the community and more importantly it will motivate the youth to actively take part.

What are two actions we can take in the next two weeks? ● City trustees/civic trust cities. Charles put link to Newark’s Civic Trust:

https://thecitizenscampaign.org/civic-trustees/ ● More locally/more neighborly, what’s going on, does your block have a block association,

does your neighborhood have a neighborhood association ● Trees- cultural shift- people don’t want trees, traumatized because of Hurricane Sandy,

working with Tree Foundation and getting support and talking with people- they were eventually able to get blocks to receive trees, it took some educating first. Trees- really important and seem to come down faster than they put up.

● Plants stand: good ideas, start a conversation, Cailean can start an informational, start a ● We have a FB group, West Ward United, encouraging us to join the group. Connect with

folks. ● Strong Towns FB group: also, to Cailean’s point: tactical urbanism, is the title, they have a

great website


https://www.pps.org/article/the-power-of-10

https://thecitizenscampaign.org/civic-trustees/

Additional resources shared: ● https://thecitizenscampaign.org/solutions-civics/solutions-civics-videos/ ● Great toolkit for what individuals, communities, and city agencies can do to improve streets

to be places: https://www.pps.org/article/streets-as-places ● Examples of Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper approaches that we can do here in Newark:

https://www.pps.org/gps/lqc ● HOV BCC-Heart of Vailsburg Block Club Coalition ● www.StrongTowns.org ● http://ProsperityMIX.com ● Better Block Newark!



https://thecitizenscampaign.org/solutions-civics/solutions-civics-videos/

https://www.pps.org/article/streets-as-places

https://www.pps.org/gps/lqc

http://www.strongtowns.org/

http://prosperitymix.com/

Session F

Topic Title: How can we bridge the gap between 70% unemployed Americans with disabilities and the workforce?

Moderator: Krystle Allen

Participants: Takiya Young, Marisa Benson, Shamitha Yarrabolu, Cassandra Thompson, Bendue S. James

Intro: Moderator provided brief background of herself, work, and business noting the following

● 259k NJ residents with have some type of vision loss/impairment ● October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month (75th Anniversary) ● White Cane Safety Day October 15 (56th Anniversary) ● October is Meet the Blind Month

Website: https://eyeslikemine.org/ Social handle: @eyeslikemineinc

Focus: Ways we can bridge the gap to make sure people with disabilities are not doing “busy work” but rather are valued for their skills and expertise and can engage in competitive employment and receive fair wages.

How do we connect organizations that have job opportunities with people who are looking for employment in Newark specifically?

Not aware of databases to connect employers and people with disabilities looking for employment at the municipal level in Newark, however, there are several state databases that do provide employment resources for people with disabilities.

NJ Commission for the Blind and Visual Impairment (NJCBVI) Resource: https://www.state.nj.us/humanservices/cbvi/ Amanda Gersen Business Relations Unit- commission connects employers and those looking for work

How can organizations provide technological access to their websites and virtual services?



https://eyeslikemine.org/

https://www.state.nj.us/humanservices/cbvi/

Are there places where people can go for training and up leveling of their skills?

Assistive Technology AT is expensive and not available to many people with disabilities NJCB provides access to assistive technology and other resources over the lifespan There needs to be much more advocacy to reduce the cost of AT and increase its availability to those who need it. Website access was discussed at length- the importance of a fully accessible web presence was recognized. A potential advocacy effort suggested by the group: The penalties for web inaccessibility should be increased. Resource: https://www.w3.org/WAI/

Education: Some students with disabilities are often not offered the same curriculum as their non-disabled peers and that often puts them at a distinct disadvantage. It was suggested one way to improve access to appropriate curricula is to advocate for it during the the students’ annual IEP (Individualized Education Plan) Resource: SPAN www.spanadvocacy.org

Training: Training efforts for people with disabilities, staff and employers need to increase across the board to bridge the un/employment gap.

Accommodations: Shared: Job Accommodation Network www.askjan.org

Takeaways 1. Need for a local system to connect people who have accessibility needs/ may identify as disabled to employment and training opportunities 2. Assistive technology training for job seekers, staff and organizations should be strengthened 3. Support efforts to make curriculum in the schools more accessible 4. Advocate to reduce the cost of, and increase access to assistive technology 5. Increase penalties on organizations whose web platforms are inaccessible

Session closed with some fun technology facts noting that among other things, texting, cruise control and facetime were all invented by and for people with disabilities.



https://www.w3.org/WAI/

http://www.spanadvocacy.org/

http://www.askjan.org/

Session G

Topic Title: What does it take to make nonprofit boards reflect their communities?

Moderator: Vickie Fernandez

Participants: Jaqueleen Bido, Julia Somers, Brit Harley, Elise Miller, Mary Catherine Stoubos, Wendy Liscow, Naeema Campbell, Robert, Jeanette Mitchell, Sanaz - ArtsEd Newark

Read the Topic Question that you originally proposed

Vicki - preferred pronouns Acting ED - Rutgers Institute for Ethical Leadership Co-founder - Nonprofit Professionals of Color Collective Newark Girl Scout Volunteer Nonprofit sector 20 years MPA from Rutgers School of Public Affairs and Administration Former GlassRoots Board Member

What does it take to make nonprofit boards reflect their communities?


Nonprofit board - responsible for the legal and financial success, directs big picture of organization

Issue - nonprofit boards tend to be older, white - don’t reflect community - Newark is no different

Why? Barriers - lack/experience with boards, knowledge of legal and financial roles, whether people work/live in Newark, obligations to raise funds or donate large amounts––what else?

Invite your fellow participants to share their experience and knowledge on the topic –

Opening Conversation: ● No “friends of” members ● Be deliberate about board composition - socioeconomic, geography, skills, diversity, age,

etc. ● Small board - invite people to join committees ● Lack of charging people to manage their expectations of what it takes to be on a board ● People look for titles - charge a person to do what that title and position requires ● When there's a vacancy on someone's board - can't find out what boards need people ● It has to do with the marketing internally ● Invited by a board member to join - I was hesitant but opportunity to be at the table - knew

going in I was going to be a different voice/perspective



● Youngest people at the table ● Only wanted for my connections to philanthropy ● Bring board to a strong, functioning well-established place where we are building out

committee structure - not like being rubber-stamped to the executive director

Barriers: ● Fundraising has been a big one - requirements to even be on board ● Give and get - get $ or give your own $ - problematic in our communities, clients ● Need a shift in what does it mean to be on a board - find other ways to sustain ● Young folks can’t participate on board based on dollars ● When we use the word diversity - what does that mean? Am I being invited because my

identity meets compliance? Is my opinion actually valued? Not a token ● It is so important that people hire/bring on board members for difference and then onboard

them for sameness…which is destructive ● Time ● Respect for people's experience, what they bring to the table ● Boards bring members who they think will connect them to a community/assumption ● As a Black, woman, queer, sometimes masculine presenting - experience has been

condescending, racist and discriminatory ● Invited into rooms only to speak on behalf of a community that they don't want to engage

with, say that they want to serve, just lip service! ● In Newark, boards don't reflect residents - so how are we approaching programming, any of

this work, with real empathy when there's no real connection or effort to connect with the community or even with people who work at their organization who live in this community

● There's a level of mystery to the general public about what boards do and how you become a board member of an organization - needs to be properly advertised


What’s needed: ● People need to have passion! for the work, to come to meetings and be involved ● Not for personal needs - want to really help ● Get people who are in agreement with vision ● Committees keep boards small, invite people to focus on their passion, 1 board member

each

Solutions: ● Accountability: what's real and true about organization and expectations ● No friends - talk to people three circles out ● Need board member job description ● Put info on website for people who might be interested - what they do or how to be involved ● Education or “speed dating” events ● People that want to work together (avoid destructive person) ● Really talk to them before you bring them on ● See people beyond their $ value, what they bring to the table - value that person with deep

pockets maybe doesn't have ● Have people of all socio-economic backgrounds - have the “give and get” # attached to that



● Ask that they make a serious commitment to the organization - come to meetings, introduce to friends, help guide - give whatever $ they can

● Strong staff leadership = strong board leadership - responsibility ● Board retreats - people to bond - brainstorm - meet people where their passion is - meet the

needs of people we serve ● Get Leadership Newark to develop a ‘dating service” - join a committee first to understand

what they do and if it’s a good fit ● Help people understand what do you even do as an organization ● Create committees - get to know each other - not intimidating ● Diversify ● Give organizations a place to share that they're looking for board members ● Recruit people in teams ● Make sure board is ready to be accountable to the communities they serve - they've done

some work on their own and that they are prioritizing their needs * Develop bylaws that address/reflect the needs of 2020 - majority, virtual meetings, etc!


Action Steps: ● Offer a “speed dating” for board governance/committees ● Train organizations ● Create a slideshow or a public campaign about what it means to be on a board / board

governance - share with general public ● Provide a sample job description ● Share places organizations can post board openings ● Jacqueleen Bido is willing to train organizations needing board support or created a

slideshow. Email her. ● Dodge Foundation board leadership links to all kinds of resources:

https://www.grdodge.org/board-leadership-library/ ● Jacqueleen Bido suggested we can create an assessment like how healthy is your board

survey and provide resources according to their need



https://www.grdodge.org/board-leadership-library/

Session H

Topic Title: How can we create opportunities to discuss our shared humanity through a Racial Healing Circle process?

Moderator: Sharon Stroye

Participants: Jessica McKenzie, Kathleen Hoffman, Francis Dixon, Jacquetta Gilford, Tara Williams-Harrington


Colleges perpetually produce racism. Are we educating or submitting views? Racial healing circle.

● Here are some resources to learn more about Racial Healing Circles (added by CNJ Staff) ● https://www.aacu.org/diversitydemocracy/2018/summer/christopher ● https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/07/02/report-spotlights-work-10-campus-

based-centers-focused-racial-healing-and Asks about shared humanity. How do you connect with people who don’t look like you? The moderator talks about the purpose of a healing circle. First question is your name, your birth order, and why are you here?

One participant is the middle child. They are looking for someone to empower. They want to dismantle racism.

One participant joined the room because of the times that we are living in right now. They are involved with a group of Caucasians to deal with reparations. They want to hear from people from diverse backgrounds. They are the fourth of six children who came up in the 60s.

One participant is the fourth out of five children. They are the youngest. They heard of these classes before. They joined the group because they wanted to hear other perspectives.

One participant is the youngest of their siblings. They are in the group to learn. They want to be a bridge for white women. There were comments about understanding how to pronounce someone’s name, and show respect to a different culture.

One participant grew up in the late 80s and 90s in Newark. Feels the importance of having uncomfortable conversations.

One participant has experience living in different places in the United States to see how the other half live.



https://www.aacu.org/diversitydemocracy/2018/summer/christopher

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/07/02/report-spotlights-work-10-campus-based-centers-focused-racial-healing-and

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/07/02/report-spotlights-work-10-campus-based-centers-focused-racial-healing-and

One participant’s goal as a new grandmother is to have a different conversation with their grandchild than they have with their kids. If you can say a European name correctly, you can correct them when they mispronounce your name. They never corrected people when they mispronounced their name. They didn’t want to seem like the angry Black person.

One participant feels like they’ve been complicit in racism by generalizing people. Changes will come overtime, not overnight.

One participant said that there have been many times they didn’t use their voice when they felt things weren’t ok. They regretted not speaking up when they should have in work situations.

One participant felt like they’re looking to be skillful in dealing with white solidarity. They felt being a woman and being the youngest they had to be light and not be direct.

One participant realized they have been complicit in racism, because they felt like they were treated pretty good, by white people. There was a time they didn’t defend misgivings by white people. They learned that they had to speak out. Some racism has been inherited. One participant feels like most white people mean well.

One participant said: The institution of slavery destroyed everyone. It’s important to talk about race. Do you wonder why we have hypertension and stress? Because we have to think before we say something. Blacks have to deal with things people from other races don’t have to deal with.

One participant felt complicit in racism by not letting their classmates get a chance to know them. They went to high school in Summit. Unapologetic, Correct, Intentional, Compassion, Fearless, Vocal, and Honest. One-word responses to combat racism.

Group H had a frank discussion on race. Everyone who participated in the group wanted to find out what they could do to combat racism. We looked at ways where we were responsible for perpetuating racism. There was also talk about how becoming comfortable being uncomfortable is important to fighting racism.



Session I

Topic Title: How can we create public art that is reflective of Newark's diverse communities?

Moderator: Jeremy Johnson

Participants: Carla Robinson, Natasha Dyer, Regina Barbosa, Kareem Willis, A Evans


Moderator opened the room with the question of “Why did you join this room and why are you interested in art?”

The different attendees joined this room for different reasons: ● Because the interest of how the art can benefit the society in general ● To understand the arts connection between history and Newark’s society. Specifically, the

history of different sections of Newark. ● A participant became involved more in arts and understood the benefit, connection and

richness that art can bring into a community. ● Public art is so important for individuals who are not used to going to a Museum or a

Library, but if you see in the street, if you see something amazing in a public space will make an impact on the community. Public art is not only graffiti or vandalism. There are people who are really interested in learning. We can take all kinds of arts to public spaces, a singer, a band, a performance; people will actually pause, take a 20 min break and appreciate these performances. Unfortunately, we don’t have that in Newark, but how can we transition there?


● What are the fresh ideas, partnerships, or approaches that would help us take action?

To open the conversation the Moderator shared this link: https://www.fourcornerspublicarts.org/ where people can find some public arts initiatives in Newark’s historic district Four Corners.

Next, the attendees worked to identify some possible action items to this problem: ● It is important to embrace history, and children should be learning in school more

about this, things of this nature. There is a disconnection between art and culture in Newark.

● We should give to community members the tools they need.



https://www.fourcornerspublicarts.org/

Moderator threw out the question: “If you were a major at Newark what would you like to see regarding art?”

● Making sure that art is incorporated in all areas, but specially in the design of new local parks.

● Embrace the creation of public-local art, that even children could be involved in the process, maybe murals? a performance? painting benches? so, they understand that connection. In other words, bring different opportunities to let people express through art.

ACTION ITEMS Attendees identified some solutions:

● A lot of people take for granted the aspect of the city, the more we can support this creative expression and unification will be a positive contribution.

● Take important history facts of Newark's History and turn them into icons so children can learn and possibly feel identified.

● Temporary installations in public spaces, one more time, to enrich the community. Make a use of our public spaces and engage our community with the place they live in.

● There are a wide variety of art’s expressions, a participant recalls seeing old pianos in NYC, being decorated and left in strategic locations on town so people feel attracted to play.

● Opening clinics that support healing through art. ● It would be great if we can have a scavenger hunt related to art, different clues so

children can interact while having fun. ● It would be amazing to have funding that ensures the money will be used to take

arts to the communities, and see what’s going on. There should be a commitment to really support young emerging local artists.


ACTIONS ALREADY HAPPENING

● Someone is already working on a solution, this person is trying to have young people document the city, to tell stories through technology (IG, Tik Tok, Facebook). Generate content by young people for young people, so they find the connection with their neighborhood.

● Something that has been done in the past was hiring young high-school artists and doing a Theatre Touring. Amplifying this kind of event and maybe incorporating some community voices will definitely pivot these initiatives.

● Washington Park in Newark will be renamed, and there is a chance that the city will be opening a space for designers, artists, to manipulate the park and enrich it.

● Newark Creates Cultural Plan seeks for three things: money, space, and coordination. The mayor has started to direct ¾ of a million dollars to support this action.



https://newarkarts.org/newark-creates/

Moderator closed the session with this question “What you would like to share for the posterity”:

● That art is more than just visual Art.

● My hope is that next year some spaces will be activated so the community can see how these spaces are for them, the people who live in Newark, not just for visitors. We want to see young people participating.

● If we should have prepared better with public art, this pandemic in Newark would have been lived in a different way. It is so easy to socially distance ourselves outdoors, now let’s imagine having that art in our city during these difficult times.



FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16th | DAY 2 Agenda Topics Session One:

1. How can we support college students with landing strong jobs worthy of their degrees?

2. How can we most effectively partner with residents when prioritizing Newark's sustainability, climate & resilience action commitments?

3. How do we meet the needs of residents with disabilities all across the board in terms of quality of life?

4. How can we reach parents and help them understand how to best support their child in this virtual environment while juggling everything?

5. How can we create a healthy neighborhood collaborative?

6. What do you do when breathin' ain't easy?

Session Two:

1. How can we make space for youth voice, leadership and power?

2. How do we ensure that parks offer the kinds of events and programs that residents want?

3. How can we combine common goals of health, restoring healthy ecosystems, job retraining, and creating new employment opportunities?



4. Where’s Your Tree? How do we root and document our conviction, outrage, and dreams in the face of the environmental ruin of the planet and black and brown lives?

5. In what ways can transportation support and enable progress toward social justice now and in the future?

6. How can we get the news to the Latino Community that do not have phones or internet access at this time? (Bilingual)



SESSION ONE NOTES Session A

Topic Title: How can we support college students with landing strong jobs worthy of their degrees?

Moderator: Vince Marigna

Participants: Nagely Castro, Jessica McKenzie, Trenean Watts, Judith Sheft, Pamela Booker, America Navarrete, Angela Garretson, Aniya, Atomizer Adeyemi, Brittany Andrade, Carlos A Walton, Israel Alford, Marisa Benson, Muhammad Fakumoju, Eyesha Marable, Sharae Lovelace, Tiffany Jackson, Traymanesha Lamy, Zaire Pearson, Pamela Booker, Marisa Benson, Suzanne Ishee, Josue S NSGS, Mahon Miah, Sharae Lovelace


The work that is done at Braven is to bridge the gap between college and the workforce. We are motivated to ensure that unemployment does not happen. How can we ensure that our college students land jobs?

Former NJIT Employee - We made sure that we taught and retrained individuals based on industry standards and proposed capstone and class projects that allow students to work on tangible work in their field. Any size industry can make sure that this happens.

Student - I wish I was exposed to things sooner as I was interested in them. I was interested in certain things and then those things were not offered so I became disinterested and have turned to other career paths.

Lack of support for entrepreneurship - Where are the funds for artists? Allocation of funds? How can we find more resources to bridge that gap?

Strong Focus on different entities coming together. Partnerships that support resource and development for students who have brilliant ideas and visions of what the world could be.

NJIT Program - Summer Business Acceleration Program that allows funding for ideas and innovation. It is an Application Based program from all areas. There are a range of different programs.

Mentoring is a huge part of this. Let’s move away from these silos that we try to force our students into. Moving from NYU to Montclair gave a different demographic and innovation.

We should encourage students to explore many different fields and vocations.



The arts in partnership with STEM and how can we foster that. Some students have access to a wealth of networks. We aim to help students build those networks while they are in college. Gaining referral versus a cold application. Building social capital and building opportunities.

The need for more connectivity. No matter the age - we should be inspiring youth at young age with tangible mentors. We should encourage students to explore and change. Asset mapping to find resources for young people so that they can easily see and pick which lane they want to go down.

Mentorship is a huge priority. To clearly paint that picture for students what is out to ignite that resilience for students to choose with a little support.

Having these resources is really important. One participant shared, When I was at NYU years ago, I went to the resource center and typed in all of my interest and it popped out 20 different options in terms of possibilities in terms of career. That helped a great deal to center on my gifts in comparison to valued career options. Are these resources still available? Resource pooling? How do we draw these resources and connect them with the young people who are interested in learning?

ALI - we have career advisors and academic support. Career aptitude test?

After the career test, should there be matching and listings that attach students to specific jobs and careers? Learning Styles Inventory

High School Student - It should start way before in high school. Every year we take a test and they ask what we are into. They gave this student an internship and she hated it. The student found interest in Veterinary work and has been doing it for three years up to senior year. Let’s find matches in our area to be able to find jobs. Having a mentor to show students the way. Give students an opportunity to find a career they enjoy. Creativity and Expression. We want people to love Newark and change the narrative to inspire creativity and artistry.

NJPAC is creating a youth advisory council to give students a platform to express their needs and match them up with resources and mentors.

College Tours and exposures are game changers. Presentations by college students to build relationships and mentorship.



Session B

Topic Title: How can we most effectively partner with residents when prioritizing the Newark's sustainability, climate & resilience action commitments?

Moderator: Nathaly Agosto-Filion

Participants: Donna Kirkland, Tenisha Malcom, Suzane Ishee, Susan Haig, Sharnita Johnson, Doris Garrett, Senia Cuevas, Aniya, Kimi Wei, Elizabeth McGrady, Aryaman Ravash

Introduce your topic

Moderator introduced the what and why of the topic and shared that Newark was about to enter the third version of updating the city's sustainability action plan. There was a big plan process that happened in 2009, and that was called Newark's Green Future Summit. And the product that came from that was moderated and led by a group called the Apollo Alliance. And so we have inherited that. We have that as context and background. We had a 2013 sustainability action plan that was led by the office of sustainability in the city.


An attendee asked the moderator to share her opinion regarding the area where she is. Moderator shared that the problem can be divided in three buckets that can be identified are:

● improving the health and well-being of our environmental systems and our families and homes

● the greenness of our community. Such as, parks, gardens, the use of natural based systems for managing flooding, or for combating air pollution.

● reducing our contribution to climate, as well as preparing for the impacts of climate change and natural hazards

Attendee followed-up with a question: “So, do you actually mean the citizens you want to engage our own contributions, because we leave cars running? Or because we don't walk? Or, are you really talking about the larger carbon footprint of the city as a whole which is a little bit beyond citizens”?

Moderator stated that the bigger problem is the emissions that came out of the porch. She has done some analysis about the impact of our individual pollution’s footprint.

She recognizes that part of the problem can be solved by increasing access to public transit, and making it easier and faster for people to get around on non-single occupancy vehicles.



Another attendee asked: “When you say raising your voice, I know you have worked with a lot of youth in the community on a lot of different initiatives. And so, can you say that what is the one thing, or what are you trying to achieve or, in what way in the youth or could some of us play in helping with that?”

The moderator stated that the work she does is youth centered – art internship-specific. There is a plan in the works that set priorities for the next 10 years, however she has identified that youth doesn’t take part in those conversations. Very limited college age.

One of the main problems is not having a good strategy to have young people speak and engage with this current problem.

It was identified as well that the city is saturated with a lot of programming, and we could use some additional support. Environmental conversations aren’t always the priority, so diversifying those conversations can help and improve.

Newark Public School District, would potentially explore environmental sciences or environmental justice - related issues as a core curriculum component to the public-school district, and then again, the leverage of these community-based afterschool programming, mainly after school All-Stars.

The Abbott leadership Institute has many places of worship that have Saturday programming that could really use a little bit more amplification with some subsequent conversations. So, there is a long lengthy list I think between Newark People's Assembly, and Newark Thrives - the clearinghouse of all communications related to after school youth related programming. Those may be good places to start.

Attendee shared an Invitation to join the Environmental and Social Justice round table on Oct. 26th at 2 PM. Sponsored by NJEDA and NJ Brownfields Assistance Center. https://t.co/i9agaVv43C

Another approach could be done through the arts, a participant recalls something that has happened before in Boston & Minneapolis. That have resident artists that help each department or specific departments with just this unity engagement and civic engagement, and the example that comes to mind in Minneapolis, which is a little late in the season for this is that they took an ice cream truck around the city and parked it in neighborhoods, and gave people popsicles and told them about different meetings coming up, why they should be involved, what the impact would be for their community.

Maybe involving the mayor of the city can help this too, how young artists can contribute and so engage with civic work and the city. Building upon the ideas expressed in the first half of the session, daylight possible actions and solutions that can be taken to positively advance the ideas expressed in the topic.

What are the fresh ideas, partnerships, or approaches that would help us take action?

● The Sustainability Reporting Hub project, there are over 115 stories on the hub, from where you can learn and lean into Newark. That program goes story by story, and adds so many



https://t.co/i9agaVv43C

options. It brings efficiencies together, because we do want to organize a forum to get to this with a very rich conversation involving many people.

● Ensure that the process includes a sustainability focus, and it’s not only about your office or what you do, so you can build a cohort with other skills and personal interest that can carry the work on.

● There should be a balancing between the work that is done, right now the office can lead with up to priorities

● Newark Thrives as the clearinghouse, or hub, for a lot of the afterschool programs that exist across the city. Having information in descriptions on their website about what the focused areas are of those organizations from the contact persons, etc. Perhaps this is a good place to start with the information hub like Newark thrives.

● An attendee mentioned if there is an ongoing conversation creating permanent gardens instead of pop out gardens. Moderator mentioned that yes, the government is purchasing land from the city.

● Community gardens may help with this problem. One of the goals should be to work together not independently, that we are supporting each other. The goal should be just to be able to bring green.

● There are organizations such as United Parks as One that meet twice a month, that function as a coalition of all the gardening groups and beautification groups. they were working on policy, so they were keeping under the track under the radar all these parks and gardens under the city to keep it connected, we are looking for other parks and playgrounds in green spaces to come so we can work together

What is in the way of advancing this work?

● Some city initiatives come and go and just benefit our communities and cities for a while. Maybe generating a strategy, but mainly keep engaged with the problem.

Immediate Next Steps –

Already happening

● Lot of members are already part of some coalitions the moment of bringing various subject matter convened coalitions together around environment issues is the Newark green team

● Newark community food systems, agriculture alliance, and various configurations of gardeners that collaborate. The policy efforts have been an attempt at ringing in folks to talk about food issues together. So, for food issues related to access, urban gardening, also related to growing, gardening and farming.

● There are a bunch of health initiatives having to do with obesity, and diabetes, etc.



● Newark Green Team group is starting to grow in terms of effectiveness and engagement with one another.

Some attendees volunteered to continue the conversation in the short future. Moderator took names down.


● Go to Newark Thrives and connect with them and have their support, it will be better utilized. Maybe we can start our own list of people who want to join the group.

● Create a public facing group, as opposed as internal ones, for example: STUMA

● Partnership with food systems - gardens and farms and contact info for all those folks, and going further/beyond would be great.

● Engaging the news media, journalists are looking for reliable sources that bring that altogether. So that could be a public lead facing portal, that would be great. They just need it in very condensed form.

ADDITIONAL NOTES FROM THE SESSION MODERATOR:

Look at groups like ALI that already have youth engagement – offer training that leads to engagement. Boys & Girls Club United Parks as One UVSO

Groups that intentionally form space for groups to brainstorm. Arts Roundtable Newark Thrives

Orgs already dealing with parents and students

Working to change the narrative and think positively about what’s possible in our community. City saturated with lots of programming. Phenomenal programming that needs support. Environmental conversations not always a priority for orgs But there’s a need/eagerness for diversifying and expanding program offerings

NPS – example of Newark Civic Trust incorporating civic studies and engagement. Explore Env Science and EJ issues as core curriculum components. Leveraging community-based after school programming:

● After school All Stars ● ALI ● Places of worship with Saturday programming – groups that need amplifications

See link to NJ brownfields assistance center roundtable discussion.



Involve arts in the conversation! Boston, Minneapolis have resident artists that help each Dept with community/civic engagement. Ex. From Minneapolis – took an ice cream truck around the city and parked in the neighborhood and gave ppl popsicles to tell them about different mtgs coming up. Impacts for their community

Talk about possibility of communicating/collaborating to engage artists to tell stories Mayor’s Youth Council. Some of the young ppl are amazing young ppl – don’t necessarily interface with dept’s or initiatives. Talking with Newark Arts about how artists can get engaging

Civic Story – incentivizing news media to tell climate stories. Complicated news doesn't make the top. Leverage amazing NJ Sustainability Reporting Hub – 115 stories on sustainability. Want to focus on Newark. Follow-up conversation on exactly the point about programming. Bring together so many options for efficiencies in storytelling. Date – 11/19 Forum. How do we engage people in all of these options? Make steps clearer/easier,

Abbott, NCLC, Newark 2025 – how do we address concerns through them.

Question about staying engaged

Loved NCLC – very holistic. 10-year plan at all levels of education. Specific outcome – conceptually strong. You could get it right away! Resources aligned for that would be something you can add to because of expertise – understanding of what citizens need to get these challenges. Developing opportunities to engage programmatically and education. Ensure the process includes sustainability plans that involve those. Built as delivered programming – build cohort of individuals who have skills and expertise. Cohort of ppl who can carry the work on – support sustainability of it. Ask young ppl what does sustainability look like – developing longevity of it from the beginning

Where would a conversation take place about melding “program-rich environment” vs. embedding sustainability into those groups.

Some of those groups are part of a larger network. Ex. Newark Thrives is a clearinghouse/hub for afterschool programs. Create directory with information/descriptors, contact ppl, etc. Could be to start with an information hub like Newark Thrives (quick/easy way to look for information for afterschool programs). Based on specificity on to whom/how to engage. Or join the effort of something they’re doing. Piggy-back off of someone else’s activities.

Discussion about creating permanent gardens out.

Getting all little parks & gardens to all come together so that we’re not working independently. It is about “greening” Newark. bring viable green spaces to the city of Newark. Nat Turner Park, Jesse Allen, and Mildred Helms. Schools involved.

Is there a coalition of all of the gardening groups? Beautification groups? In Detroit there is a “Keep Growing Detroit” – convene groups doing similar work. At one-point urban gardens were illegal so that group did some.



● United Parks as One – connector for city parks. Looking for other parks & playgrounds. No green space is a small space? We’re a spin-off of the TPL.

Who in this breakout session is willing to work on this/give this idea a try together? Kimi Susan Lizz Sharnita is sharing results of this conversation with her org staff Tenisha


1. Emails – ABI, Newark Thrives 2. Getting a list with group lists & contact info together – Breakout Room D. (particularly helpful for news media as well).



Session C

Topic Title: How do we meet the needs of residents with disabilities all across the board in terms of quality of life?

Moderator: Krystle Allen

Participants: Christine Calva, Zinnia Johnson, Yolanda, Ihsaan Muhammad, Shania Hamilton, Carla Robinson, Cassandra Thompson, Elizabeth McGrady, Naeema Campbell, Claudia Schreid, Alec Barnien, Doris Garret, Jennifer Made, Aniya

Introduction ● Krystle Allen - Eyes Like Mine ● National Disability Employment Month; ADA 30; 56th Anniversary of White Cane Safety

Day ● Access and keyboard shortcuts explained briefly ● No voices are excluded, whether you're familiar with this topic or not ● Don’t have to be disabled to advocate or stay informed of the trends ● Come together to collaborate ideas and solutions

http: www.disabilitystatistics.org


● Technology has allowed us to gain access ● Community influencers have provided us access and significant change ● So much more work that needs to be done ● Stats on disabled population in NJ ● Make funding available to create access, inclusion and equity? ● We are part of the community and need access to education, equal employment, access to

technology to maintain our independence ● 70% of people with disabilities are unemployed/underemployed ● Highly discriminated population in many instances


● Ways that organizations can make events more accessible to PWD - i.e. interactive, accessible visual arts tour

● The most important thing is the description ● Partnering with organizations like Eyes Like Mine to help create the access ● Hire/seek disabled consultancy



http://www.disabilitystatistics.org/

● Before people start to create resources, we must educate ourselves on the broadest definition of disability - what they consider disability vs. who is actually covered by the ADA and Equality Act.

● People have to go out of our neighborhood in Newark to get what they need to live ● People in low-income communities must have access to resources locally ● There are benefits available for low-income; how to gain access to them ● Focus more on rural and low-income communities ● Create because a lot of people affected by disabilities, they're not able to get I just do it in

the world and I feel like people need to come more in some more resources because it can be really expensive just for them to just live in general just wanted to write a little thing

● Must focus on quality of life ● Can’t just assume; what does quality of life mean for the individual person - work, social

services, community understanding ● What is a disability? - limit one or more daily function ● How to communicate with doctor/boss/others how they feel/felt on any given day and how

that limits their function ○ - Triggers ○ - I can’t move ○ - I don’t want to interact

● Give people who identify as having a disability a voice in spaces where decisions on public policy are being made

○ Seat at the table ○ Listen! to what they say - What is the community telling us they need?

● Newark is the largest municipality in NJ ● PWD are not mentioned in discussions about improvement and development

○ We need housing ○ We are young and will become seniors ○ How to make us part of the conversation?

● - There should be an Office for People with Disabilities in Newark ○ Lead by example of inclusion

Audible headquartered in Newark Smart traffic lights

● In Newark 2020 initiative, there are 18 corporations involved ○ How many offer opportunities for PWD

Job shadowing, internships or paid employment ○ Large number of hospitals and medical facilities

Are PWD being considered in education and policies -treatment/confidentiality

● Statue replacement in Washington Square to Harriet Tubman/Tubman Square - African American woman, activist, but no mention that she was disabled

○ Need increased inclusion and representation in Newark

● Key is education - what PWD can do; not a liability; access is good for all ● Educate public about public transportation (i.e. Access Link)

● Face discrimination everywhere - workforce



● Frustrated that people assume impairment when they see someone with a physical disability or mobility aid

● Government not being held accountable - access and design ● Reason why all people can use the curb cuts/automatic doors is because it was designed

with the person with the greatest needs in mind ● Conversation toward government/policymakers/decision makers - they're not including

these perspectives in their decision-making ● Our world is better when we design and include people all kinds of abilities

● Building/central location for people with disabilities in every state/rural communities to get the resources that they need without traveling far to be able to thrive and learn

● Task communities with creating access and programming under the auspices of creating one-off accessible programs for PWD.

● With all the expertise inside organizations, access cannot continue to be an afterthought ● If access was built in to the organizational structure, PWD could participate in ALL

programs ● Non-disabled people don’t have to ask if there will be a chair, lights, door - PWD have to ask ● Spend ½ my time finding what activities are accessible ● Build access in from the start ● PWD money is just as green ● PWD have wisdom to share and a unique voice to the space (all of them)

● Helpful for orgs to have information and organizations that serve people with different sorts of challenges

● Disability consultants/staff - pay disabled experts ● Need to know what the needs of people with various challenges ● Important to do that work in partnership with those communities from conceptualization to

presentation

● Helpful for folks in organizations to have a list of partner organizations ● List of types of things that can help people participate fully in our organization

○ ADA ○ Disability Rights New Jersey ○ NJ Commission for the Blind ○ DHS - Division of Disability Services ○ DHS - Division of Deaf and Hard of Hearing

● Accessibility - meeting spaces, digital, technology, ● Newark 2020 is designed to bring jobs and revue - PWD should be at the planning table

● Remote learning not accessible to students who need socialization; will affect in the long-term

● Need aid/funding/specific support for parents/children dealing with remote learning



Session D

Topic Title: How can we reach parents and help them understand how to best support their child in this virtual environment while juggling everything?

Moderator: Tara Williams

Participants: Wendy Liscow, Sammara Bernard, Carmen Pendleton, Kimberly Pierre, Tiffany Newton, Richard Simon, Ronald Chalusian, Nadirah Brown, Jossue S, Tamara Williams, Elizabeth McGrady, Earvient Clark, Leida Martinez, Sanaz, Lydia Peart, Dayana Moscoso, Davi Borges, Cisely Breeden.


What can be done to better help and engage the parents? Do we give parents tutoring sessions to help with webex?


Parents- are always the afterthoughts, we need to go from parenting engagement to parenting empowerment. Our children need a seat at the table to be directly included in the conversation.

Art club for kids, working with the kids, very slow and people didn’t respond for a long time. After calling and using Facebook, she started to use zoom meetings, but it was really hard for parents to adjust. So, she set up a meeting in the parking lot of how to start up a zoom meeting. It’s work you have to do 1 on 1 and provide what is needed. If parents don’t have time to read the book on their own time, they read it right there, one page at a time.

Suggestion of having parent groups. How do you get parents to the groups? ● One participant has a strong group of 6-10. Bi weekly program. ● Meeting parents where they are. How can schools meet parents where they are

effectively?

Trust ALL- Being in the right headspace and interacting where you are at the moment. Promise the neighborhood, reaching out to all the schools to get a town hall meeting. Having space for parents to understand WebEx and attendance.

Even with ALI, how do we get more? How do we get that information to them, or the school district can effectively get information out to the parents?



This summer the school district had a ton of programs and camp activities. Unfortunately, not a lot of kids showed up. It was a 4-5-week program and free. Why is this? Did parents not receive the notice? One parent never knew about the activities in the neighborhood because their child was in private school. It is not being reached out to everyone.

Question for this ^ How do you want to be reached? ● There is too much of a disconnect. There needs to be better communication in the

community. ● There needs to be a roster of updated phones and emails. ● Even with all this technology, snail mail and knocking on doors is the best way. ● Having a postcard to tell you to go to the website. ● Can the city pay people to go out to neighborhoods and deliver this information? ● What are your thoughts on people signing up for a newsletter?

A school in South Jersey works like this: Parent Coordinators- Will send little notes with their children about a meeting. We get coffee and donuts for parents and the best thing is that parents are great advocates for other parents. Little things like celebrations will help. We need to find a way to look at the parents and look at their strength. Encouraging them to make their own group and assign roles, such as president and secretary.

If one person makes a connection with 5 parents then that will go further and further. We need to target out faith-based organizations and that will reach a further audience.

Other ideas for parent connection: Carpool, parent buddies, phone trees.

Newark Trust for Education: a lot of support for parents along with ALI.

Do you think parents should go back to phone trees?

Suggestion- Class parent: there is a parent in every classroom that is there to support and partner with every parent in the classroom.

Question to the students: What is the best way for your parents to receive information? ● Introduce more regular emails and phone calls, through social media and through the

students. ● App called remind for students and parents. Every day you get a notification from your staff

members. ● Big way to communicate to parents is through school social media, big emoto pages.

Students can give parents the codes to these pages.

Over communication is best! Email blast, phone blast, pop in, social media. There is a difference in being proactive and reactive. A lot of the parents are reactive right now and leaving their kids at school like a babysitting facility. We need community and for parents to step outside their comfort zone and be accountable. Possibly create a Social Media campaign/Page to market the resources available to parents.



How can parents support other parents with their children? We have to ask what is working? Getting the parents voice in, because there is a lot of frustration.

What are the different ways we can have parents engaged and be empowered?

During this virtual time, it is a struggle to get parents to engage. There has been a lot of progress over the months.

How do we effectively communicate with the community? Parent Home Trust- helps the parents with their toddlers.

On transit, there needs to be a way for young people to get to after school programs when their parents aren't able to leave work and take them there.

There are two ALI Parent program graduates in the group Does the district have any sense of how many students/parents have been connected to the school?

Since students are in synchronous (face to face) virtual learning, the district is taking attendance based on who the teachers see during the session. As far as parents, I have not heard of systematic ways of seeing which parents are in touch and which aren't

Where do parents get their information? Is there an over reliance on having internet access? What is a better way to get information out to families?

Some additional training surrounding parent accountability/expectations is necessary.

Do people think that parents would be open to signing up with an organization like the Trust, ALI, Arts Newark, or Newark Thrives for a paper newsletter that is mailed to them?

Lights on Afterschool is taking place tomorrow. Hosted by Newark Thrives register here it’s free… https://www.eventbrite.com/e/4th-annual-citywide-lights-on-afterschool-newark-tickets-102111444078

Should “class parents” be involved in sharing information about what’s available in the district? They typically have closer relationships with the parents One of the issues that we face has to do with privacy. Even though we have explored sending information out by mail, schools cannot give us parents addresses.

Is there a way to engage student to student engagement to get to parents? I.e. I am a student where my parents have info…I share opportunities with a friend who shares with a friend. And maybe there are gift cards involved/. Or is that inappropriate pressure on young people???

When one participant was a principal, they used phone trees very effectively. They are not sure if we have phone trees in Newark.

Newark Trust would be willing to help set phone trees up, but can only do it if parents give us their phone numbers and permission to use them.



https://www.eventbrite.com/e/4th-annual-citywide-lights-on-afterschool-newark-tickets-102111444078

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/4th-annual-citywide-lights-on-afterschool-newark-tickets-102111444078

Telling students through school social media, or even teachers telling students about available programs, is a good way for kids to tell their parents what is going on

There may be a problem with having phone numbers, but one participant wondered if the district uses Robo calls. And then do a phone tree to get people to sign up for the robocalls information line? Might something like that work?

One participant is an early childhood educator and said they are using class dojo, email, zoom, WebEx and doing the old fashion way of calling them on the phone.

There are some tried and true practices that are based on the establishment of strong relationships between a core group of parents and school leadership. This relationship is tied to phone trees, class parents, and PTO/PTA organizations that further create opportunities for parents to establish strong relationships with other parents that lead to vibrant communication across the entire community. While texts and emails are efficient, they sometimes do not nurture relationship building. Also, we still have 10-15% of our community that do not have reliable internet connections.

Parents of toddlers taking part in Newark Trusts’ virtual home visiting program, Parent Child+, is that consistent communication at the same time every week really helps

Possibly have the students lead virtual technology classes for parents.

Administrators need to be more available to speak one on one with parents.

SUMMARY ● We want to empower parents, but we need to get the administration to engage and actively

get the parents in. ● Having them use remind even more ● Social media info and tactics ● Parent Buddies- Find a parent in your child's class and become their friend to share the

work that is needed to support your children ● Phone trees ● Driving parents to see what is on social media- kids have to ask their parents did you see

this on Instagram? ● What are your action steps, what will you do? Can you introduce phone trees and parent

buddies in your school? ● The goal is to take action!



Session E

Topic Title: How can we create a healthy neighborhood collaborative?

Moderator: Keith Dent

Participants: Ericka Regine, Dr. Antoinette Francis, Eltia Montano Galarza, Francis Dixon, Kim Cook, Mary Catherine, Antonio Valla, Lois Golman, Rashon Dwight, Mary Catherine Stoumbos, Natasha Dyer, Fareedat Afolabi, E Barboza, Jessica Laus, Jeremy Johnson, Renie Carniol, Jonathan Gordon


● The city of Newark is strong at collaborating. Participant said they are not from Newark, but feels that action steps need to be talking in order to make progress.

● A healthy collaboration in Newark is viable. ● We need to identify the gaps in different neighborhoods. ● A lot of times people don’t know the resources that are available in Newark. We need asset

mapping to reach the goal. ● Some participants want to see a food collaborative in Newark. The protocols aren’t put

together for resources so people work in silos. ● The resources go out the window when egos are involved. Some consumers need to change

the mindset in order to achieve success. Different neighborhoods have different needs. ● All neighborhoods should have a fitness contest to display how they measure up in terms of

emotional, financial, and physical fitness. ● The impact on the environment needs to be addressed. Asset mapping is important as well

as communicating to residents what is available to them and what they need to survive. ● Have a United Day around a certain topic. You can’t spread yourself too thin. ● Some feel that resources and capital is not enough in Newark. ● New Brunswick is doing well knowing the needs of the residents. There should be an

outreach to all residents so they know what is going on when there is a proposed Unity Day. Residents need to know the mission to get them to buy in the idea. There needs to be structure to put into asset mapping. Food, safety, and create modules.

● We need to check in with neighborhoods to see what they have. We don’t need to recreate the map. We have to tap into the stakeholders of the city. There needs to be one central repository for the mapping.

● The Lincoln Park neighborhood recently had a walking tour something like the Census to find out what certain neighborhoods need for resources.

● The Greater Newark List does asset mapping and action plans. How do we translate the data that we get from the community?



● Newark needs a centralized app where everyone can access. Asset maps are created every 10 years so we need to think about the layers.

● Newark needs technical assistance in creating asset mapping. ● La Casa created an end use map for the lower Broadway area, The Clinton Hill

neighborhood, so does the Weequahic section of Newark ● Residents need the resources to get the information that they need. Perhaps by going into

schools, churches, council walks you can get the residents what they need to collaborate.

In one sentence what can we do to take action? ● Create a repository for the maps we already have ● Create a list of volunteers and assign them to different wards. ● Find out where the maps are ● New Brunswick is great at creating healthy neighborhoods for their residents



Session F

Topic Title: What do you do when breathin' ain't easy?

Moderator: E. Denise Peoples

Participants: Leida Martinez, Daniel Perez Cuevas, Tamara Williams, LaTonya White


One participant introduced herself and talked about her lung-related illness, which may have been caused by environmental issues related to her work. Disease makes breathing difficult. Has needed to use oxygen. During the process she was told she’d need a double lung transplant. Family was stunned. Newark has a great hospital system but needed to be listed in NY for a lung. 4,000 people waiting for lungs in New Jersey, and Newark has the most. Hers received in 2006.

Newark has been hit so hard by COVID and the thought of not being able to go to the hospital when you can’t breathe is devastating. Newark officials are taking a closer look at this issue. Disease is taking our breath away as a city, but asthma is a major concern in Newark. Minorities are not inclined to donate organs, related to misconceptions. Focus is on making organ and tissue donation more accepted.


One participant started working with the Sharing Network, which works with organ donation. The group also works on living donors (kidney and liver), and general health issues. Focus on minority donor programs -- kidney centers are overwhelmed. Mental health, nutrition as well.

Please have a conversation with your families about organ donation. www.njsharingnetwork.org is the link for the Sharing Network Organization -- for more on organ and tissue donation.

Getting religious groups involved to show it’s not a religious issue. Every religion believes in life.

Mae’s Plate is a partner with NJ Sharing Network that helps the Newark community with donations of coats, food, etc. Contact Denise for that via email.


Consider the following:



http://www.njsharingnetwork.org/


Make it Personal: Start a media campaign that helps people make this a personal issue that they can relate to. When you think of organ donation, you don’t think of an 18-year-old, so maybe associate a recipient who is younger with the idea of the need of organ donation. Show a young, healthy person. One participant showed a picture of herself when she was young and needed a lung, which had a great impact. Videos, not literature, are the way to reach kids. Group is doing a tik tok about this now.

Make it About Overall Health: Also, a campaign that shows certain behaviors that can damage organs and prevent a person from being a good organ donor candidate (vaping, smoking, drugs, obesity). For example, obesity and its risk to health also takes a toll on organ health and overall health. Tie this back to nutrition and general health in communities such as Newark.

Employ the power of Athletes: Maybe think about athletes -- how athletes can lend voice to this need. They have a different kind of platform. They are good people to emphasize how physical health matters.

Make it part of your conversations: It’s a question on your driver's license. Get young people to talk about this with their families at this point in their lives.

● Who are the people we need to engage?

Word travels fast in the community of Newark -- Religious leaders - a local Pastor, was given a kidney. A Rabbi donated twice. Minority communities, seniors, legislators, medical field. It was a governor who signed the hero act to be able to go into high schools. Group already goes to the schools, and speaks to the teams and through the health classes. Also try going to Coaches on some local teams, not just high school. Where do people like to be? We trust the people that we like to be around.

But people need support afterwards, even if they don’t donate. It's true, its’ necessary, and it’s about being kind.

Who in this breakout session is willing to work on this/give this idea a try together?

LaTonya White and Denise Peoples exchanged contact info for connecting afterward.


Go to the website and look under events to see what is going on in addition to resources, and medical staff. virtual events. Get answers to questions so you can be a part of the conversion and get the word out. Follow on FB. www.njsharingnetwork.org

Have the conversation with your family. Who is already a donor?



http://www.njsharingnetwork.org/

SESSION TWO NOTES Session A

Topic Title: How can we make space for youth voice, leadership and power? (Added After) How do we do this both physically and virtually in these times?

Moderator: Israel Alford

Participants: NJ PAC Community Engagement, Traymanesha Lamy, Fareedat Afolabi, Tamara Williams, Trenean Watts, Mary Catherine Stoumbos, Wendy Liscow, Zaire Pearson, Amari Augustin, Vince Marigina, Alec Barnieh, Muhammed Gakumoju, Taylor Jonson, Yolanda, Brother Carlos Walton, Rashon Dwight, Jessica Laus, Nagely Castro, Leida Martinez, Angela Garretson, Kim Gaddy, Jossue S, Britany Andrade, Cristal Davidon, Davi Borges, Sanez Hojreh, Zaire Peterson, Christine Calva, Morrei, Shania Hamilton-John, Ihsaan Muhammed, Jennifer Made, Jessica McKenzie, Rev. Eyesha Marable


Give youth a place at the table/leadership/organizational involvement:

NJPAC agrees that nonprofits and corps who are invested in Newark and NJ should start establishing youth boards and advisory committees. NJ PAC is doing that -- a youth advisory council. We need your voice and leadership, and we want your voice at the table. And identify who are the next leaders that we’ll pass the baton to. Make a platform. We are taking the challenge and posing the challenge to others.

Adults who hold the levers of power in society need to switch from the paradigm of charity to paradigm of equity. Not treat youth as wards that adults tend to. Seems like every generation has to fight this uphill battle with the elders. We need youth to know that your ideas are appreciated and we EXPECT you to innovate.

One participant’s issue with all of this talk of youth boards is kind of like a slap in the face of the youth. You bring me into a focus group for a week but don't take our ideas seriously. People in power want to bring kids in for our ideas but they are scared of our ideas.

Making sure youth are invited into organizational governance as “Active” participants. Create multiple spaces to hear youth voices beyond surveys and focus groups.



A lot of fatigue on youth who are picked for surveys, committees, etc. Have to find a way to reach those who have something to say but aren’t able to make themselves heard.

Also need to think about succession planning -- to have youth trained in leadership positions. Youth can tell when it’s not authentic.

Have to consider when the meetings are held (not during school) and youth aren’t necessarily prepared to sit on a board -- need some leadership training. In many cases, youth give ideas, then they leave because they aren’t given agency beyond the idea and into implementation.

Recognize that this work is not easy. schools and orgs need to make a commitment that youth voice, leadership and power is essential to youth development. creating multiple spaces for learning from youth as well as helping them dev. leadership skills to successfully use their agency in school, orgs, and the community. including youth in gov. structure. helping youth to understand the process for implementing change (strategic planning, advocacy, etc.)

Give youth a chance to speak:

Student: It would be helpful to let students lead assemblies during this time club/wellness time during school. Be allowed to do this. Ideas like changing a mascot. Schools should encourage that.

Student: It's incredibly helpful to speak in front of our peers as practice for the future. It makes us comfortable with public speaking. Being shut down or ignored doesn’t help

Student: We can do this by trying to create groups -- talk to other people in schools and try to have meetings with adults who have power.

One participant works at a new school and talked about giving students a voice in choosing mascot, school acronym. Doing it virtually now. Adults have their minds set on what they want anyway. But we need to teach students how to use their voice. Students are happy to have a say and get used to being able to speak out will help in the future and in careers.

Need to make space to help students feel comfortable. I think we (youth) should want to voice out and not be scared to speak because we think we are not going to be heard

Needs to be better follow-up when youth share their thoughts and ideas; should be reflection time afterward to talk about what worked well and what didn’t. Understanding that sometimes change takes time.

Engage with Students:

Student: I feel there are a lot of programs not just job opportunities but for youths (like myself) but they aren’t accessible to us and I think the issue is the programs should be bought on a higher platform to where youth can actually find out about them. I started learning a lot of programs my senior year and a lot of the information I know now I wish I would’ve definitely known my freshman or sophomore year.



Student: Youth are a key part of the community. We can do things like have community events to help.

One youth participant has seen where adults push kids where they want them to be, not where the kid’s interests are. Lost opportunities when adults don’t listen to youth.

Adults can pick favorites and can forget about looking at others who have potential.

Not being able to have your voice heard in school or any environment where you need your voice to be heard can affect your mental health because it’ll make you feel better. There’s no one you can talk to or that nobody cares about your opinion.

Israel points out the topics that are coming up: ● Youth Agency ● Youth Training


SOLUTIONS AND BEST PRACTICES

Provide professional development training with adults who can validate a youth’s opinion

There should be practices in our schools where youth can sit with people older than us so we will have the experience with adults that have different opinions about how we feel.

Need to have a more incremental leadership structure in the community.

Transformational leadership is key. Internships, externships, seats in governing structures. But also have youth advocates to work with and for students. Take those voices seriously to make change within the organizations. Tell youth, this is your org, your school, your community. People have a tendency to complain, but we can all do more if we empower youth to make change.

Student: students can get comfortable with where they are, so they have to take responsibility for their own futures too. Student: talked about character development.

A student mentioned the use of home room time to have college students talk to us, others talk to us. Why not use this time and space?

A lot of these ideas are in this out of school time space. Any ideas of how to give students more voice in the classroom? A student responded with “Literally, teachers are talking for 2 hours straight online. No morning announcements. Give us to talk about things we want to share, get done. Have the teacher serve as the facilitator.”




Kim Gaddy


● Make your interests and needs heard. An example was shared of a health teacher who had students write down 2 things they wanted to change, and a lot of changes were implemented. Students wrote a letter to the superintendent. One idea was to have a girl’s empowerment group.

● Peer to peer engagement activities

● Keep this group together because the youth are so engaged in this conversation

● Peer leadership during school -- twice a week peer leadership group

How do we give youth agency and empower them to carry out ideas themselves?

● Give youth power and roles within an organization ● Succession planning for youth within organizations ● Have college students and others use homeroom time to speak with students about issues



Session B

Topic Title: How do we ensure that parks offer the kinds of events and programs that residents want?

Moderator: Elizabeth McGrady

Participants: Amina Hilton, Carla Robinson, Tara Williams-Harrington, Donna Kirkland, Tenisha Malcolm, Sharae Lovelace, Doris Garrett, Regina Barboza


How can we help our residents utilize our parks more efficiently? Today we are focusing mainly on our city parks.

Parks Mentioned: Nat Turner, Jesse Allens, Mildred Helms

Our main concerns are participation. Where are our kids and our neighbors?

I enjoy the experience every time we are there.

I believe it is a motivating thing. People are tired and things of that nature.

It depends on who the audience is and who we are trying to reach. Get insight on who and what is desired. Surveying young people and posting banners.

We want to engage the community directly to get programming tailored to their needs. Jazz Band, live music & events - we completed surveys to try to engage the community.

COVID has really put a halt on programming. Is there a way to move programming to an online format to then translate them into in person?

Keeping our seniors active and involved in exercise programs. By January, we are trying to have these programs in launch.

Also increase signage to the park to make the community more aware.

I wish we had more active recreation spaces and that the parks were maintained and taken care of more. We miss these steps and then over time, no one maintains it, therefore degrading the value. Who should maintain it? Are people respecting public spaces?

Newark Arts - We get into a lot of discussions of public arts. Public monuments that reflect the community as it is now and the taking down of ones that are less desirable. We did the city's cultural plan “Newark Creates” one of the number one needs is funding for the public arts. There



probably needs to be an overarching umbrella fund that allocates resources that focus on the upkeep, attracting, art, and safety of the parks that represent the voice of the community.

It would be helpful if the funding of the arts in the parks was not limited to the building of public art, but also aiding in programming.

We need public spaces to reflect the history and culture of folks who are here in the community.

The mayor is really focused on Harriet Tubman and we need to focus on the community value of these historically visioned public spaces.

Lincoln Park & Ironbound, have been successful with programming but those are on the outskirts. We want to focus on the inner-city parks to have more programming and attendance to the local community.

The part that is huge and could accommodate big things is Mulberry Commons. They are considering this Newark highline park.

Newark is not short on ideas. We are short on resources and capital to see ideas to fruition and sustainability.

Downtown parks are receiving more attention, but we need to take care to make sure that our neighborhood and local parts are getting adequate attention and resource allocation.

Downtown attracts more investment.


One thought, with surveys, what we want to do is attract more people - doing surveys door to door and the communities surrounding the parks to attain a greater attendance pool.

People simply do not know about the programming.

There is a safety component as well and Mildred Helms we do not know is even there.

We have to point people in the direction of activities and sending things out to people directly, to invite them in, will help them.

Going door to door and using youth as a tool to better serve them. Have we been into the schools to try to reach younger students to encourage their parents to take them out to the community engagement?

Engaging the young parent in a way that is appealing to encourage them to want to bring their children.

Find someone to bring games to make sure the children are playing Recess and playtime that is safe and organized. Hula-hoops, jump ropes, etc. Potentially paying someone to come out and bring



games and activities for kids to do, which would encourage community engagement and participation. Position: Play Manager



Session C

Topic Title: How can we combine common goals of health, restoring healthy ecosystems, job retraining, and creating new employment opportunities?

Moderator: Susan Haig

Participants: Susan Haig, Keith Dent, Cassandra Thompson, Lydia Peart, Francis Dixon, Kim Cook, Semia Cuevas, Tara Williams-Harrison, Kimberly Pierre, Pamela Daniels, Ellen de Havilland, Krystle Allen, Jessica Luna, M. Sean Lovell, Jossue S, Suzanne Ishee

Welcome everyone to the session

● Connection - respectful; all different voices; all sorts of possibilities; nothing is impossible

● Cross-disciplinary question

Describe why you proposed this topic –

● Walkthrough and put space around each of the components of this question - how do you prioritize them?

○ Health - wholeness of body; what is not being experienced right now; what has been compromised; what is at risk - top priority?

○ Restoring healthy ecosystems - beyond environmental; role we have as a steward in community

○ Job retraining - Need to shift or be asked to shift; need supportive environment ○ Creating new employment opportunities ○ All of the above; a combination

● How we think of our beloved community of Newark, beloved community of neighbors ● Great gifts and great possibilities built on the rich history ● In this space anything's possible


● Health is at the core of every activity - school, career ● We are asking: How’s your health? ● If health is not good or we don't know how to address our health, everything else we pursue

is not going to last

● Everyone needs a livelihood - help one another as neighbors, as communities ● Unemployment - job you have now might be at risk



● Allows you to be given the equipment and skills to make that shift

● If we take care of ourselves physically and mentally, we would be better off ● If you want to have successful employees, have them take medical tests

○ Make sure they are healthy and give them time to heal!

● Livelihood involves addressing health, healthy ecosystems, retraining, new employment

● Health as a value is being uplifted - instead of, how are you? we are saying “stay well” ○ Seen in schools, integrated into how students are required to respond to even a

sniffle ● Social determinants of health account for 80% of your health - lack of employment, access

to healthcare, education, housing - all compromise your health ○ Employment gives you insurance

● Access to health insurance ○ Most important thing is assisting people to connect to gainful employment

Next meal, pay for rent, support yourself, support family, mental stress Decisions based on risk - health later or family security now

● Having a livelihood is essential (affirmation diminishes risk) ● Prioritize health = health is life = thriving community ● Health + Livelihood + Employment - How to create job opportunities and retraining so they

align? ● News media it's incoherent - says stay healthy yet focused on economic growth

● Wellness is the tie the binds all together ○ How do we become a person that provides that for others?

Entrepreneurs take on risk/challenge and employ others, provide insurance ● Need mental capacity ● Need “the Village” of supporters who are there to say that this is possible, that you can do

this, you can't get there on their own


Problem: Focus is on the children or the adults, not the whole family ● Often trying to fix something when it’s too late ● Adults don't have gainful employment - pain/suffering mentally/physically transferred to

the kids - kids are not getting support at home, therefore not doing well in school - cycle

Needs: ● A more holistic approach ● Local doctors who care about the community ● Localized focus

Solution: ● Education should include a health curriculum - bicycles, gardening, planting, agriculture,

swimming/water safety, recreation — all of these can become professions



○ Not what we think of a school curriculum but at a point where we need to think out of the box, creatively, so that healthy practices become professions while getting at the issues

● Missed opportunities - to develop co-ops, tutors, grade-level groups, teach in different ways ○ For technology to be support - not everything ○ Error of distance learning - having a child sit in front of a screen disconnected from

the real world ● Applicable to Newark - school choice, various models of education, homeschooling as a job

creator, showing transformational change ○ Empowering parents and empowering communities

● Inclusion important to health and wellness, job readiness, employment, education ● Need more in-service training for staff and education for students ● Lack of knowledge in healthcare facilities ● Specifically, disability culture training is needed - don’t strip us of what we are capable of ● Assistive technology - access to job training and jobs ● Social distancing, online learning doesn’t let students with disabilities grow socially -

affects them as an adult

● People need to learn from PWD - professionals learning, not just teaching ● Some companies have business resource groups to support staff with disabilities and

patients with disabilities

● While still in school, emphasize how students with learning disabilities can go from school to training to work

○ - Disability comes in many different forms

● Resource: United Way ALICE program - PWD employment, livable wage ○ What PWD need

● It's not right to exclude members of the community based on disability - equal members of the community - needs are the same as everybody else's

● When we talk about job development, important to talk about jobs with a living wage for all

● Everyone needs a Village to make these transitions and not fail ● Everyone needs a livelihood ● Employee benefits - effective healthcare

○ Paying contributions Are they using it? Do they know how to use it? What are they entitled to? Do they know when to go to the doctor? How to use the pharmacy?

○ Education to navigate the complex NJ insurance - Medicare vs. Exchange, etc. Work in healthcare, still struggle with this

Solution: ● Resource: How to access healthcare? Keep it simple



● Need: Ways to create jobs/other means of employment ○ Not rely on subsidies that will end at the end of the year - unable to pay rent, etc. ○ Work with families to get them certified to be family providers - be considered the

teacher

● Hire people for their knowledge base, skill, not higher education necessarily


Group members agreed to connect again and continue the conversation to create the action steps.



Session D

Topic Title: Where’s Your Tree? How do we root and document our conviction, outrage, and dreams in the face of the environmental ruin of the planet and black and brown lives?

Moderator: Pamela Booker

Participants: Nathaly Agosto Fillion, Marisa Benson, Ciseley Breeden, Kimberly A. Pierre, Elizabeth, Richard Simon, Earvient Clark, Aishat J.K., Shania Hamilton–John, M. Sean Lovell, Tiffany Newton, Zakia Bilal


Moderator opened the room asking thoughts to participants what they thought about the prompt question.

● A Participant shared that after attending the first session, she feels and understands that maybe a way to connect the arts and this goal can definitely help.

● An attendee shared that she works at an Academy for young men, dealing with the boys in their situation and their parents and just to have a home environment that they can be peaceful and to be able to do their work. She mentioned that in her first session, they were talking about getting together to help the parents. Helping their parents, just helping society and what we can do for them to make them a better person in general. And not just the way that they live or work or how they go to school, but their thoughts and everything. If we could connect all of that together with them, we would have an awesome world. They are our future. We could give them the advantage of letting them learn and do things and have a better future.

● The Human Library Project was mentioned, and the ways people of all generations can share their story and share their experience. What it's like to be a five-year-old in Newark? What is it like to be a person who is in their 60s who has experienced various points of history and what it was like at particular junctions in time, and what is it like for them right now experiencing the current situation we are in right now?

● Someone else shared that she works in the arts, and what they are currently doing to stay afloat and to bridge the gap through art. Bridging the gap through art. The art can be the



connection and literally save lives and why not build those bridges between our youth and seniors from our community.

● Dealing with green spaces is multi-generational. I live in the parks and on-site visits are teaching me something. I could talk about, we are working with the garden, and with three and four-year-old, and not even knowing they know you; they will come back to you.

● Fashion is another important topic that is interesting, and who in this industry leaves a footprint with material waste.

● Where’s Your Tree!! more info here: https://pamelabooker.com/about

● It was stated that older generations had a deeper connection with nature in general. They developed a legacy with nature. we are coming full circle, and with the recognition that first of all, black, brown, indigenous folks, were the original custodians and managers if you will, of land. And how that was either stolen or lost to us. And coming full circle to make these reclamations. We need to have these kinds of recognitions, practices, memories, as a way of honoring those relationships.

● Technology has also played an important role separating families and maybe focusing people to other stuff rather than what’s outside: green spaces. We are also facing a problem about individuality whereas this needs to be solved collectively.

● Someone pointed out getting back to the village mentality, and how she is fortunate to constantly share spaces and time with their family, able to see them every day.

● Moderator shared the thought that these are very difficult interacting times, that we are not able to interact as before with all the limitations that this Pandemic brought. But also, how fortunate are we to be able to connect through technology like these zoom sessions.

● The digital environment is bringing though other limitations and problems about interaction.

CHALLENGES:

● Some have experienced challenges with creativity, even with being a member of the advisory committee to a national network for BIPOC folks.

● This work should be meaningful. Other struggles take place with on a day-to-day basis, which is centering our families and our children and the work that we do towards the way one participant views sustainability was just that if we are not undoing pastimes, from the racist society that is United States of America, we are not doing the work, and so this is not sustainable if we are not holding equity and not upholding justice and all the other things.



https://pamelabooker.com/about

Moving from a space that is very tied to connection to land and connection to family and their day-to-day lives expenses, and then what this participant spends the bulk of their day doing, which is writing memos and listening to webinars, etc., they struggle with that time.

MOVING FORWARD - what actions we can take:

● It is important to identify the reasons why people don’t gather anymore like before, to understand the system that is leading us to not come together. However, this Pandemic has forced us or made us see the importance of those human connections, we now do parties on Zoom because we want to feel that connection. Working together, coming all together.

“ Let's come together, regardless of what race you are, nationality, anybody is one and everybody come together, let's work on the new system, a new way of teaching the kids, teaching the parents, the grandparents, the great-grandparents, because you have so many great-grandparents and grandparents that are raising the children and it is hard for them right now, because it is new to them. And so, we come together, we are helping them. If we have to do more Zoom parties, where everybody comes together, and you get to see new people, young people. You would get the generations together. Everybody come together, I love it right now. I don't mind if this is a change. You open up your eyes, you see what is out there. You see how things are going, with the earth, with the generations, you see the climate change. You see everything that is circling around us, so if we could all come together and build as one, what a great world we would have.”

● This is the season to embrace change, and to get help that you need, because the help is out there. It is available. Everyone is in a place where they need something, whether it is social, or emotional, or mental help, or just coping help, whatever you need in the season, it is available. And so, we can find love in this season, and the season of separation. Sometimes you need a good laugh in the midst of adversity.

● It is interesting to speak about documenting the times we are living in. Not only about the pandemic but the social movement we are in. On participant said, I am sure that in all companies or foundations, we have been doing work on racial equity and trying to become an antiracist organization, and doing work in person, having difficult conversations in person and doing our equity work, while painful sometimes, it is a lot easier to do that work face-to-face and in person.

● This time is teaching us about accepting the help from our white allies. These are no temporary measures that society is taking, these really have to become integral to our humanity.

● WhatsApp is a great tool that can work, for day-to-day, voice memos, sharing means and checking in with one another. Journaling is good, as well, for folks some of us are in arts practices in a formal way,



● Some of the solutions are attached to creativity, to create, operate across disciplines, and across ways of being in the world, to be a mother, and raise a child, the depth of creativity, or a parent, to parent a child, not just mother, as an educator, is created.

● One participant lifted up connections to the indigenous community that were noted earlier. In Sussex County there is the Munsee Three Sisters Farm https://www.facebook.com/Munsee-Three-Sisters-Medicinal-Farm-107590257639512 and in South Jersey there is the Nanticoke Lenape community centered in Bridgeton and surrounding areas (near Cape May) and both communities were connected with the Indigenous Peoples Day programming out of Philly: https://ipdphilly.org/ . Participant wondered about the bridges that people are also thinking about with indigenous people who may live in Newark and the Greater Newark area.


Attendees were able to share some commitments that will be taken during the next two weeks:

● Being accountable and committing myself to awake that child wonder. Also, remembering what it is that we would do, passionately, and created, with our own intellectual property, integrating skills with our emotions, identifying that because we are all tasked with healthily translating our thoughts into words so that we can be understood, and getting away from this right a wrong mentality that society has structured us around. It’s about understanding one another.

● Now what you have to do in your life first, because that is very important, if you do not know who you are, or what you want to do, or how to get there or what to go about doing it, you cannot help anybody else. So be accountable to yourself first, and then reach out to others and help them while both of you are going on the way. And then, the world will be a better place.

● Self-care



https://www.facebook.com/Munsee-Three-Sisters-Medicinal-Farm-107590257639512

https://ipdphilly.org/

Session E

Topic Title: In what ways can transportation support and enable progress toward social justice now and in the future?

Moderator: Lois Goldman

Participants: Lois Goldman, Suzanne Ishee, Antonio Valla, Jeffrey Perlman, Jonathan Gordon, Sam


● What changed in transportation in the last 30 years in Newark? ● People get around the city now in non-traditional ways. ● Transportation was built to get people into the cities and out of them. ● More robust electric buses ● The access of the transportation needs to be looked at to reduce the cost of getting around. ● The environment council of the City of Newark. Safety needs to be considered for people

who are riding bikes. People are also walking and are concerned about the city. you see a lot more people on foot. Newark is a pedestrian focused city and Newark. Focus the transportation plan around people as opposed to pedestrians. People are concerned about paying for bus tickets to get to school. Target issues on affordability to get around town needs to be addressed for residents. We can subsidize transit. There news to be better communication about the resources available to students in Newark.

● The transit system in NJ is pretty dismal. There should be jitney buses. ● Role in technology

Tech: ● Uber can be expensive. Jersey City using VIA - you walk to a central location and you get

picked up in a van, more of a pooling situation, group taxi. Transit is one of the safer options for airflow. Project in Jersey City is all electric vehicles funded in part by VPU.

● As a nonresident who has traveled on many buses, Newark has really good public transportation from a person who hasn't seen this much transit.

● When people hear things like PATH expanding to other parts of the city, it creates the idea of increased property value.

● Running buses is just not practical - too many destinations and times of day that it probably wouldn't work.

● When these systems were built, they were built to get people in and out of the city. There has been talk of creating a stop in the Dayton Neighborhood on the PATH. For the



expansions or reorganizations - how does the transit serve the people or does it bypass them?

● NJT has a mobile app that is very good and accurate. ● Most public transportation is not wheelchair accessible or disabled individuals. Old legacy

infrastructure can be very challenging and does not meet the needs of today’s society. ● What about young children and senior citizens - how does transportation work for their

destinations? Better safety systems for very young children riding alone or with their siblings, and vulnerable people in general.

● How can we do this? ○ Cameras on buses ○ Transit police presence at major change over points ○ People there to answer questions -○ facilities, bus shelters, places to wait in the rain/snow ○ Crossing guards, especially on major intersections. There is a crossing guard

program that may be paid by the schools. They are hugely important! Crossing guards could double as the person people can go to for information, as well as help decrease accidents

○ Have free ride buses for people who need to be transported to safe centers - food, shelter

○ Mapping that shows what bus routes stop at safe centers ○ Have a way to signify which transit lines take you to open spaces ○ The bus system could also be tied to - cultural resources, access to food, etc.

● Takeaway: using the system that there is and make it better, safer, more efficient, work for the residents

● Street Smart - work with Newark and Nj transit police. Education campaign to take stock in responsibility to safety to each other. Campaigns are effective in reducing crashes.

● How do the Ports impact people? ● A lot of pollution ● access to get to the ports with many jobs can be challenging ● Automation/autonomous vehicles are going to be the game changer. ● For the long-term plan, thinking about this in terms of accessibility, overall transportation,

residents, etc. How can we adapt our habits and address needs with this in mind? It needs to be a part of our overall plan. Once this happens, parking lots will be a thing of the past and that will be a lot of wasted space and how will that be utilized? Look at how automation is being deployed - market perceptive?



Session F

Topic Title: How can we get the news to the Latino Community that do not have phones or internet access at this time?

Moderator: N/A

Participants: Carmen Pendleton, Ronald Chaluisán, Dayana Moscoso, Kim Wei, Daniel Perez Cuevas

(bilingual session / sesión bilingüe)


Parte lo que hacemos es comunicarnos en la comunidad. Es difícil, que sean los métodos en cómo comunicar? What are the methods that you are already using to get the information out to the community?

This is not an easy task. Something that is very helpful is talking 1 on 1 to give the parents safety. A lot of immigrant parents don’t feel comfortable so you have to communicate that you are here to support them and it is all about listening.

The best way to reach the parents is talking 1 on 1. If you see a LatinX parent right away engage with the parent.

What is the best way to get parents involved? ● For the overall community, Facebook is really good. ● Uno de los problemas es que para los latinos, no pueden entender el manuscrito. ● Están usando el internet a través de sus teléfonos no computador y eso es un problema muy

grande, porque es difícil leer el texto.

Student: The students have to translate a lot for their parents. There is not a lot offered to the LatinX community in terms of information distribution.

La iglesia era la organización donde podían dar información sobre cosas pasando.

Out Reach con las iglesias, reunir con los pastores para que puedan participar con los colegios y hacer un outreach con los padres.

Comunicar a través de Facebook y personalmente, tienen una red muy grande con 25 mil personas. Hay muchos grupos y activistas.



Aspira New Jersey- muy presente. No hay mucha informacion si hay organizaciones que ayudan la comunidad LatinX Centralized coalition would be really helpful to get out to all the organizations.

As a Hispanic person, I feel very isolated. It is the feeling I get in this area. We need to come more together and support each other more.

There isn’t anything Does anyone do work with Senator Teressa Ruiz? Las organizaciones que ayudan a los inmigrantes es Casa de Don Pedro. En Morristown is Wind of the Spirit. Esos ayudan a los indocumentados.

One of the challenges is that we haven’t established trust within the community yet so people are nervous to open their door to strangers. It creates a barrier to outreach. We need to find who are key people who already have a trust.

En educación hay muchas oportunidades para los padres que no conocen, y no abrazan. We need to get information out to the parents for those opportunities. We need to get parents interactive with the school system, but unfortunately that is not so positive and they get locked out of the system. We need engagement to introduce those barriers and knock down those barriers.

We need a triangle- to work with the student, parent and teacher. Parents feel left out of the schools and don’t realize that they have so much power that they can ask things from the school. We need a group of parents that meets once a month and then every month ask someone from the school like the principal or nurse so they can answer questions for the parents. Really hard to bring them together.

This takes a lot of work and a lot of commitment to talk to the parent when they drop off their kid to talk for just a couple of minutes. It takes people who are committed to do this and the schools are so busy that they don’t have this. There is a gap that is missing.

Mucha gente no lee su email. Necesitamos la opción para leer información por correo.

Estudiantes: Yo tengo que ayudar a mis padres para leer la información con que está pasando. Tienen que traducir la información en español.

Problems with the communication with parents: There are no personal relationships and all the communication to the parents is English not in their language. So schools and organizations rely on the students to translate, this is not a systemic response. This is not fair.

Estamos bregando a encontrar la forma para más oportunidades para la gente Latina. Apoyar los comercios pequeños. Para tener una vida más eco-friendly.

Hay problemas muy serios, y no se pueden analizar, con los departamentos de salud. El asunto del molde es muy serio, y eso puede afectar a la gente en muchos niveles de salud.

Brings up the whole topic of health issues in the LatinX community. There are problems with mold, lead and this affects education.



LAEDA in the city of Camden- Free entrepreneur classes

Question for the students- Are your friends and families active in the church? Because of the pandemic people are not so active in the church. It is more through social

media. Con la pandemia no tanto.

Philadelphia and Camden there is only a bridge separating us and they are worlds apart. Philadelphia gets a lot of help and has a lot of organizations, Camden does not. Mexican Consulate in Philly does not come to Camden.

What are schools doing to help LatinX students and support them? A day of Hispanic celebration, everyone brings food from their culture and country.


When parents register their kids for school, could they check a box that they prefer to speak in Spanish so that the information they get will be in their language?

Talking to your school board about this.



MONDAY, OCTOBER 19th | DAY 3 Agenda Topics

1. Como generamos procesos de colaboracion entre los actores sociales en Newark? (session conducted in Spanish)

2. What if Newark communities worked to understand the intersectionality of children/youth of color who reside in Newark and suicidal ideations?

3. How can we do all that is within our capability to remain healthy brain and body during this season of COVID-19?

4. How can we hold our stakeholders accountable for providing opportunities to up-skill and advance current skill sets of our residents; which will allow them to pivot into new sectors and become more marketable in today's job market?

5. How can we use "Opportunity Zones" and 501(c)(2) Real Estate Holding Companies to revitalize Newark?

6. How can we create more connections across New Jersey's Cultural Communities?

7. How can we create a more sustainable localized food system utilizing the expertise of our current Newark-based farmers and gardeners?

8. How can we use schools as community organizations working collaboratively with leaders, non-profit



organizations, activists, and families to be a catalyst for broader change?

9. What if Newark pioneered the way in educating and training our children how to healthily process and communicate their emotions through SEL being taught in school?

10. In a city where there are so many collaboratives and so much discussion about collective impact, what are the complexities/challenges that limit our ability to impact systemic change in the City of Newark and how do we as a community overcome them?



MONDAY, OCTOBER 19TH - NOTES Session A

Topic Title: ¿Cómo generamos procesos de colaboración entre los actores sociales en Newark? How do we enhance collaboration in social stakeholders in Newark?

Moderator: Andrea Toro y Aida Sánchez Ross

Participants: Sandra Fernández, Carrie Puglsi, Elena, Olga V, Lina Tabares, Maria Mancilla

Andrea toro y Aida Sanchez introdujeron el tema y pidieron a todos los participantes a introducirse y nombrar de que organizaciones venían. La mayoría de ellos han participado y/o vienen de la Casa de Don Pedro, desde personas que coordinan programas, son voluntarios, o asisten a clases o actividades allí.

Andrea y Aida compartieron un link que sirvió para recolectar información: ¿Qué necesitamos para colaborar? / What do we need to collaborate?

Padlet generado por las moderadoras durante la sesión:




Las moderadoras explicaron un poco sobre sus trabajos y cómo ellas han contribuido directa o indirectamente a su comunidad con diferentes recursos y acciones. También mencionaron algunos ejemplos de cómo funciona una comunidad.

Invite your fellow participants to share their experience and knowledge on the topic Las moderadoras abrieron la conversación diferentes preguntas:

“Con quien me vinculo en mi comunidad, y quienes de ellos pueden ser un actor social en mi comunidad?” Los asistentes compartieron las siguientes respuestas:

● Los amigos ● Mis vecinos ● Los compañeros de trabajo ● Jefes ● Las personas que asisten a mi iglesia ● Encuentro personas así en los lugares a los que asisto diario ● La Casa de Don Pedro ● El Alcalde, el vicealcalde ● en Un hospital ● Doctores, médicos, la policía, cualquier tipo de autoridad ● Son con todos aquellos que interactuamos.

Segunda pregunta: “Una vez identificando a los actores sociales, qué necesitamos hacer para poder colaborar”

● Acceso: Necesitamos conexiones, buscar encontrar a la persona correcta para colaborar con ellos

● Personas “Puente”, personas que ayudan a generar conexiones entre ellas, se ayudan entre ellas.

● Personas que se encuentran en posiciones de poder que están dispuestas a ayudar ● Necesitamos saber que necesitamos pero también que podemos ofrecer a nuestra

comunidad, no es una solución de una sola vía, es un intercambio de ayuda. ● Tenemos que aprender a escuchar las necesidades de las personas que están a mi

alrededor, dialogar, entablar una comunicación que ayude a resolver los problemas. ● Ayudar con las cosas más básicas que hacen un cambio en nuestra comunidad. ● Es importante poner de nuestra parte. ● Intercambiar ideas es importante, necesitamos tener un panorama amplio de que todos

pensamos diferente.. ● Es muy importante generar espacios donde estos actores sociales puedan compartir sus

ideas, y la gente pueda asistir.

Tercera Pregunta: “Desde mi posición, desde mi lugar de trabajo o en mi vida ¿Qué necesito yo para sentir que estoy colaborando?”



● Uno necesita ser libre, para poder esperar sus ideas, ser honesto, sincero y dar respeto a todos y a uno mismo. Toda idea vale, es un aporte. Dejar el egoísmo a un lado, realmente actuar como una comunidad, colaborando.

● Una persona madura podrá aportar de forma objetiva en su comunidad. ● Necesitamos recursos económicos para poder tomar acciones. ● Necesitamos dejar a un lado la discriminacion para poder movernos como comunidad. ● Necesitamos lugares como la Casa de Don Pedro, centros que nos apoyen en nuestro

desarrollo. ● Necesitamos también a voceros en la comunidad, que nos recomienden lugares o contactos

que nos puedan ayudar. ● Lugares como la Casa de Don Pedro ofrecen diferentes recursos, incluso psicológicos,

clases de ingles, tejido. Nos ayudan a no sentirnos estancados.

“Cuales son los siguientes pasos para poder colaborar personal y grupalmente ” ● Definir una meta para saber qué es lo que queremos lograr, identificar de quien necesito

ayuda y posteriormente buscar a esa gente y solicitar la ayuda. ● Los procesos de colaboración pueden ser de fuera hacia mi o de mi hacia afuera


“Qué acciones voy a tomar yo para empezar a tomar en acción esta colaboración” : ● Dar el tiempo para dar participar en conversaciones ● Crear un compromiso para entrar en acción ● Definir una meta ● Tomar acción, no solo desear. ● Hablar sobre todos los programas de la Casa De Don Pedro, dejar el egoísmo a un lado y

ayudar a los nuestros ● Insistir, ser determinante con nuestros objetivos y conseguir con esfuerzo lo que

necesitamos/deseamos ● Escuchar a los demás, apoyo moral. ● Identificar organizaciones donde nos podamos ofrecer como voluntario y ayudar a los

demás. ● Ponernos en nuestra misma experiencia y ayudar a los demás con lo que nosotros mismos

hemos carecido ● Ofrecer programas en español bilingües



Session B

Topic Title: What if Newark communities worked to understand the intersectionality of children/youth of color who reside in Newark and suicidal ideations?

Moderator: Dorothy Handfield

Participants: Dorothy Handfield, Jenny P. Scott (J. Scotta Designs, LLC)

Open the Conversation • Dr. Handfield introduced herself and why the topic was important. As an educator at both

the primary and secondary levels, she sees a need to address the mental health needs of students. She is currently the principal of Newark Evening High School https://www.nps.k12.nj.us/neec/

• Participant noted many people have suicidal ideations and don’t act on them

• State of chronic depression for many is the norm and what they’ve grown accustomed to throughout their lives

• Getting is help often not seen as something that’s available.. or even an acceptable.

• There’s no shame in saying you need help, but after asking for help what resources are available? How are you going to help? What will the doctors do if the offices are already full?

• Living with suicidal ideations is like soul suicide- it’s like being the living dead

• There is a need to incorporate increased mental health services in schools’ post COVID-19 reopening plans. The isolation, lack of access to services, technology over the long term will have an impact.

• Currently some schools have a 1 guidance counselor per 250 students and UMDNJ and Beth Israel are the only two places students can go to get cleared to return to school after a crisis.

• Newark Arts Ed offers a variety of programing including their Trauma- Informed Care Series



https://www.nps.k12.nj.us/neec/

• Trauma-Informed Care series https://www.artsednewark.org/ -- Next Trauma Informed Care Session November 12, 2020. Contact: Mayuri Chandra, Project Coordinator - Arts Ed Newark

• J Scota Designs https://www.jscotadesigns.com hopes to use their expertise in design to begin offering a “Resilient Faces” mask making workshop in 2021 as a method of healing. Art is a great way to alleviate stress and anxiety for some.

• Before you can use art as form of healing you have to learn about trauma • Hopes to collaborate with both DCFS and the Shani Baraka Women’s Resource Center.

https://www.newarknj.gov/departments/shani-baraka-womens-resource-center

• In addition to social services DCF also provides for recreational/arts programming.



https://www.artsednewark.org/

https://www.jscotadesigns.com/

https://www.newarknj.gov/departments/shani-baraka-womens-resource-center

Session C

Topic Title: How can we do all that is within our capability to remain healthy brain and body during this season of COVID-19?

Moderator: Lisa Charles

Participants: Lisa Charels, Carla Robinson, Tanuja Dehne, Lavita E. Johnson, Reggie, Jerri-Mitchell Lee, Lavita Johnson, Meghan R, Wendy Liscow


● Lisa the moderator runs an Embrace Your Fitness- her life is about fitness and wellness, partners with neurology department to support research with dementia and Alzheimers at Rutgers

● That portion motivated her to help and be an advocate ● Concerned with community at high risk during covid-19 ● Wants to hear ideas of issues of body and brain obesity, stress, issues with sleep, issues

with depression ● Issues of sleep/depression tied to whole body ● Showing people to have a better brain-body connection & model ● Different levels of familiarity with topic & all are welcome ● Want to hear everyone’s perspectives on health and wellness


● Want to hear everyone’s perspectives on health and wellness ● Interactive, people can walk away- I got something out of it and really understood it

because I was a participant ● Holistic approach, not just focused on one aspect of being ● United Parks as One: do programming in parks and are interested in COVID-19 but social

distancing requirements- parks might be more of a resource for health and wellness ● Abundance of outdoor space and room for social distancing in the parks ● Department of health: works with seniors, everything is virtual, but we’d like to explore

what we could do outside. Might be able to coordinate something once a week or every week.

● Getting comfort level of seeing people outside of the computer screen. Exercise is important/walks/hikes/awareness of this all



● Last Friday: had an event at Lincoln Park for Kronos Coalition (sp?)- social distancing, tables were 6 feet apart but they did blood testing, sugar, HIV and other health resources. Right across from senior citizen building- senior citizens were coming through. Outside piece is very doable, even if it’s just a walking exercise, outreach is outreach. Walking club, ask people to check in how many steps people are doing and what they’re eating.

● Outdoor piece is doable, Vitamin D, sunshine, seeing people in person ● Different groups could collaborate: different types of program ● Parks- not sure what pieces of equipment and how that’s doing with everything ● Walkways, paths, letting people know what’s there. ● Stadium at Weequahic Park, soccer/football field/track. People are socializing and having

their own clubs and regulars. ● Brain health component: even if they got some info on sleep/support groups ● African Americans get 2-3 hours less of sleep than other demographics ● Wants to build groups of people that could communicate afterwards

What additional information do we need? ● Weather is taking its turn- as some point it might be cold to be outside, with the season

Zoom exercise is the way to go for those who cannot make it outside. ● Connection: worried about it getting cold, there was nice weather of summer and you

couldn’t help but go outside, are there ways to create community, community via Zoom, meditation/yoga/gentle stretching, accessible and simple ways to move your body

● Yoga practice stopped during COVID-19 because of idea of people going to studio ● Zoom yoga classes, people missing the community ● More about being with people in a different way ● Going into winter and depression levels increase- starting something sooner rather than

later ● Fit Line Fit Body, brain/well-rounded approach to health and wellness ● Things that are dark and not moving, could be dark and extra hard ● Bring different people on, spreading the idea of other groups that are doing similar things. ● Participants were resistant to zoom classes because tied to going into studio and being with

friends and realized what they missed the most was community, community in a different way

● It would be nice for programs to share and to have ● Studies about what’s going to have the greatest impact- yoga, stretch or cardiovascular.

Some exercises have impact of increasing grey matter in brain ● Combination of stretching and body movement, in senior groups- meet people halfway ● Senior groups are popping up ● Meditation groups involve movement ● If people don’t like exercise, do slow stretches every day, meditate on the movement of your

body, when all else fails just stretch ● Beth Israel: trying to start a class about what you can do at your desk ● Stretching & breathing are life-altering, helps with circulation



● Any bit of fitness supports brain health and heart health- even if it’s five minutes or ten minutes

● No one wants to be cold ● Other types of community organizations: parks- telling senior classes about parks could get

them really excited ● Newark Public Library- sitting stacks of records- one of the first virtual programs was about

what you listen to during this time, music could be therapy/spiritual. Music is needed as far as distressing/brain health/Spotify. Walk 100 blocks and since then listen to music and whenever you want to listen to music, you leave the car and walk. Based on weather. Mentally having the music, if you’re prone to get in your car but just walk you should walk

● Group wise: music groups might have mental health ● Library: doing programs, a few COVID-19 programs. Next health programs they’re looking

for a date- want to do a colon cancer screening in honor of Chadwick Boseman ● Keeping an idea that even during this other type of health is important ● Listen and just walk, get out of your chair ● Get out of walk, even if you’re walking around your apartment- you can download from your

apartment, you can set a goal each day, if you reach that goal you can up it. Give people a guideline to increase their movement

● Having a group, commitment to a group ● Finding groups: now do we have a chance to have joint groups- celebrate music and

movement- maybe outdoor and an indoor aspect. The more we open up the more we draw different groups together

● Health- how they’re all coming together-we’re looking at the entire individual


Next Steps: ● Are its different groups? A celebration of what we’ve had around us? ● Library: James Brown African American Room at Newark Public Library: wants to have

programs- especially around music ● Health programs about food and taking care of your body can be facilitated and developed

through program, network of libraries could reach lots of people ● Libraries: as a public community space, libraries do so much from people experiencing

homelessness and kids from high school needing people to talk to. Libraries are a central community space rather than just a place to pick up books.

● Bringing programs to the library and outdoor programs to the park ● Programs may be virtual ● What kinds of things can help people be well? ● People might not even recognize all the stress they’re feeling ● Librarian shared contact info ● Different things are going to work for different people ● Walking, music



● Other programs may be happy to sponsor virtual events, parks become a venue but we’re not necessarily limited to the parks. Lots of what parks do is focused on community wellness.

● Participants in session works with a group of high school students, w/ united parks ● Park rangers: youth come from Summer Youth Employment Program, this year done

virtually, usually at Jessie Allen Park- kids help care for the park but also exposed to field trips local to Beth Greenhouse, Greater Newark Conservancy, they’ve been to the Pine Barrens. Broad experience for them.

● Groups represented have connected/ spoke to this group this year virtually ● Promoting different aspects of fitness: breathing ● Teaching proper ways of breathing can connect ● Creativity of programs that we can come up with can take us to next level of health ● Always working for next steps ● What could next steps be ● When the gym was open you could maintain health but concerned about blood

sugar/diabetes now that quarantine has happened, now you have to balance nutrition because you can’t go to the gym

● Keeping that in mind has helped lately. ● Holidays coming up ● How does this fall within health paradigm? ● Contact info will be shared ● Let’s contact about talking about next steps.

Next steps: group chat, meet in a week or two and have some program ideas. Two venues: parks and the libraries, exchange contact info and move forward from there



Session D

Topic Title: How can we hold our stakeholders accountable for providing opportunities to up-skill and advance current skillsets of our residents; which will allow them to pivot into new sectors and become more marketable in today’s job market?

Moderator: Jacquetta Gifford

Participants: Jennifer Made, Jacquetta Gifford, Donna Kirkland


Started with an icebreaker— Name? Where are you from? Two things you are good at? One participant went to middle school, undergrad and grad school in Newark One participant was a retail designer for many years

Invite your fellow participants to share their experience and knowledge on the topic – ● Creator puts you in places - you don’t know you’re supposed to be there

○ Might be apprehensive to go into a community meeting See/her a little girl that “looks like me” Creates a domino effect

○ Go where you are invited - may be asked to come back ○ Took an internship - later hired as a consultant - 14 years later

● Foundations and funders have to think out-of-the-box and open the door to help people explore - that’s how we grow as a community

○ Shadowing someone in their work ○ Might not be a match but every time, but an opportunity

● Being educated, working in, creating foundations in Newark and just being from Newark - I can say we aren’t being properly equipped in high school

● We need to level out the playing field - teach them taxes, LLCs, strategies and processes ● We are not catering to the current needs

● Collectively, we are not tapping into our people who have these skills



○ They are leaving Newark! ○ City is not looking for them ○ Amazing local talent is being overlooked - including those from Princeton and

Emory and Morehouse ○ City must realize the gems we have in this city

● Educators - certain skills our youth are not equipped with ○ Trades are not nurtured / partnered with organizations ○ Important to connect youth with job skills - more internships

Build connections in their communities - stakeholders See where they might fit Where their interests lie

○ Teach them what interests them! Not what we want or what we think they are capable of Same as people with disabilities

● Important to pinpoint our skill-sets and nurture them

What additional information do we need?

● Have to stop overlooking what they know well - social media (without a degree) or marketing - and then getting them certified as a social media strategist OR higher them because they have the skills

Problem: ● Finding resources in the city that we don't know about


Solution: ● We have to advocate for what we need ● Get in the ear of some of the big organizations to help Black and Brown people i.e. Audible

and Prudential

● THIS is the moment to have conversations outside the box ● We need to be BOLD enough to share these conversations everywhere we go ● We have to SHARE with our youth, our adults and our broken adults ● We have to look at the gems and diamonds we have and find support

What are actionable steps? ● To partner ● To hold stakeholders accountable



Problem: ● Disconnect between generations - not listening

Solution: ● City ordinance - every board/council should be required to have some people under 40 ● Certain positions must be filled by people under 40 ● How can people stay in the city when they can’t afford to live and there's no opportunities?

Solution: ● We must support those who are ready but who still have potential ● Agree with balance - can’t have elders leading all the time; they are necessary

○ Elders in this climate are disconnected; youth are in front of it and we need to hear them

● Hold institutions accountable - Ex: Who do they hire? Age? From where? ● We have such strong, educated, promising youth who get lost without support ● Few opportunities for people to connect with different job markets

Need: ● To validate or get data to support if (existing initiatives) worked i.e. Newark 2020 ● Some hold information instead of sharing it ● Hard to find like-minded people ● As Black entrepreneur, want to hire Black employees from community

● Global Shapers - curator - different initiatives in the city ○ empower youth ○ align with opportunities in the area

● Take advantage of free programs, leadership, camps to learn life skills ● In a way, educators become co-parents

● People with disabilities, especially Black folks, expectations are so low that there's no growth, no opportunity

● We all need living wages

Q: Are they being set up to survive or to win? A: Just to survive.

Action Steps: ● Open up those opportunities, to build partnerships with my communities in Newark ● Hold stakeholders accountable for using our youth as warehouse workers, teach them

supply-chain management, fair wages, promotions ● Build partnerships with school, colleges and universities - other places depending on the

skill or interest ex: photography = news outlet



● Up-skill = pivot into new positions ● City Ordinance - hire or support X number of positions to residents ● Donna will help connect the dots - support, sounding board, connector, get the work done ● Collaboration starts with us - individually finding ears/like-minds, talking to people and

connecting people along the way ● Jacquetta will help advocate for programs in education system, ask Audible, others, to

create internships ● Donna is looking for youth environmentalist



Session E

Topic Title: How can we use "Opportunity Zones" and 501(c)(2) Real Estate Holding Companies to revitalize Newark?

Moderator: Robert Muir

Participants: Cathay McQuillen, Sam Adjangba, RoniceMB, Tara Williams-Harrington, Sharnita Johnson, Naeema Campbell, Brandon, Pamela B. Daniels, Hellane Freeman, Lidia Q, Trevor Howard, Joy Lee, Gillian Sarjeant-Allen

Describe why you proposed this topic Moderator shared some statistics about what the US government has provided recently in terms of investors and companies for “opportunity zones.”

He gave a general background why 501(c) 2 real estate companies and opportunities need to work together.

Moderator mentioned wanting to work with experts and Newark residents on how to help small businesses and individuals work out these opportunity zones.


● One participant mentioned how it was jarring that residents in Newark cannot be employed in Newark.

● Urban enterprise zones created in the 1980s and haven’t made any changes since that time.

● Moderator shared examples where opportunity zones are successful (Minnesota and South Carolina)

● Opportunity zones focus on creating new jobs for a community.

● One participant mentioned the challenges of setting up an opportunity zone and how it doesn’t support the small businesses and low income communities. Also the frustrations of land use/land bank discussions around Newark and nothing happening.

● Setting up a meeting with elected officials to talk about getting these opportunities down to smaller businesses and low income communities.

● Talked further about the Land Bank and how it is set up to bring more wealth into the community.



● There’s so much money in the city--Tree fund, open space fund and it’s being sold to other municipalities.

● Enterprise Zones--who are they enterprising to? Not the residents of Newark.

● Developers coming in are not Newark residents. How can the developers be from Newark?

● Who is monitoring the money that comes in? (i.e. Facebook/Zuckerberg funding) More transparency to find out where funding is directed to, which organization is getting it, etc.

● What size does a business need to be to apply for an opportunity zone?

● Gov. Murphy earmarked 15 million in the CARES ACT for opportunity zones. How do we get that money to small businesses?


● What are the fresh ideas, partnerships, or approaches that would help us take action? Continuing the conversation - exchanging contact information. Setting up a meeting with elected officials to make sure the funding for these opportunity zones are provided for small businesses and low-income communities.

● What is in the way of advancing this work? There’s no transparency when it comes to who is monitoring the funding. Is it being used properly? We need to demand transparency.


● Elected officials (Senator Cory Booker mentioned) ● Experts in “opportunity zones” ● Anyone else that wants to be a part of the conversation to make sure the 15 million

in CARES ACT funding for opportunity zones is provided to the right individuals and small businesses in the city of Newark.

● College students from the local colleges - NJIT, Rutgers

● What additional information do we need? What size does a business need to be to apply for an opportunity zone? Transparency--Who does the funding for opportunity zones go to? How is it utilized?

Who in this breakout session is willing to work on this/give this idea a try together? Participants shared contact information in the chat to continue the conversation further.



Session F

Topic Title: How can we create more connections across New Jersey's Cultural Communities?

Moderator: Jonathan Gordon

Participants: Marisa Benson, Kimi Wei, Paul Dennison, Lavita E. Johnson, Sharnita Johnson

Describe why you proposed this topic Opening statement- When making an art project, especially public art, it is very important to gather people from other communities to come and participate. Building friendship, learning from one another is important as a state, we are in the shadows of Philly and New York, it is important to represent NJ.


How can we invite our friends? What is one thing that works to invite people to an event? ● FB groups- Specific to NJ artist groups. ● Whatsapp groups ● The topic has to be right and it resonates with people. The topic has to matter with people. ● Be able to identify people who you know are interested. ● Whatever you are presenting has to be relevant and topical. The material has to be vibrant

and attractive. ● Not wordy, should be quick to the point. ● Morris Arts ● Valley Arts ● Princeton Arts ● Mork Arts ● Find their outreach mechanisms

What does not help to invite people to an event? ● Later millennial- prefer to go to places with friends

Art All Day- Trenton- An artist from the Bronx came down, but did not have a chance to eat. It was important to give him an experience, so he had a meal to eat a good time and felt good and connected. Important to give him hospitality.

How do we give people hospitality when people come to Newark from other areas so they feel connected and feel like they had a good experience?

● reach out to the neighborhood associations and chamber of commerce for connections and offer them some free promotion.

○ You have to do things that entice people to participate. ○ Share the wealth of opportunity



● People really love culture of any type- they can relate to it ○ Taking people to Chinatown

● Food and Culture ● Ivy Hill Section of the West Ward

○ Annual International Festival and Music Concert ○ Ask everyone to bring some food for a potluck ○ People dress up ○ Share recipes

● People coming together in a collaborative way rather than competitive way. ● Newark ● large immigrant population ● make sure flyers are translated in additional languages ● Eyes like mine- first city to participate in NJ disability act

From an arts producer standpoint- To earn a commission as an artist is extremely important

Newark Arts Festival- many people participated.

ACTION STEPS- to show hospitality How are we going to make Newark more hospitable when they visit?

● Go attend cultural events and support the youth!

How do the young people in the neighborhoods who are really talented, how do they connect with people who produce festivals, so they learn and produce their own work?

● getting the youth to work with you and work on problem solving ● Support the youth when they have their own internal drive ● Creating internship and membership opportunities ● Going out to schools to find people who are in arts programs or theater shows and

connecting with them. Making personal connections.

Any culinary schools in Newark? Food is great in the city!



Session G

Topic Title: How can we create a more sustainable localized food system utilizing the expertise of our current Newark-based farmers and gardeners?

Moderator: Tobias Fox

Participants: Susan Haig, Meghan R., Irene Cooper-Basch, Naeema Campbell, Hellane Freeman


Moderator works to bring focus into protecting the long-term sustainability of urban farming and of the Green Spaces in Newark. Has taken a leadership role in the Newark Food Collaborative to amplify the local food system. An immediate goal is to demonstrate how urban agriculture supports community development.

Doing that in part by creating Newark's first community urban farm with a greenhouse, kitchen, chickens, farmstand, and enclosed area for a store. Funding came from a waste management company that reduced its (pollution?) penalty -- $288,000 given to purchase land/set up the farm. This has created a path for other local growers to follow this lead -- go from lease holder to land owner. Six other growers are now developing proposals to take to the city to develop land.

Land Tenure Working Group. Organizing 3 community events a year and pool resources together to be a more direct resource to the city and create more access to fresh healthy food.


How do we take the existing knowledge base and community and amplify the food insecurity issues that have come up related to COVID?

We have seen COVID unveil how disconnected people are with where their food comes from. If you’re hungry where will you go? Few people have experience with community gardens and other food resources besides deli/grocery stores.

Important idea of merging the wellness of a community with economic development.

Newark has an adopt a lot program. Most farmers operate in that. But this new urban farm is the first type of this project for Newark, setting this roadmap for how to develop green development projects especially related to urban agriculture. Navigating and learning from it.



Someone sees the community gardens not as placeholders (until developers come in) but as necessary greenspaces, in addition to helping with food insecurity and food deserts.

Everyone has their own approach to food access, and that can be a problem. A corporation is a totally different thing. What the moderator's group is doing is working with people. And trying to incorporate systems to help with distribution and efficiency.



Some farmers/gardeners are more interested in growing food and sharing with friends, family and neighbors. Others are more interested in bringing to farmers markets and online ordering programs. Moderator’s group developed a CSA model Farm to Table Co-Op. Membership purchase and get 20 weeks’ worth of produce for $395. But you can sponsor a family in need by purchasing a membership and donating it to a family in need. RWJBH another grants to support this and purchase more family memberships in 2020. Looking to go from 20 to 50 families by working with other growers.

A good example is how Montclair approved an ordinance that protects the long-term sustainability of gardens throughout the city. Front yards, backyards, open lots. Would be awesome to have Newark do the same. Now gardening is seen as a placeholder until development happens, not as development itself.

● What is in the way of advancing this work?

Challenging to do this on a grassroots level. Most of the funding has been Whole Cities and then RWJBH. Looking for more donors to expand more support. Need more support on the policy level.

What kind of support does this movement need? Fewer hoops to jump through? Support for 3 community events -- conference, garden tour, community meal (200 people at the table in the middle of the street).

Who in this breakout session is willing to work on this/give this idea a try together? (Let’s get a date on the calendar now!)

Tobias, Helene, Susan, Naeema


What’s next? Hoping as we move into 2021 to have a document on paper and push for legislation to support the long-term viability of urban agriculture.



An article or some publicity about the urban farm.

Keep going with the work related to using the land for farming. Look into The North East Land Farmers Trust, as well as the Black Farmer’s Land Trust.

Also, in Paterson, there’s a food policy group that is connected to the United Way that might be useful.



Session H

Topic Title: How can we use schools as community organizations working collaboratively with leaders, non-profit organizations, activists, and families to be a catalyst for broader change?

Moderator: Sean Healy

Participants: Parth Mehta; Courtney (local charter school), Brenda Beavers; Mary Catherine Stoumbus; Wendy Liscow; Meghan R, Sanaz; Irene Cooper-Basch


All participants were involved and highly experienced, one participant having been involved and working in Newark for the past 50 years. Participants ranged from educators on various levels, from teachers to administrators, to non-profit orgs and fellows.

Just because you have a skill doesn’t mean you can teach it. Like going to the Dr., a lot has nothing to do with practicing medicine. Because you can/have learned(ed) and have been in schools doesn’t mean you can teach nor that a teacher can be an administrator.


● What are the fresh ideas, partnerships, or approaches that would help us take action? o Partnering with Prudential, Audible and pitching specifics programs and ways to

partner with schools o CSR: Community Social Responsibility and DI: Diversity Inclusion divisions of

Newark Corps for funding o Mentoring initiatives

▪ Community Members: Mailmen, etc. ▪ Kinship Program: Grandparents/Caregivers

o Partnerships to provide Training: Budgets, Grant Writing, etc. o Identifying CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and DI (Diversity & Inclusion)

divisions of corps/companies/foundations: Audible, Prudential, Siemens o Mentorship from Sponsoring Corps: Mock Performance Interns/Shadowing/Skill

Building that are paid and lead to hiring = pathway to employment.



▪ Employees too often come from outside Newark and then leave, as do spending power and strength of communities

o Resource Mapping: Could be done by students covering their school’s student needs in their local area and throughout Newark

● What is in the way of advancing this work? ○ School and families identifying a hub for resources in their community ○ Identifying funding for the right programs and partnership opportunities ○ Creating Ecosystems around schools to support the students and families ○ Funding attached to specific programming/outcomes. Nonprofits/programs need

operating expenses and funding to spend how and when they see the need - flexible, adaptive.

○ Lack of knowing where centralized resource hubs are located for students and families

Know how and when to reach out


○ Local Corporations - funding ○ Development Directors - to identify funders and handling those relationships ○ Centralized Hub of Resources

Local Non-profits Family Success Centers Essex County Council for Young Children (ECCYC) Communities in School: national non-profit

○ ● What additional information do we need?

○ Lists/Relationships w/: potential funders non-profit Training/Staff: develop budgets, write grants, etc.


Everyone!




-------------------------------------------

Find Essex County Family Success Centers, the Essex County Council for Young Children and other orgs in Newark that serve as a hub for resources as well as identifying the Full-Service/Community Schools in Newark. Participants will connect to put together Programs and Partnerships with local corporations to fund, pay and hire Newark students.

RESOURCES: www.Digitalundivided.com - org of Black Women

PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT WITH AUDIBLE: ● Intern (unpaid or paid) - Students to be readers for books/Verbal Storytelling that

leads to hiring ● Audible for Kids by Kids Platform

Life skills Training

Newark has so much to offer to be able to hire from within and keep them here.



http://www.digitalundivided.com/

Session I

Topic Title: What if Newark pioneered the way in educating and training our children how to healthily process and communicate their emotions through SEL being taught in school?

Moderator: Tiffany Newton

Participants: Kay Reece, Jenny Scott, Sheldon Steele


The awareness of self, the awareness of other, responsible decision making and establishing healthy relationships.

Emotional intelligence - always a teaching and a learning moment that is happening

Studies have shown that SEL learning can help eradicate substance abuse, increase academic learning retention, positive perception of the classroom, and decreased anxiety.

We are advocating for this to be incorporated into the core curriculum. We need this learning to provide our students with the tools to exit survival mode and allow our people to thrive.


Moderator has taught career development and has tried to offer communication skills and being focused on the practice of communication and clearly asking for what you want. Moderators feel that if you connect Career Development with SEL that will give a strong connection and inform their communication skills by allowing them to really understand themselves and those around them.

Sometimes it is hard for people to express themselves when they have certain feelings. But when they talk about things that are objective, it is easier for them to relate to what they are feeling because it has a context around what they want. Tapping into their passion.

Teaching SEL can open up a whole new world. Creating safe space for students to develop confidence and emotional intelligence that focuses learning on them in a non-threatening way that uplifts them.

Cultural upbringing can sometimes hurt a child and as a result, long term, those emotions will manifest themselves in negative ways.



SEL allows people to deal with emotions and traumas to prevent injury.

Students get lost in the emotions - SEL learning is vital to any kind of program. The schools will eat this up because it is true success development for students. Creating the next generation of entrepreneurs. Possible mentorship and internship to integrate SEL learning.

Academia has taught unrealistic expectations. They are solely focused on academics but no socialization skills. I have taken small cohorts to practice this learning.

We all have our own individual experiences. Once we can process and understand what has happened to us, we can identify problems, find solutions, and enact change.

Now we can practice accountability and responsibility over your own life to eliminate chances of self-sabotage.

Less anger and more Love. Self-management and impulse control.

Social media taints the young mind and causes them to fill the void and seek validation.

Minimizes and eradicates peer pressure because it equips students with confidence in their individuality.

Emotional foundation and experience with the real world to really know what is going on.


Connecting SEL with Career Development will better sell to the school.

We are urging for the merging of the two. Strong emotional intelligence is necessary for the next generation of our workforce.

Providing people with the tools to master their emotions so that the emotions do not control them. Understanding triggers and traumas to encourage people to go deeper to assess their traumas to ignite healing.

We need uniformity and getting them integrated into the schools. This is the opportune time to get this momentum and get this implemented to get the teachers, parents, and students on board.

For the early informative years, what matters more than implementing it as a course is that you make the teachers understand it thoroughly. If the teacher is grounded in these principles to be good stewards and lead by example in this SEL structure.

Getting everyone on board, parents, teachers alike. We have to break generational traumas. The schools have not been making it a priority. This is why collaboration and fellowship.



Company called Castle has workshops for SEL programming.

SEL will set the foundation so that they know it is okay to embrace authenticity and individuality. We want students to have these tools.


Continued conversation and collaboration.



Session J

Topic Title: In a city where there are so many collaboratives and so much discussion about collective impact, what are the complexities/challenges that limit our ability to impact systemic change in the City of Newark and how do we as a community overcome them?

Moderator: Traymanesha Lamy, Nicole Fields

Participants: Kim Gaddy, Jeremy Johnson, Camilo Mendez, Irene Cooper-Basch, Jessica Laus, Wendy Liscow, Joe Amditis, Sanaz, Joy Lee, Elizabeth McGrady, Pamela B. Daniels, Deborah E, Brit Harley, Imani S.


What are the challenges for collaboratives?

● People are stressed ● Collaboratives don’t work because they are based in politics, because people are territorial ● We have to lift and hear all of the voices that is similar in every ward ● Collaboratives are built without asking the people what decisions would the people make ● People hoard power ● There is still hope. You have individuals who are still willing to do the work


● What are the fresh ideas, partnerships, or approaches that would help us take action? ● Best collaboratives create space for the community-business, service providers, it’s

important to pay people for what you need ● Time is a big resource needed ● Social changes do not happen in a linear way ● Sometimes funders don’t have a clue what happens on the ground when they fund

projects ● You have to be in it for the long haul ● Public safety has improved in Newark ● We have to think, are we moving the needle? ● Communications are one of the problems



● There is not enough strategic action planning in the City of Newark ● How do you make sure that you have the right folks at the table to push the mission

forward? ● Funders should not be leading the movement ● Issue-driven causes will keep people motivated; the funding will come. ● When politicians come in, they push different agendas

● What is in the way of advancing this work? ● Newark Digg is an organization that is doing the work, they are well-organized. ● Things along the interim should be celebrated as well ● We need to be more intentional in the work as a collective effort ● All of these collaboratives are like transformers, when we work together, we are

more powerful

● Who are the people we need to engage? ● Ask funders to be a part of the conversation ● City Council needs to be engaged ● Get the blocks together to talk to one another ● People have become more insulated ● We need structure that can live past more than one administration ● We need to encourage the elected officials to keep the movement/collabs going ● We need to find out what happened in the past


● Promised to communicate more ● Promise to be a good partner and offer the resources that I have ● Promise to collaborate across silos ● Promise to push the arts and higher education to collaborate ● Promise to engage all the stakeholders and be more inclusive ● Promise to have an open and honest conversation ● Promise to train youth to become our leaders ● Promise to follow up with the elders



TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20th | DAY 4 Agenda Topics

Session One:

1. As mature leaders and activists, how can we cultivate youth but still give them the space to paint their own personalized pictures of change, justice, and leadership?

2. How can Cannabis Businesses help Newark? 3. How can we make greater use of parks as outdoor space for

meetings, events, resource centers and other purposes during the COVID 19 Pandemic?

4. How can we keep our elders (seasoned citizens) informed, who are not technology savvy pre-, during and post-COVID-19?

5. How can we develop a robust general rehabilitation effort for homes in Newark?

6. How can philanthropy organize to advance racial justice in Newark?

7. What can we build together in Lincoln Park to create more wealth for creative entrepreneurs?

Session Two:

1. How can we improve the communication flow of information in the community?

2. Cómo empresas y/o emprendodedores como podríamos generar mayor colaboracion e integración en nuestra comunidad? (session conducted in Spanish)



3. Whom do we speak to about getting the code inspectors to come out on a timely basis once the permit for reopening has been approved?

4. How can we have accountability and enforce violations of EPA? What's the purpose for EPA health and safety and quality of life?

5. Newark owns 35,000 acres of the highest ecological value forest in New Jersey—more than twice the area of the City itself—which buffers the City’s five water supply reservoirs. How can Newark best leverage the forest’s sustaining values of: water resource production and protection; accessible recreation; climate resiliency; vast reserve of biodiversity, to improve the quality of life in the City?

6. How can open schoolyards benefit the community? 7. What systems will help us to create a cohesive public arts

ecosystem (virtual divide, community input, and sustainable practices)?

8. How can we build a network of Trust-ed messengers (individuals and organizations) to disseminate reliable information, promote access to services, and develop networking opportunities for Newark families with children ages 0-3?



SESSION ONE NOTES

Session A

Topic Title: As mature leaders and activists, how can we cultivate youth but still give them the space to paint their own personalized pictures of change, justice, and leadership?

Moderator: Stacy Tyndall

Participants: Nathaly Agosto-Filión, Sandra Fernandez, Wynnie Hines, Mary Catherine Stoumbos, LaRhonda Boone, Elliot Ruga, Rashan Owiga, Yolanda Stokes, Brother Carlos Walton, Solomon Midleton, Traymanesha Lamy, Shania Hamilton-John, Soniyah Lawrence, Trenean Watts, Jennifer M, Jessica Laus, Christine Calva, Dayana Moscoso, Cisely Beeden, Earvient Clark, Nagely Castro, Michael Ordonez, Reggie Rosarion, Rashon Dwight, Cristal Davidson, Pamela Daniels


Work with the GEM Project Grad student at Rutgers University


As a young adult, I've noticed in my experience in interactions with you, a lot of their ideas are suppressed. How do we navigate supporting our youth growing in leadership without imposing our ideas?


Challenge: ● How best to build relationships, as a community organizer, when it comes to youth?

○ Youth turn over because they graduate or move on because they had to be there ○ Young people don’t feel heard, their voices aren't valued

● We need to listen - We need to be directed by our young people ● I struggle how to get that guidance and direction from various youth organizations ● I would dare say — we have to start by asking young people this question! ● Let them start this conversation ● We make decisions with good intentions but their voices aren’t always heard — it isn’t fair ● Everyone, old or young, wants to be heard and respected



● Must teach youth that relationships don't happen instantaneously (like they are used to)


● Trying to cultivate them and trying to respect them at the same time ● Young people haven't figured out what they want yet, who they are, who they want to be ● We have to capture their interest and inspire them ● Need to put $$ into them, into the programs, into the work we are doing with youth - for

them to be able to come up with something and see it from concept to fruition - flexibility

● Resourcing them to do something that really motivates them, what interests them ● Design an organizational tactic

○ Cultivate what’s already there, what kind of person are you ○ They have the paint brush, I/we are just here to provide the paint

Problem: ● I feel completely out of the loop when it comes to youth engagement

Q: ● What tactics are you using to engage youth - to pull out their ideas/interests, help

cultivate? ○ Stepping Stones Resource ○ Newark Environmental Commission ○ Engagement within Newark - completely inundated with events, programs, etc. ○ Groups working in silos instead of with a whole bunch of different groups ○ Newark Communication - Street Team ○ Southward Children’s Alliance - Book: You Can’t Text the Conversation (but you

can!) ● Take/make opportunities to interact with youth!

○ Ex: Music - sometimes we just hear noise - in reality it’s how they are feeling, social justice, looking for a hero

■ Tune in and hear the WORDS they are saying ■ Dress, sit, communicate - maybe they can only use text to express how they

feel ■ Style of confrontation is different

● Establish communication in a way that is comfortable for THEM (we were that age once) ○ We can cultivate communication skills directly in text

● It’s their culture - we have to create space for different types of culture

● Connected social political development to youth development theory ○ Platform to develop critical consciousness ○ Help young people to recognize their own agency ○ Help recognize social economic position

● We don’t give them voice - We don’t give their voices power - innate within them ● Our programs - youth are not just a stakeholder, consumer, they are a key component ● Recognize that and appoint them within structures, help dictate and develop core

components of the program ○ If they have a voice in it, that’s when it changes things



● Let go of the strings! When we create the space, know it is for us to let go of the reins and to let them be able to maneuver through the process

○ We provide the skills and resources ○ Don’t put young people in leadership roles just to fail, provide the resources and

skills they need in order to be effective leaders

● 12 y/o youth: ● My school isn’t a comfortable and safe space for us to voice our opinions ● Principal is very old school - forces a lot of old-school ideas on us - more strict

○ Ex: binders required (heavy) instead of notebook ● Whenever we try to have a conversation, they find a way to shut us down

Solution: ● Programs came into school and try to partner with both of us ● If we (students) could go to principal to voice our opinion WITH an authority that supports

us

Q: What would it look like if these systems of suppression instead were a space where your voices are heard and you get to really personalize your experience?

A: My school is very much like you’ve said - we’re given a lot of power — no, that’s so sounds so scary… but we’re given a lot opportunities to do what we want

○ Ex: We started a newspaper club and we were allowed to do what we want with it This is your club He kept reassuring me that he's going to be there to support/help me

● There was a money issue, don't worry, we will fundraise ● Very reassuring the entire way, supportive

Now we have the most beautiful website ever ○ It encourages youth, students at our school to speak up and speak their mind ○ They don’t necessarily agree with us, but teach us how to do it [petition] ○ My life like a million times better because I just enjoy it so much ○ I’ve been able to lead meetings, make change in my school; it’s really exciting

● We are missing out on golden opportunity — intellectual capital ○ That young girl’s teacher should be hosting PD (professional development) to

coach them on how to initiate efforts with your people ○ Re: moving on and losing them - induct them into another level of leadership - serve

as mentors, facilitators, leaders ○ High expectation and accountability

● Exposure is everything! ○ Train to NY - Black Caucus

● Recycling and bringing those people back into the work ● Young people need to be utilized again - intellectual capital ● Use the young people that are in front of us - don’t think of the (stereotypes)

Student: ● Whenever we’re talking about voicing the opinions of the youth, teacher should be with us,

like a form of interaction where they can support us



○ Students what to voice their political actions ○ Want to voice how they want to change

● They don't show us a lot of programs or resources we really need ● It should be a two-way street for teachers and students


Action Steps: LB - I am going to go back and start a conversation with the young people I work with to get their voices, hear what they say, what they feel is needed

Q: 5000 kids in Newark who are not being engaged, not being heard, how do we engage them, get them to talk to us, connect?

A: Finding someone to be the go between - sometimes it’s like Charlie Brown between young people and older people - disconnect

● Programs that speak to them - i.e. manhood training - someone who speaks their language, uses their style of communication

○ Utilize young people to get to other young people ● Maximize what works - like that student’s teacher who is supportive ● Everyone has talents/gifts - we need to be say OK how can we get them to do things they

like ○ Money = bank, dance = class, music = studio, rebuild computers = club ○ Put the resources where they want = creates entrepreneurship ○ Meet young people where they are rather than where we want them to be! ○ Allow space for youth feedback - where they are, what they want - programs reflect

their needs “Closed mouths don’t get fed.” - how to we empower others to speak,

especially those that have been shut down in other circles

● May not agree, may not see eye-to-eye but going to support you by any means I can



Session B

Topic Title: How can Cannabis Businesses help Newark?

Moderator: N/A

Participants: Aida Sanchez Ross


Tema controversial- mucho suportes con la parte de medicina. Cuando se pone como una independencia no es muy bueno. Cuando se vuelve legal, se da la elección de elegir a ti, si tu quieres o no quieres. Si se vuelve legal tu tienes que publicarlo. Importante ver qué aspectos han ayudado en otros estados o países. Depende de donde esta, depende con la educación. Se vuelve taboo.



Session C

Topic Title: How can we make greater use of Parks as outdoor space for meetings, events, resource centers and other purposes during the COVID 19 Pandemic?

Moderator: Rhenotha Whitaker

Participants: Jonathan Gordon, Jody Jaron, Scott Dvorak, Elgin Cintron, Carla Robinson, Natasha Dyer, Daniel Perez Cuevas, Alec Barnieh, Reginald Rosarion, Krysten Allen, La’Keisha Ciprian, Krystle Allen, Zac Cole, Joy Lee, Nathaly Agosto-Fillión

Welcome Moderator and Breakout Session Manager welcomed the attendees and introduced United Parks As One, which is a citywide alliance of neighborhood-based park, playground, and garden groups dedicated to creating, maintaining, and activating open spaces for the benefit of Newark residents and communities.


Moderator opened the conversation with this question:

How can we do it? How can people get back into the parks?

● We need information. There is a lack of information right now, COVID 19-wise. We can totally socially distance without being in risk.

● Plan outdoor gatherings that can make people to attend events there ● Whenever we held outdoor events we can spread the word as much as we can so the

community knows about these ● There are certain specific needs right now due to the Pandemic, so we can find those needs

in these outdoor activities. ● It is important to publicize that our parks are open, maybe a lot of people do not attend

these because they believe these are closed. ● When it comes to COVID-19 Rules everything has to be approved, so we need support from

the government to facilitate those proposals to happen ● We need to activate our parks, especially now, make them noticeable in our community.


What are the fresh ideas, partnerships, or approaches that would help us take action?



The moderator asked for specific ideas or proposals to make people return to the parks, some ideas that were shared:

● Generate specific seasonal activities like an park pumpkin carving ● During the spring maybe planting ● Special outdoor gardening programs for senior citizens ● Outdoor book clubs in the park ● Walking outdoor clubs, were we don’t have to be all together but have this feel of

community ● Fitness classes–outdoor ● Follow local fitness personalities that held free classes on park, so we can be able to attend ● Music events or dance events. Especially right now with all the venues closed. ● Use tools like social media marketing, social media posts, attractive video material to

advertise these activities. This may run from the state or a private agency. ● Simplify the permitting process for parks and open spaces. It is confusing and could

definitely be improved for our current circumstances! ● Collaborate with a lot of artists, different artists from different industries so we can fill

those necessities from the community, not just some of them. ● Create a platform or a event that gathers different age groups and likes so we can amplify ● Try to get all the arts organizations in Newark to support free programs in parks so they

can offer different kinds of content to the community. We need to cover different needs. ● There is a wonderful project called Travel History that shares the actual history of each

park, so we can learn about how that space was earned and turn that into something more meaningful. It inspires people to attend and be grateful for the spaces we have in our community.

● We need to know how accessible a park can be ● Have signs of the Community Board on Parks, to know who is coming here. ● Have little stakes with QR Codes to give you an idea about events being held, or just having

information through these codes. Maybe a weekly recurring event. INFORMATION is KEY, this can definitely be a way to promote more.

● Make the parks more interactive with the experiences, maybe that can offer a follow up activity: Virtual Hiking trail, Historic Facts, Scavenger Hunt.

● Offer to the community a deeper learning of the why of the name or the parks that are in Newark

● We should start reaching out to those Newark institutions like “La Casa De Don Pedro” to take those activities outdoors, in this way it’s a two way benefit. They promote their institution and everyone benefits from this

What is in the way of advancing this work? ● An attendee pointed out that he is new in the area and that he has tried to launch some

outdoor public events but right now he is facing problems with getting the proper permits. This is definitely a limitation, and knowing how to get those or find the correct guidance will definitely help.

● There’s always been a communications deficit when it comes to navigating the permitting process for the average citizen.

● An attendee shared that he is trying to lead some educational-purposes hikes, but that he is facing a lot of limitations from the government with permissions.

● Lots of support in the group for simplifying the permitting process for parks and open spaces. It is confusing and could definitely be improved for our current circumstances!



● There’s always been a communications deficit when it comes to navigating the permitting process for the average citizen.


● An attendee shared this useful link about Dept of Recreation, Cultural Affairs & Senior Services (the folks who oversee programming run by the City), that is evaluating https://newark.seamlessdocs.com/f/sk9vved7pp0x

● Request electricity services on the Park, just so you don’t have lighting as a limitation ● Participants really engaged with the conversation and want to gather in November to put

some ideas together. ● Another attendee shared this link

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1slAL_sz2iD_SUXWz6DThE_6I2q9MQLr7/view to learn more about the Newark Department of Recreation’s Program Calendar - if that link isn't working, I got it from the Rec Dept's website: https://www.newarknj.gov/departments/rcass it's the little box called "Program calendar"

What are two actions we can take in the next two weeks? ● We need to organize meetings, maybe a monthly meeting so we can gather people. ● The moderator committed to send to all the attendees a follow up invitation to gather on

November 21 ● Another attendee committed herself to attend that November meeting, specially because

she wants to bring that accessibility to parks. ● The attendee that previously mentioned that he was having problems with the leading of

some educational hikes committed himself to “not throw into the towel” and keep working on this initiative



https://newark.seamlessdocs.com/f/sk9vved7pp0x

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1slAL_sz2iD_SUXWz6DThE_6I2q9MQLr7/view

https://www.newarknj.gov/departments/rcass

Session D

Topic Title: How can we keep our elders (seasoned citizens) informed, who are not technology savvy pre, during and post COVID19?

Moderator: Lavita Johnson

Participants: Levar, Sherri Goldberg, Jerri Mitchell Lee, Joy Lee, Jacqueline Hinkson, Carmen Pendleton, Nadirah Brown, Ronald Chalusian, Rev. Eyesha Marable, Elizabeth McGrady, Kim Cook, Kim, Wynnie Hinds


● Getting seniors connected so many have phones but they only know how to make phone calls don’t know how to use them

● Wellness Coaches USA represented ● Want to get ideas to share and get the ideas out ● Trust for Education: many of the caregivers for young children. Communicating and

making sure they get info to help the young children is complicated. ● Jewish Renaissance Foundation in Perth Amboy: getting ready to have a call for

collaboration. Conference calls with seniors and isolation is a real problem. Conference calls don’t do it as far as ways of communicating. Looking at things we can come up with

● NJPAC 's elder council have 27 of them that they’ve been visiting their homes socially distant or getting a young person to connect with them so they can connect with them. Hosting Pearls of Wisdom once/month and the people don’t always have technology. People don’t know what they don’t know, without making them feel bad, not secure in technology what will we feel like

● Elders who are leveling up we honor them, but we want to make sure we have all options ● United Parks as One, president of AARP chapter. During covid at a loss for snail mail. One

member asked for a Zoom meeting what would be the best way to reach everyone at all times. Everyone still not ready/many members still have a flip phone

● North Residential Medical Center present in conversation


● People may be interested in the topic if they have older relatives. Had to do a virtual zoom happy birthday for her mother’s great grandmother. Mom doesn’t like using the technology.



● Shoutout for elders on call to offer consensus and experience: elders on the call are savvy, but have friends who are not as savvy, some are retired professors who are in their 80s, always communicating, always having phone banks

● BUT there is a population of elderly in District 1, due to covid - not computer savvy, high schoolers have to fulfill a community service credit. Volunteer students that would go to senior homes and pick up groceries for seniors, things that were appropriate like talk or take seniors on a walk. Opens up students to learn how to communicate with elderly and helps elderly with being shut in

● Elderly: need someone to talk to them, have fear. ● Younger students are on remote learning: ● If we could reach out to managers of senior buildings, social worker is still active there,

they have access and they have a PA system where you don’t have to come in contact, then you can talk to them on the phone and may be able to get individuals tech support

● Goal is to give people sense of worth and verbal communications whether on the phone or in person

● Suggestions: getting people accessed to library, because library has tech support ● Youth: are tech savvy, we have excellent students in the Newark Public Schools, can we

connect them with seniors to fulfill community service and connect them with seniors ● Zoom meeting with Wisdom Council: next Wisdom Council they will be teaming a young

person up with a senior to have that interaction. Young person with a senior ● Looking at other countries/places like Japan, Africa, China, places where when you become

an elder family’s responsibility to take care of you. We need to start building a society where we’re not throwing our seniors away.

● Inner city: shutting our seniors away, but many of the seniors in their houses are very active. Our culture especially in the south, we take care of our seniors. Here something happened, with COVID, it got more isolated. Before COVID, seniors were very involved. Move and went places travelling on bus trips

● Lack of knowledge & mental health regarding COVID ● Partner with others who target their population for seniors. For example, Essex County has

a senior services department, now has a new director, not many people are aware of the services that they offer

● We need more home visits ● From Facebook, we know many seniors are still active in the community, but we might not

know that. ● Seniors give us a chance to learn from our history so we can go forward and look to the

future. Local groups that we don’t know about may already be working with the community. ● Can’t use social media because many of our elders aren’t on social media. ● Wednesdays: food distribution, that is people’s out and chance to go out ● Wisdom Council: ● Outreach for non-seniors, adults around mid-30s. Hard to do outreach, comes down to

ground contact. Terminology: “street team”. You have to go door to door. Using resources like the library



Partnering elders with millennials: had a “chat and chew” luncheon recently with Uber eats and had meals delivered to elders in the middle of a conversation. “Pearls of wisdom” histories of elders in light of social justice. Had a voting/education empowerment/protest past and present. Gave room to hear the same topics we’re dealing with today how people dealt with them in the 60s. Asked seniors in advance to provide pictures. We took their pictures into the platform. Zoom is the easiest platform because you can get on Zoom whether you have a phone or tablet, even with a flip phone

● Webinars and streams are accessible. ● Instagram and Facebook are not as accessible because they don’t have accounts/ have to

find it. If you go on too long, FB or Instagram has to bop them out, we lose the seniors and they don’t try to get back on

● Adoption process: adopt an elder in a way that seniors don’t even realize that they’re learning

● Questions for groups or individuals working with high school students, what is support behind students and training how does this get built over time sounds like an amazing idea

● What are different strategies for different levels of seniors/development ● AARP opens up at 55 but different levels, sometimes things are different even at different

years ● “Oooh, just keep on living and you’ll learn” ● Stepping Stones Resources and Newark Environmental Commission ● We love seniors and working with seniors even if approaching age itself ● Newark Conservatory on Prince St with table to table distributes food to Seniors every

Thursday. ● City tries to reach out to seniors. Technology is a big issue for a lot of seniors. ● What are the ways we can help through Stepping Stones? ● Many of us have parents/grandparents. Different technologies. Elderly father does

crossword puzzles on Sundays and keeps his mind agile. He doesn't know how to use a cell phone, but he’s learned to use the laptop for the crossword puzzles.

● We push them/we shop for them going to stores was people’s life before, not being able to do that is super hard.

● In Perth Amboy, pairing our youth with seniors, so they have a PAL, discovering what activities they like to do together. Will deliver activity kits to get youth and seniors looking forward instead of being stuck in COVID-19.

● Giving an activity helps break the ice for interacting around activity, once a relationship is formed, they don’t have any trouble communicating. Deliver lots of types of activities

● Flyers in the food distribution is one to communicate ● Encouraging puzzles: if there are some type of way could mayor maybe do puzzles in his

food packages ● Seniors likes puzzles keeps them alert and uses their time ● Seniors like to tell stories, youth would like to hear life stories, students can ask questions

back and forth. Could we include seniors in remote learning ● Puzzles can be in technology



● Mayor Raz Baraka: so supportive and servicing and protecting our seniors. Perception that senior program is closed due to COVID/have changed

● Email address: Newark People’s Assembly, can sign up to receive emails. Have been active and things are opening back

● Connecting with county and city services ● Action plans: make a list of senior services, activities we can do technologically, ● Neighbors on the block where you live have phone numbers, we check on our seniors. One

elder: 97 and doesn’t have the internet. Neighbor makes sure that they have groceries delivered

● Newark Channel 78: maybe they can have a senior hour ● Call Lavita to get a senior hour to get things set up ● People might not be comfortable calling in on computer but if they see on TV and call in

how they grew up with TV and phone, they will call in ● Lavita wants to help people get their senior food delivery reupped. Please feel free to

connect with her ● One of the AARP chapters wants to connect with another pastor in our group

Other group commitments: ● Connecting Newark Senior Services to Essex County Senior Services



Session E

Topic Title: How can we develop a robust general rehabilitation effort for homes in Newark?

Moderator: Peter Chen

Participants: Suzanne Ishee, Hellane Freeman, Joy Lee, Nathaly Agosto-Filión


The Moderator talked about his work in Newark and statewide with the lead problem and how we need housing solutions to address issues such as lead allergens, poor window fixtures or other housing structure issues.

The Moderator mentioned some Challenges: Repairs are expensive for the hazards. Robust code enforcement makes basement rentals and illegal apartments disappear and landlords can’t afford to lose that.

Lots of bureaucracy in the housing rehab funding. Lot of the funding goes to the landlords and the tenants still see an increase in their rent.

There’s no general rehab fund for landlords and if there is something, it will push folks out because the rents will increase.


● So many municipalities have similar problems such as housing stock, weak markets that are landlord friendly and weak code enforcements (Paterson, Trenton, Asbury), but Newark can be the model.

● Newark has sludge funding that are not utilized (i.e. Tree Fund) There’s money available that can be made available for Enforcement Fees for slumlords and LLCs who own the rental properties. If this was enforced, there would be funding for house rehabs.

● Newark failed to provide funding for the small landlords and the tenants to fix the lead problem, the pipe erosion, etc. and instead wanted to invest in new trucks, new offices, etc.

● Newark needs to enforce what New York City did to hold accountable slum lords.

● Who is responsible for the code enforcement in the city of Newark? Who is responsible for the water department?



● There is money, but it’s not being utilized. There’s no transparency. When asked about the OPRA records, there’s nothing provided.

● This is a Flint type level and it’s not sexy enough

● Connecting Peter with Naeema Campbell at the Dodge Foundation.

● Lead exposure is not only in rental homes, but children are exposed in homes that are owned by grandparents--they’re living in Mom and Pop homes. The house is not maintained and the child is exposed.

● A lot of slum lords do not want to take advantage of any housing rehab funding.

● The language is not explicit enough for enforcement -- this should be a base program in Newark. If they did the enforcement and the fines were substantial, they would have the funding for it.

● We need to have better rent control because of the LLCs.

● Once you improve the property, you would then increase the rent.

● Reaching out for media/information sharing support, I would suggest contacting several people engaged in this conference. Focus should be on lack of enforcement and irresponsible use of funds.

● Contacts to reach out to: Kim Gaddy- NJ Clean Water and Susan Haig, NJ Sustainability News, Allison Lad, Deputy Mayor

● Let’s drill down to the heart of the problem and then create a human to human connection. Write a story about a child and how it affects them and that will make your message resonate more with people. That’s how the media will react to it and how they tell stories.

● Look at communities that were successful in housing rehab and what they did right and what they did wrong. Baltimore is an example to look at.

● Find one rehab property that was a success and how it was a success and let that be the model to tell the story and to connect to the media and other people.

● The narrative is important and finding the story is important, but a challenge is when you say this city did this and the pushback you get is this won’t work in Newark because of A, B and C.

● The general public is aware of this, but will not engage until you simplify it for them and use an example. You’re not going to get to any creative ideas until you get enough people involved.

● Get some Planners in the community that are working with program design modifications.



● Center for Community Progress VAD conference taking place this week.


● What are the fresh ideas, partnerships, or approaches that would help us take action? Look at other communities (NYC, Flint Michigan, Baltimore) and look at their successes and failures.

Find an example as a success story and use that as a way to connect to the people of Newark and the media. The general public is aware of the situation but will not engage until you simplify it for them and use a narrative that they can connect to. You’re not getting to any creative ideas/approaches until you get enough people involved.

● What is in the way of advancing this work? There’s no transparency in terms of where the funding is going or why it is not being used for Housing Rehab?

There are ideas, but we need to drill down and connect to the people personally to get them engaged.

● Who are the people we need to engage? Heads of Media Outlets Naeema Campbell at Dodge Foundation Kim Gaddy at NJ Clean Water Suan Haig at NJ Sustainability News Allison Ladd, Deputy Mayor Planners in the community that are working with program design modifications

● What additional information do we need?

Create a short list of issues and reach out to the media and ask if there’s reporters or outlets that can cover this. This needs to be public. The public needs to know there’s misuse of funds and lack of enforcement in the city of Newark.

Look at Flint, Michigan and their engagement with small business entrepreneurs. Some creative ways they’ve been raising awareness. For example, there’s fashion designers dealing with sustainability issues.



Session F

Topic Title: How can philanthropy organize to advance racial justice in Newark?

Moderator: Tanuja Dehne

Participants: Donna Kirkland, Marisa Benson, Naeema Campbell, Senia Cuevas, Susan Haig, Malcolm Rolling, Jacqueline Mestre, Jeremy Johnson


● Philanthropy goes to more established organizations ● Philanthropists need to go out into the community and listen to the people that they serve ● Foundations need to hold themselves accountable to invest organizations that are on the

ground ● Arts have a transformational power around power and justice ● Representation and diversity are important ● Corporations need to know who to go to and who to speak to fund ● Some grant guidelines disqualify organizations before they apply ● There is a power dynamic involved when organizations apply for grants ● Power dynamics are implicit ● If you don’t know if grants are available, you won’t apply ● Outreach is important ● Organizations need to have people who are qualified to do the work, such as accountants

and grant writers ● Small organizations may not have the money to hire the staff ● Grants traditionally have been structured in a white dominate frame ● How do you build a relationship with a grant maker? ● The process of applying for grants can seem mysterious ● Establish and partner with incubator spaces ● Keep inviting organizations in to the process of reimagining individuals. Develop a multi-

pronged approach to fighting racial injustice (yes changing laws and policy is important but there are other immediate needs in the organizations and community that could help to alleviate suffering until then)

● Tension in funding and the community


● Who are the people we need to engage? o Incubators o Small organizations o SCORE



o SBA o EPI (Rutgers University) o If you are purposeful you will seek out help o You can’t give voice to the struggle unless you’ve been through it.

● What additional information do we need? ○ Financial ○ RFP ○ Grant writing ○ 5013C ○ Resources available for nonprofits ○ Sustainability ○ Work with intermediaries ○ Generational operational support


● Mini zooms with small groups ● Link larger organizations to small organizations



Session G

Topic Title: What Can We Build Together in Lincoln Park to Create More Wealth for Creative Entrepreneurs?

Moderator: Anthony Smith

Participants: Keith Dent, Warren Thompson, Jeff Billingsley, Chop Stewart, Kimberlee Williams, Isiah Jefferson, Zaire Pearson, Gillian Sarjeant, Trevor Howard, Jeremy Johnson, Jonathan Gordon


This is an effort to bring creatives in and build our creative economy in Lincoln Park.

We are in the second reiteration of Lincoln Park - Lincoln Park 2.0 - striving to change the climate of the community by art and community engagement.

We are striving to bring more building and artistic entrepreneurship to add to Newark Symphony Hall, Newark School of the Arts, and Newark's Boys Chorus.


I think this is a very important time for this discussion. How do we look at creative entrepreneurs as change agents in the development of our community? Lincoln Park is a family and community that embraces the people. This community deserves an opportunity to tap into the talent that exists in our community.

Equity and ownership are a pathway to creating generational wealth.

Newark Business Hub - Creative and Social Entrepreneurship

I am interested to know what is available for creatives right now.

It is an honor and pleasure to be engaged in this conversation. I remember as a kid, going to Newark, I always feel related to the community.

Circles of Color Community Org - Bergen County - started off as a business network to exchange contacts, networks, and expertise. The whole purpose of this was to identify the business folks and those following the structure.

As people, we try to save the community and then bring in business but that does not work.



We have been funded by KPMG for an after-school program - there is funding for us, but we have to be ready to market and put yourself out there to let people know who you are.

I feel like I am related to everyone in Newark as well. I have deep family roots and ties to this community and I am proud to call Lincoln Park my home. The work that I do is very intersectional. Serial entrepreneur. I am always thinking about business and starting a business. I want to help make this a destination and be a part of the ecosystem that helps entrepreneurships from just having an interest, to implementing the development of their business. Partnership with Rutgers University Newark.

There are a lot of individuals that come in to just drain resources from the neighborhood. We spend a lot of time tracking down folks and holding them accountable but we need to focus our time and investment in working with OUR people in the community to take care of business and build our community.

As a social worker, I think it is important to heal our people and heal our people simultaneously with the business. Purpose and cause can drive efficient change.


This is about leveraging our resources and collaborative efforts to have a larger collaborative effort. Get a cohort ready to offer it up to the table when the resources and money are funneling in from outside sources.

We must revamp the entire ecosystem. We have committed to meeting again as a group to put change into action.

We are a spiritual people - I am passionate and ready to take initiative.

Newark Business Hub Properties can be an engine to use community revitalization to create wealth through real estate ownership for creative entrepreneurs.

I think this area is right in doing this to bring in organization to enrich the family unit.

Gaining commissions for projects and sharing resources within our networks and communities to work together to build.



SESSION TWO NOTES

Session A

Topic Title: How can we improve the communication flow of information in the community?

Moderator: Nadirah Brown

Participants: Yolanda Stokes, Brother Carlos Walton, Rashon Dwight, Rhenotha Whitaker, Sandra Fernandez, Pamela Daniels, Trenean Watts, Christine Calva, La’Keisha Ciprian, Tara Williams-Harrington, Nagely Castro, Aljerr Robinson, Earvient Clark, Tanjula Dehne, Salomon Midleton-Williams, LaRhonda Boone, Daniel Perez Cuevas, Cisely Breeden, Judy Kim, Traymanesha Lamy, Jennifer Made, Jeri-Mitchell Lee, Krystle Allen, Jeff Billingsley, Elizabeth McGrady, Shania Hamilton, Reggie Rosarion, Evelyn Fuertes, Senia Cuevas, Jenny P. Scott, Jamie McClintock


The question is, how can we improve the communication flow of information of the community. ● Work with the Division of Assistance and Benefits/County of Essex ● When I signed up for this event, the first thing that came into my mind is how can we

improve the communication flow in the city of Newark ● As a community outreach person, I deal with a lot of the community vendors, who do not

know the information that is local. I'm also a local resident of Newark. I will be there a lot of events I miss because of information that never comes my way.

Invite your fellow participants to share their experience and knowledge on the topic I just want to open up the discussion. We have 40 minutes; it seems as though we have a big group. I would like to welcome everyone, if we can respect each other's opinion on time.


Issue: ● Recruitment event connecting young people to afterschool and summer programs

○ Information goes up - city, schools, guidance counselors, social workers, but doesn’t always flow down

○ Pre-COVID-19, go around the city giving them out

Q: How do you go about making sure everything hits the ground?



Issue: ● Boys School - trying to get the information to the parents ● Solution:

○ Most we get through Facebook, social media - the email/phone may not be right ○ Especially now, during pandemic, have to find other ways of reaching them ○ They see it out there, they would be able to participate ○ Put flyers in mailboxes ○ Create an information post on social media asking everyone to share ○ -t's the duty of the district ○ Talking to each other instead of posting on FB!

Q: Suggestions / experience with the communication flow in the community?

Promising practice: - Really helpful, during COVID, should continue - communication from the Mayor's Office on social media.

- At first, getting like 2000 people - #s has dwindled 500 - Mayor communicating from the City of Newark perspective - People are paying attention

Problem: ● We all got ‘social media brain’ ● A lot of people are not on social media

Suggestion: ● Ongoing basis, message from one of the top officials ● Agree, rolling sequence of staff members / leadership to keep it going

Issue: ● Communication doesn’t represent the residents with disabilities in Newark

○ Newark population over 200,000 residents, largest municipality ○ There needs to be representation of communication for/about/by residents with

disabilities - not just seniors

A: ● Senior Department communicates in different ways - calls, mail and Facebook group

○ Why isn’t that done for everything/one? ● Are Newark Public Schools parents reading emails? ● Are they not giving it to you in a way that you want them? ● Only 2% of the students participate in 30+ free activities

Suggestion: ● Communication that could address residents with disabilities’ issues and resources

○ i.e. New Jersey Commission for the Blind in Newark for 110 years - eyewear vouchers for Blind/visually impaired without adequate medical insurance - how many people know?

● Communication platform that is all-inclusive ● Other specialized communities



Q: Where do parents go to find information? ● We could put it 50 thousand different places, but if they aren’t going, that doesn't help

Issue: ● Newark is very large with a lot of organizations are doing so many things - many similar -

but people don’t know about them ○ Silos are collaborating more, but there is still an overwhelming amount of choices

Suggestion: ● Having an organization - the city? - group parents, disabled, categories - be the branch and

representation of information - streamlined ○ Is that exclusionary?

● Organizations keep doing what they are doing

Q/Challenge: ● When COVID-19 hit, 30,000 kids do not even have Internet service, no access to all of these

things, many don’t even know what is going on ● How to connect and reach all people? ● News, grassroots - door-to-door ● Social media, websites

Suggestion: ● Kiosks around the City - each and every ward - lists all events citywide (calendar)

○ People/orgs can upload flyer online into citywide database Monitored for appropriateness

● Linked to an app on phone ● Include weather and important, 911 information, like missing kid ● “Newark is resource rich” - we need to have one goal, one vision

Q: Who do we need to engage? Actions that we need to take?

Issue: ● I have seen a lot of competition in programming - we are supposed to be working together ● We should be sharing, recommending each other’s programs - as long as it’s getting done! ● So many hands in the pot - people who need to be fed are not eating ● Must realize the programming is for US - not compete if the goal is being done

● Creating platforms and creating content ● Actively engaged in a collaborative project to create Newark committee news ● Empower residents to become storytellers - we are our own best resource (i.e. people in the

streets know where to go for food) ○ Pay residents to become storytellers - Center for Cooperative Media grant

● Solutions based - Journalism Boot Camp for residents with their cell phone

● Ways to get content to people are utilizing the resources that we have - public access television, community-based organizations (food kitchens, library, public schools’ databases)



● We know what the problems are, what are the solutions? How do we come up with realistic solutions that we could go and ask for funding together to do them and use our own resources?

● Mayor’s social media is a conduit - he has a listening ear ● Meet people where they are

Solutions: ● Use Newsletter for Nonprofit Professionals so we can all be in the loop and share this

information with the clients that we serve ○ We have a small business relief fund - underutilized, esp. by mom-and-pop shops

that need $ the most ○ Relying too much on Instagram. Are we selecting the best channels for the

population we wish to serve? If not, what is the medium? ● Coupon Book for all the things that are happening - book, website, local TV 78

○ Go back to basics ○ Make it the staple / standard to get information

Who in this breakout session is willing to work on this idea?

Resource: Book - Message Made Simple - how you communicate different messages to different populations - message, topic, audience, communicate

● Interested in a connectivity project - to think strategically about how we keep youth in the loop

● Make sure when we send this information out that it is in the language spoken at home ● Communication is a big issue ● COST is a big issue - cost of doing this and doing it effectively

○ Make sure agencies we are talking to are willing to pay ○ Must spend $ to get information to the people ○ Must want to do the work to get the money and willing to spend to do it ○ This is about business ○ Marketing strategy takes $ - even paid social media

● How do we have a quality of life improvement through communication? ● Opportunities to raise money together and go after funding in collaboration ● Having individual conversations to develop individual relationships ● What foundations/funding sources willing to put their money down

For OST programs (Afterschool and summer programs) we have a bi-weekly thrive mail. If youth programs send us their info, we offer free publicity and marketing for their events There were talks about kiosks being placed throughout the city. Is this still going to happen? Can this be an info board for the community?

We need a city-wide events calendar where people can upload their info and the events can be confirmed by a dept. and posted live, other towns have web boards and in addition we need snail mail, flyer drops, and phone trees

Some great resources for community events: Newark People’s Assembly - Lavita E. Johnson, Assistant Manager, or Andréa L. Mason, Senior Manager, Office of the Mayor- Mayor Ras J. Baraka



Youth: My mom gets text messages and social media is helpful for her, she also shares the stuff she sees with other parents on her social media.

One youth participant said: yeah , like me & other people at Weequahic high school saw that there’s remote school until late January on social media. A lot of parents have no idea unless they call and dig for the information.

Grassroots is important. Knocking on doors has been lost but needs to happen again but a centralized messaging process for all programming and activities?

Do we remember the Coupon book? What about an information "Coupon Book" or Virtual Centralized area? And make it accessible to all entities not just chosen groups.

NYC has a kiosk for the garment center

The city should have a city-wide resource fair about all of the resources Newark residents can apply to their daily life to engage with the community especially during this time if the pandemic permits and to use the various parks to host it as a part of a strategy to distribute information

One participant noted that with activities, including holiday activities: There are so many in competition with one another when we should be working together to make sure everyone has the information for all the happenings.

We should look at www.baristanet.com - Montclair's info website, https://southorange.worldwebs.com/business/detail/maplewood-online , etc. create a job for someone being a hulafrog rep for Newark just examples to look into to see if they can work here...

Youth participant: Do we have a site, app or news outlet already that has a variety of information on Newark news? Cause I know there are newspapers in the East ward or Ironbound that parents read, but is there one big one for Newark?

● I believe there is an app…”AXcess Newark” but it is no longer maintained ● Newark Times...one of the partners Jeff Mentioned on the project ● Newark Connect but the Community Events area is not updated regularly either, the best

thing I've seen is the Newark's People Assembly emails but maybe that info could be added to the Newark Connect App

● Donna Kirkland’s listserv ● Youth participant: I just looked at The Newark Times site, and it looks great! I was thinking

maybe other groups working closely with them. Groups audiences can be led there and then it would kind of become a place where all of Newark know to go to for info on events

● community bulletins on local bodegas to drive traffic to the new platforms ● Communications Department that the City does have! and leveraging the department of

recreation and cultural affairs and Newark happening

Thank you for mentioning the library. Here is one of our resources for community group links/resources. We have plenty of room to add more. http://nplwebguides.pbworks.com/w/page/5673495/Newark



http://www.baristanet.com/

https://southorange.worldwebs.com/business/detail/maplewood-online

http://nplwebguides.pbworks.com/w/page/5673495/Newark

There are multiple streams for communicating the info to various populations: seniors, youth, disabled etc., ESL

We also need lots of help with approaching the undocumented community of Newark with. How can we as social services servants assist them? We need to develop individual relationships!

Traymanesha Lamy: Going to begin convo with my team about a youth connectivity project next week. If you are interested, email me.

● Absolutely!!! It's going to need a budget.

Communication is big business and should be adequately funded! ● Some depts/orgs already operate in the communication space and have a budget. they

need to be brought to the table convo.

We need to get the appropriate organizations together and not have politics within it so that they share ALL of the info

Book on OST communication/messaging is called Message Made Simple. Email me and I can send it to you.

Evelyn Fuertes said: I send a weekly email with events throughout the state and create a google folder with all the flyers I get. If you want to send me info please feel free


Mod: Just in case everyone doesn't get to speak, put in the chat name, organization, interest with the topic. Make sure we continue this topic because it's very important to have the communication flow going on in the community because everyone isn't on social media.

● Put together a communications contact list - call a collective meeting w./ Communications Department spokesman

● Develop some kind of workshop - leadership and how to manage information overload ● Goal is to gather information so it's all in one place ● Reach out to other organizations to make sure we're all on the same page

● Individual: Collect a list of Entrepreneur Training programs - develop proposals, financial statements - be more organized about compiling existing activities and events

● Individual: I have a Communications contact list, other folks probably do too, stop and put all of those people's information in the same file



Session B

Topic Title: ¿Cómo empresas y/o emprendedores cómo podríamos generar mayor colaboración e integración en nuestra comunidad?

Moderator: Aida Sanchez Ross

Participants: Carmen Pendleton


¿Qué podemos hacer? ¿Qué podemos mejorar? El año pasado no había grupos en español, entonces este año es importante que haya espacios para la gente latina. No hay mucha gente Latina integrada en estas posiciones y programas. Es importante cambiar esto. Necesitamos estar más unidos, y apoyando los temas de la comunidad Latina.

Casa de don Pedro- hay mucho miedo, porque si vas a un lugar donde solo hablan inglés como puedo integrarme?

Tal vez no hay mucha gente en este grupo porque la gente que solo habla inglés no se sienten muy incluidos.

No veo mucha comunidad Latina, debemos mantenernos comunicados. Poquito, poquito agrandar este grupo. Tenemos que empezar a reunirnos. Incluir a más personas.

La mejor manera de reunirme con la gente es con la comida. Esto es difícil con los tiempos de covid.

Rutgers- grupo de padres, mayoría mujeres, cuando reunion tienen que tener cafecito, pan y eso ayuda la conversación. Aquí conocí mucha gente Latina muy artísticas, muy poderosa que pueden reunir mucho.

Cuando hay grupos bilingües eso es una manera para entregar. La gente tiene que sentir que están en casa.

La situación en Estados Unidos para los Latinos es trabajar a vivir.

¿Cómo juntos podemos hacer algo con nuestros talentos? ● Proposito a Casa de Don Pedro ● Proyectos de negocios- ayudando emprendedores



Comunidad de Camden- trabajos en los senior centers, trayendo programas de arte. Apoyar la educación a los niños. Las corporaciones grandes ayudan a la gente Latina porque eso ayuda a sus impuestos. Algo que estamos de mejorar es decir- invierta a tu equipo Impacto planetaria- tener reciclo

Muchas veces organizaciones creen programas cheveres, pero que no interese a la comunidad Latina, necesitamos crear cosas que interesan a la comunidad. La mejor forma de decidir qué programas son necesarios es hablar con la comunidad.

Pasitos- inventar a la gente que ya conocemos para empezar estas conversaciones y tratar de crear cosas para ellos.

Proyecto- Había una muchacha que tomó camisas viejas, y las convirtió en bolsas Reciclando es un tema muy importante. Como podemos poner estos productos dentro de tiendas. Ayuda con su propio negocio. Ella lo vende por Facebook. Abrimos un Facebook solo para este grupo- una persona hizo máscaras para promover sus productos.

Hay mucha gente que tiene talento pero no tienen el tiempo de tener su propio negocio, ¿cómo lo podemos ayudar?

Pensamiento- Crear una página de red que vende los productos de muchos Latinos. Como joyería, ropa, comida etc. Algo organizado - sería fantástico encontrar una persona que pueda administrar esto.

ACCIÓN Reunirnos con nuestros grupos en un zoom o en persona (distancia social) para ver que necesita la gente, que quieren ver en su comunidad.



Session C

Topic Title: Whom do we speak to about getting the code inspectors to come out on a timely basis once the permit for reopening has been approved?

Moderator: Jody Jaron

Participants: Levar, Lavita, Judy, Joy Lee, EPA discussion: Wynnie Hinds, Jacqueline Hinckson, and Lavita

The first twenty minutes of the discussion were about the Garden State Ballet’s issue with the code enforcement department. The next twenty minutes were a discussion about the EPA.

Read the Topic Question that you originally proposed ● Garden State Ballet: Went through whole summer, applied for reopening permit, had

professional cleaning/had professional, industry is not open, everyone is scrambling for part-time jobs, showed up to make sure everything was there, at 2:30 inspector still hadn’t turned up

● Didn’t know what to do/how to follow up ● Kept calling back on number and was a cell phone said that mailbox was full ● Went on for 4 weeks ● In New York: right before inspection- industry was put on pause button ● Was this the case for Newark? ● Had registered kids for classes ● Is anyone else having this issue in Newark? /Who do we call and what do we do? Not a

professional way to handle is unique ● We can’t do ballet in the cold because of uniforms ● Made huge investments in air filtration- other organizations have done the same thing,

other orgs ● Garden State Ballet ● So, we don’t feel so crushed- we need to get ahead- we want to give an answer for children

and families ● Ballet located at 60 Park Place- where the meeting is usually held- 9th floor, same floor as

the symphony ● City of Newark/Newark People’s Assembly that’s part of mayor’s office: going to find out

what the issue is, got on phone call during this to resolve the issue ● Wellness Coach USA ● On the call as a homeowner ● As a homeowner, restrictions on reopening- some college kids who are college kids ● Every now and then randomly: in terms of trick or treating or Halloween ● Most people travel outside of the area ● Halloween or bust: maybe doing a trunk or treat- people skeptical ● 4-inch PVC piping made a candy shoot so kids don’t have to come to do, decorated shoot



● Pomona Avenue Block Association: discussing Halloween- one thing in their block- giving out coupons to a local business

● Director will be calling back, ● Many things can be done by Zoom but ballet is not one of them, voice lessons, and acting

lessons via zoom, but ballet can be dangerous on Zoom. ● How long had she been waiting for code enforcement? ● Pomona Avenue Block Association: when you apply for a permit, has to be displayed in a

public place, some issues going with the contractors ● You can file a complaint in person and come on in for that ● Another question as a homeowner- interested in renovating, ● Contractor should be pulling the permit ● Participant wondering about adding a second bedroom- want to make sure design-wise it

will fly even before you have a contractor ● Is it up to code/yes or no? ● Had to hire an architect- needed to have idea put to paper- so could go according to code ● Permits/difficult/hard to come by ● Office has been opened since August of 2018 ● Is there a list for when doing work on a home? Buildings and Permits. ● Newark People’s Assembly is a great resource

A participant who works for the City of Newark was able to connect Jody with the Inspections office and an appointment was set up for the inspection to take place that afternoon!

Second Topic PIVOT: How can we have accountability & enforcement of EPA policies/standards/laws? What is the purpose of EPA in quality of life?

Reason as a topic: ● So many issues with the cell towers ● Local/state/federal laws updated because there’s so much time and technology has

changed ● We want people to know how cell towers/air/and noise is affecting the health of children

and adults ● EPA is about providing information, not about the deployment ● 5G: everyone has cell phones, if you have a 5G then you have to worry about it. We are

purchasing the technology ● Pushing it on young people and technology. Shiny objects ● Little kids with cell phones/not protecting themselves/with brain tumors ● Can have shield for laptop so it doesn’t go into your head ● Mindful- people in Europe protesting against 5G in their neighborhoods. Studies are not

conclusive. Representatives aren’t taking in the health ● Cancer, mental health, kidney: could these be linked to 5Gs? ● People have to realize they don’t need 5Gs ● Are we saying: we have no say- people prefer fastest cell phones? ● Other countries, have history of advocating for themselves ● If we were to educate the public and they would learn more, they would protest against the

companies that are making these. They would protest against companies making 5G ● Concern is how we can educate people about the effects of this.



● Cell towers inclusive of 5G/we have not put enough money into educating and communicating why things are coming in. One of reasons: landlords are being paid big bucks to put antennas in

● Radiation is serious ● We don’t know the facts ● Educate/consistently ● Town hall with Rutgers with the 5G ● Creative collaboration: one of the topics is 5G ● College and high school kids ● Topic is affecting everyone; we can do something and meet and collaborate ● Lots of research: some locations they won’t tolerate



Session E

Topic Title: Newark owns 35,000 acres of the highest ecological value forest in New Jersey—more than twice the area of the City itself—which buffers the City’s five water supply reservoirs. How can Newark best leverage the forest’s sustaining values of: water resource production and protection; accessible recreation; climate resiliency; vast reserve of biodiversity, to improve the quality of life in the City?

Moderator: Hellane Freeman / Elliott Ruga

Participants: Naeema Campbell, Suzanne Ishee, Wynnie Hinds, Zac Cole, Susan Haig, Heather Ayers, Julia Somers, Joy Lee, Alec Barnieh


Some people feel like they are not supposed to go to other parts of New Jersey



● Who’s getting the money and how is it being used?

● Why are you parceling off Newark’s wealth?

● People of color value open spaces, too

● There are a lot of dots to connect regarding sustainability

● Kids should be connected to the natural resources available to them

● Creating opportunities for children is a challenge especially during COVID-19

● Agriculture has to be a part of the school system in Newark



● Highlands depend on groundwater

● Groundwater becomes surface water

● How did the reservoir in Newark end up in the Highlands?

● The Passaic River was so polluted

● Mayor Hanes commissioned best place for water supply

● Several water systems in the highlands

● Land values increases poses threat because of development

● 2019 of September a sale was made 53 acres for $11 million

● There is no transparency

● Participants promise to find out what's going on and to stay in touch

● Participants promise to form a small group

● How can residents utilize the resources available and to let them know about the parks?

● Least fragmented forest in New Jersey



Session F

Topic Title: How can open schoolyards benefit the community?

Moderator: Scott Dvorak

Participants: Donna Kirkland, Cristal Davidson, Dayana Moscoso, Trevor Howard, Taylor, Naeema Campbell, Joy Lee


TPL has been doing this work in Newark for the past 25 years.


● What are the fresh ideas, partnerships, or approaches that would help us take action? o Organizations that are working in the communities to organize parents o See notes below

● What is in the way of advancing this work? o See notes below

● Who are the people we need to engage? o School Superintendent o Friends Group (PTA, Community Groups, etc.) o Business Owners o Local Non-Profits o See notes below

● What additional information do we need? o Other Corporations that could staff o See notes below


● November 11th is the United Parks As One (UPAO) Monthly Meeting. We should all attend.

● Taylor (student) made wonderful contributions and committed to continuing the work by asking to be included in the loop. His mother sits on the Newark School Board.




● All residents should have a public park within a 10-minute walking distance that include Public Schoolyards

● Needed now even more during COVID as a safe outdoor space ● ISSUES: Public Safety; Security; Clean Up; Maintenance = Responsibility and Liability;

Funding ○ Unattended Schoolyards ○ Collaborative Effort ○ Students: Community Service Hours ○ Alternative Employment: Students/Interns, Corps/Local Companies; Government

Programs: Public Assistance Recipients, Diversion Programs/Drug Court, etc. ● Inventory Mapping of Playgrounds

○ TPL has worked with some already ● Need Policy to change for all schoolyards to be open because the community can’t wait ● for new parks to be (re)developed when so many schoolyards are not being used. ● Adopt-A-Playground

○ Community orgs, local small businesses, Corps with Foundations with Diversity Inclusion and Corp/Community Responsibility Divisions, Government Agencies, Local Community Residents

● Transportation is an issue to reach public parks, especially those that an individual may find more appealing for various reasons

● Equality in public park/schoolyard development ○ Programming: Summer, Sports ○ What do kids want

● Right Staffing: People who really care and love their neighborhoods and what they do ● Desire is there to have open, public park space: kids breaking into locked schoolyards

NEXT STEPS: ● Reengaging School Board, Superintendent and Mayor on conversation already begun by

the Trust for Public Land adding the ideas discussed in this session. ● Exploring the existing insurance for the school system and city to see if that can be

expanded; to see if they would partner with school system/city to donate the add-on cost and or having an outside foundation/funder fund that insurance cost to cover and eliminate the Liability issue, which is the greatest hindrance to using existing schoolyards as open, community public park space.



Session G

Topic Title: What systems will help us to create a cohesive public arts ecosystem (Virtual Divide, Community Input, and sustainable practices)?

Moderator: Malcolm Rolling

Participants: Isaiah Jefferson, Jonathan Gordon, Anthony Smith, Natasha Dyer, Nathaly Agosto Filión, Warren Thompson, Mary Catherine Stoumbos, Zaire Parson, Kim, Sanaz, Kareem Willis, Richard Simon, Elgin Cintron, Reginald Rosarion, Wendy Liscow, Jeremy Johnson, Mary Catherine Stoumbos, Regina Barboza, Tanuja Dehne

Moderator opened the introduction of the topic with this question:

When you think of a cohesive art system what comes to mind? What do you think of your respective roles and how you see yourself benefiting?

He shared that other team members joined the conversation, and pointed out how other arts organizations partner, that is the greater need for the community.

He shared the actual actions he is taking and how they are starting with Newark as the base but it's really works in terms of North Jersey. Where do we look past that to help our community grow a little bit better, a little bit stronger?


Moderator started the conversation with this question: “When you think of a cohesive art system what comes to mind? What do you think of your respective roles and how you see yourself benefiting?” and invited the group to think about an answer

Outside of our general where shall we look for: ● Start a conversation where creativity can take the focus on ● All artists, designers, art performers should be included in the conversation. The more

diverse this conversation gets the best results we will get. ● Identify who is already involved, what already exists? What are the gaps we found? ● Working with students is a very helpful and useful way to engage younger generations ● Identify what makes the ecosystem cohesive. An equal system will bring a network that will

make Newark it important as an Art destination ● Creating and re-imagining our systems will help to analyze the way we do the current

things. ● One action is around an artist assessment



● Start to build relationships with personalities that can benefit these art ecosystems, like people in the arts with fresh ideas.

● We need to identify where in the arts we should start to go more specific instead of being general

● We need to start with our own kids, to introduce them to more artistic environments ● We need to find a way to work better together as a community, to really identify if we can

form an alliance, and bring people together ● Provide support to emerging artist ● Collaboration through all ● Help coordinate arts events ● www.newarkarts.org/newark-creates is the city's cultural plan - Funding, Space,

Coordination! ● Try to find fundings from where communities and art can benefit from. ● We need to focus on accessibility too, we need to create as well something that can be

understandable by everyone. ● For artist educators: artsednewark.org For visual artists directory:

https://www.projectforemptyspace.org/newark-artists ● Just wanted to let those 501c3 arts organizations in the group should be applying for the

new NJ Arts and Culture Recovery Fund: https://pacf.org/njartsculture/#:~:text=The%20New%20Jersey%20Arts%20and,after%20the %20COVID%2D19%20pandemic.

● We should create groups so we can exchange these ideas, it can be a new organization or something simple like a Facebook Group where we can connect.

● If maybe we divide those groups by counties? or sub-divisions so we exchange that information all around Newark

● Sub-diving these groups-counties will be able to understand the different needs from the groups.

● There's an Arts Ed Newark Partner meeting today 4-6pm, for anyone interested in learning more https://www.eventbrite.com/e/partner-meeting-tickets-121579947897

● Jon Gordon shared email for personal and Arts related project: [email protected] ● We need to do a better job spreading the words about the current institutions or

organizations that are helping with this now. ● Creating a cohesive art system, it’s a responsibility of all, not just artists. ● everyone should be doing their parts, as an artist, community, government ● To check out Newark area artists who are active, please visit www.NewarkArtsFestival.com ● We need to understand what role we play in this society and understand how we can benefit

to create a better ecosystem, and then take action.

How do we see the community to benefit from this? ● Art will definitely make progress in the community. This can help to relieve stress; we are

living that now during the Pandemic. ● Lot of people are having hard times during these times ● Art can benefit the community to express their feelings


Attendees shared different links that are useful resources we could benefit from:



http://www.newarkarts.org/newark-creates

https://www.projectforemptyspace.org/newark-artists

https://pacf.org/njartsculture/#:%7E:text=The%20New%20Jersey%20Arts%20and,after%20the%20COVID%2D19%20pandemic

https://pacf.org/njartsculture/#:%7E:text=The%20New%20Jersey%20Arts%20and,after%20the%20COVID%2D19%20pandemic

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/partner-meeting-tickets-121579947897

http://www.newarkartsfestival.com/

mailto:[email protected]

● To apply for mini-grants in the spring for arts and social causes, apply to the ArtStart program. www.newarkarts.org/artstart.

● What Are the Social Determinants of Health and Why Are They Important? ○ The social determinants of health include employment, education, access to

healthcare, as well as food security and housing. ○ https://compassionconnect.com/2020/09/16/socialdeterminantsofhealth/

● Creative Capital has brought a hybrid program to Newark that connects with artists through local galleries and Newark Arts

● Prior to COVID, Newark Arts hosted sessions to assist artists: https://newarkarts.org/creativeconvenings/

● Don’t forget how many of you have made connections with Arts High students. ● consider doing virtual sessions of sessions that have already taken place to reach more

people ● Elgin Cintron at La Casa De Don Pedro would love to help further the conversations started

today in any way possible. Feel free to reach out to me. ● We need to bridge the work of creatives with the work of the city's economic org Invest

Newark. They have business incentive programs, land ownership programs, and business capacity programs.

● as we say in construction/development....having shovel ready projects ● One participant shared this link: https://www.callforentry.org/ ● Has Newark received any of the points for the Arts Action Points from Sustainable Jersey?

One action is around an artist assessment ● Some 90 orgs and individuals are part of Arts Ed Newark. It makes sure all Newark

children are receiving high quality arts. www.artsednewark.org ● Consider doing virtual sessions of sessions that have already taken place to reach more

people

What are two actions we can take in the next two weeks? Ideas shared

● Reach out to everyone to the attendees with the notes so they can have all the information ● For those who attended the session, they would love to continue the conversation in

another time



http://www.newarkarts.org/artstart

https://compassionconnect.com/2020/09/16/socialdeterminantsofhealth/

https://newarkarts.org/creativeconvenings/

https://www.callforentry.org/

http://www.artsednewark.org/

Session H

Topic Title: How can we build a network of Trust-ed messengers (individuals and organizations) to disseminate reliable information, promote access to services, and develop networking opportunities for Newark families with children ages 0-3?

Moderator: Ronald Chaluisán

Participants: Marisa Benson, Peter Chen, Jessica Laus, Kimberly Pierre, Angela Garretson, Nathaly AgostoFilión


How do we get information out to people who might not normally be in the loop? And how we help people navigate the systems that they may not know about.

People believe in people and the organizations that they know.

We are seeking people who have built trusted communications lines and council on how they did this work.


I am interested in the aspect of connecting care-givers to folks and asking sure that information is accessible in languages and for folks with disabilities.

Thinking about people and meeting them where they are, finding creative ways to reach people with messaging in the form that is most effective for them.

We need proper information in the 0-3 range. We need more intersection with state systems to make sure that all people are provided with access.

I am interested in creating a partnership to coalesce these young mothers and provide them help.

I am passionate about helping families, especially from 0-3. This work is important in finding ways to help these families in Newark with small children to find the resources to thrive and be successful within the community. How can we support?

The need for infrastructure is huge.



The health systems: Pediatricians are very trusted by families but the time constraints on them are terrible. They have 5-10 minutes with children and families to give them all the services, vitals, and get them out the door. I think the challenge is that the professionals do not have the time to be effective conduits of information. They are under heavy caseload and payment restraints.

Teachers alike, are looking for social development, physical problems, they watch the child grow in that school year frame. Healthcare only affords them little time.

Question: What are the specific things we are hearing that cause us to urge more communication and home visit programs?

● When children experience violence, mental health from 0-3 is not there for them. SEL and Mindfulness for this age is important

● Marketing in terms of partnering with founders to have their organizations on board to provide information to families.

● Partnerships with CDC’s in Newark to pitch a campaign to connect families to services and services providers around mental, physical health, and the arts.

● When young people experience trauma, creating an environment of artistic expression can help them.

Another perspective -● I am not sure it is a top down issue. It comes from the grass-roots. ● My inclination is to reach out to our elders and equip them with the knowledge and

resources. Reach out to them on a grassroots thesis. ● The top down approach has failed. What does it look like to empower with their own

person-by-person to heal. ● Trickle up rather than down

Which Pastor or House of Worship are truly organizing families in this early childhood learning and development?

Let’s galvanize a new opportunity - Wic, City Health, Clinics - these are regulated and could be great opportunities to get information out.

Where are we going to learn from the attempts that have happened? ● Blood led testing has been largely effective. ● The successful programs are often a one-off service.

I think, myself as a new mother, when I wanted to find community, I used social media to find groups and advice. A lot of the time social media strategies is where I build community (Newark Mommies).

● Moms suffer from postpartum depression ● Let’s leverage social media groups ● Creating emotional outlets, like walks and services, to help emotional trauma



What I’ve Heard in the Community: ● Knowing and having the information is hard because accessibility to find this information.

Not being able to trust certain organizations. Mainly around trying to find which resources are the most helpful.

● It’s a matter of filling the gap between the community and resources

We have just under 4,000 births in Newark - 12,000 families who have children in this age range. We have the social media portion, but we also have 16-18% of our families that are not connected to the internet. This number increases drastically, up to 50%, to the families making under 25K a year.

A lot of these initiatives have to be aware of the people on the ground of the folks we are trying to reach. It is self-empowerment to collectivize and get these resources out to folks.

Newark Ministry Team - openly discussing getting resources out by doing the door to door work and reaching the folks that, from our perspective, are harder to reach.

Communication component is key How can we do social media AND old school view by going door to door.

We need to bring in young mothers to make the conversation whole.

Main 3 points from Mothers -● An easy opportunity to network with other families (0-3) ● Get reliable information about their child’s development not knowing if their child is

developing appropriately ● They do not want to run around all the city to get the intervention testing. Have in real

time, the resources available to us. Don’t bring us together to then tell us to go find things somewhere else.


Let’s think: Doctors Office Waiting room - this is an opportunity to saturate information (brochures, flyers etc.)

Home Visits - engaging with families directly

Salons, grocery stores, and other social services that we need to be integral parts to bridge the social media gap.

Trauma Informed workshops and SEL training are crucial in meeting people where they are.

Families do want to access resources; the Financial and time restraints make it impossible for them. More No Strings Attached cash-based programs are critical in providing families with the necessary services. Less bureaucracy, more cash to get through the first 6 months of huge



challenges. Let’s posit this as this AND that, rather than either or, in order to push for all opportunities.


Commitment to continued conversation.



CREATIVE NEW JERSEY

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