Norman Glickman
Kathe Newman
Rutgers University
Program in Urban Planning and Policy Development
Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA

Spring 2002
Course Home Page: http://policy.rutgers.edu/current.html

Project Description
This studio will focus on one of the largest and most successful community development corporations in the country: the New Community Corporation of Newark. NCC was founded in the 1960s in reaction to the Newark riots and the unmet needs of poor people in that city. NCC’s founder, Msgr. William Linder, continues to lead the organization with vigor and intelligence. NCC employs more than 1,700 people in Newark’s Central Ward. The organization is involved in housing construction and management, job training, welfare-to-work efforts, retail trade (it is part owner of a successful Pathmark supermarket), childcare, senior care, health, security, and education (it has three charter schools). No CDC on the planet provides a more comprehensive set of services.

NCC has asked us to review and catalog its efforts within a changing city and changing policies related to the poor. For example, the 1996 federal welfare legislation mandated that welfare recipients must find jobs; NCC reacted with a large welfare-to-work program. Similarly, continuing homelessness led to an expansion of NCC’s affordable housing efforts: NCC now owns and operates a factory that manufactures panels for pre-fabricated housing and used these panels in a recently completed housing project.

1. Describe and document NCC’s programs;
2. Collect data on program outputs, NCC’s clients, and the neighborhoods that the organization serves;
3. Analyze these data in light of changing conditions in the city; and
4. Construct an atlas of the location of social problems and NCC’s programs (using GIS).

Product Time Line

Grading
20% Class Participation
15% Top 5 Policy Issues Presentation
15% Work Plan
50% Final Report and Presentation

Plus!
20% extra credit for good citizenship (helping with issues important to the class such as maintaining the website, maintaining well organized data files and accompanying metadata, assembling the final report and presentation, etc.)

Course Materials

Many of the course materials have been reproduced and are available at Pequod Copy on Somerset Street. Other materials are available on-line or will be distributed in class.

Available Online

Walker, Christopher and Mark Weinheimer. 1998. Community Development in the 1990s. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute. http://www.urban.org/pubs/comdev90/

Development Leadership Network. 2000. Success Measures Guide Book. Version 1.2. Massachusetts: Development Leadership Network and Silver Spring, MD: McAuley Institute. http://www.developmentleadership.net/smp/manual/toc.htm

Distributed in Class

NCC Literature Packets

Guskind, Robert and Neal Peirce. 1993. Against the Tide: The New Community Corporation 1968-1993. Newark: NCC.

Association for Children of New Jersey (ACNJ). 2001. Newark Kids Count 2001.

ACNJ. 2002. Strengthening Families. (Distributed in Class).

WebCT

To access the course syllabus, calendar, discussion groups and other resources on the course web site, go to http://webct.rutgers.edu, enter your Rutgers email id and password and select 970:511 Community Development Studio.

Additional Resources

de Souza Briggs, Xavier and Elizabeth Mueller with Mercer Sullivan. 1997. From Neighborhood to Community: Evidence on the Social Effects of Community Development. New York: Community Development Research Center, Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy. New School for Social Research.

Koechlin, Carl. 1989. “Integrating Compassion and Pragmatism in a Successful Community Development Strategy: A Case Study of New Community Corporation.” Unpublished Master’s Thesis. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

KOG Associates, Inc. 2001. Return on Investment Study, Welfare Transition Program. Prepared for New Community Corporation, Gateway to Work.

Linder, William. 1988. An Urban Community Development Model. PhD Dissertation, Fordham University.

Linder, William and Gerald Shattuck. 1991. New Community Corporation: An Alternative Community Development Model in Religious Context. Newark: New Community Press.

_____. 1996. New Community Corporation: Neighborhood Development in Context. Newark: New Community Press.

NCC Assorted Project Photos. http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/projects/bruner/1993/new_community/photos/index.html
(secure permission before use).

PICCED. Community Development Corporation Oral History Project. New Community Corporation (NCC). http://www.picced.org/advocacy/ncc.htm

Zdenek, Robert. 1998. Leadership is Not Enough: The Importance of Organization Capacity and Social Networks in Community Development. PhD dissertation. University of Southern California.

January 22. Studio Overview and Introduction to Newark

Glovin, Bill. 2001. “Price of Progress.” Rutgers Magazine. (Spring) 21-27, 42-43.

Jacobs, Andrew. 2000. “From A Newly Cool Newark, an Invitation to ‘C’mon Over!’” The New York Times on the Web. Living. November 24. http://www.guide2newark.com (go to the in the news section).

Roper, Richard. 2001. “In Newark, a Limited Renaissance.” The Star Ledger. July 1.

Christopher Walker and Mark Weinheimer. 1998. Community Development in the 1990s. Washington, DC. The Urban Institute. http://www.urban.org/pubs/comdev90/

Guide2Newark.com. http://www.guide2newark.com/

Films:

City of Promise. (Part 3). America’s War on Poverty Series. PBS 1995. Blackside, Inc. Producer.

Caucus: New Jersey. Newark the Road Ahead. NJN (New Jersey Network).

January 29. Lunch, Visit, and Tour of the Development of New Community Corporation

Guskind, Robert and Neal Peirce. 1993. Against the Tide: The New Community Corporation 1968-1993. Newark: NCC.

Lasseter, Diana. 1997-1998. “A Mission of Hope.” New Jersey Business News. (December 15-January 4). 4-6.

NCC Literature packets (distributed in class prior week)

NCC. 1993. New Community Network: An Overview.

NCC. 2001. NCC Goals for the Year 2001. Mid Year Report. Department and Team Goals.

NCC. 2000. Goals for the Year 2000. Full Year Report: Network and Individual Department Goals.

NCC. 2001. New Community Corporation Executive Organization Chart. November 9.

NCC. NCC Property Tax Master Listing.

NCC. 2001. New Community Lines of Business (An unofficial segment organizational chart and work in progress). August 2.

NCC. 1990-2000. Annual Reports.

NCC’s Website http://www.newcommunity.org

February 5. NCC’s Projects and Progress

Economic Development

Bennett, Stephen. 1991. “Making it Work in the Inner City.” Progressive Grocer. (November):22-26.
Urban Land Institute. 1997. “New Community Neighborhood Shopping Center.” V27, n1.

Education
Charter Schools

U.S. Charter School Association. http://www.uscharterschools.org/pub/sp/17
New Jersey Charter Public Schools Association. http://www.njcpsa.org/
New Jersey Department of Education. http://www.state.nj.us/njded/chartsch/

Abbott Court Cases

Education Law Center. http://www.edlawcenter.org/

Association for Children for New Jersey (ACNJ). Some Facts About Early Education.
http://www.acnj.org/Public%20Policy/Campaign4kids/EarlyLearning.htm

New Jersey School Report Cards

New Jersey Department of Education. http://www.state.nj.us/njded/chartsch/

Financial Services

Boshara, Ray and Elizabeth Corman. 1999. “Rewarding Savings: Individual Development Accounts pave a new path for community development and social policy.” Shelterforce Online. (July/August). http://www.nhi.org/online/issues/106/boshara.html

New Jersey Citizen Action. Fair Banking and Community Reinvestment Act. http://www.njcitizenaction.org/

Health Care

New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services. http://www.state.nj.us/health/

ACNJ. Some Facts About Healthcare. http://www.acnj.org/Public%20Policy/Campaign4kids/HealthCare.htm

Bethel New Life. Lessons Learned: Community Based Organizations and Career Ladder Training. http://data.cued.uic.edu/cued/projpub/publications/pub434.pdf

Newman, Kathe and Philip Ashton. 2001. Assessing the Need for a Community Health Center in West Side Park. New Brunswick: Rutgers Community Outreach Partnership Center. Center for Urban Policy Research. http://policy.rutgers.edu/cupr/rcopc/pdf/comhealth.pdf

UMDNJ. HealthyNJ. http://www.healthynj.org/

Housing

Belsky, Eric. 2001. “The Future of Affordability: Trends nonprofit Housers Should be Watching.” Shelterforce On-Line. (Nov/Dec). http://www.nhi.org/online/issues/120/Belsky.html

Husock, Howard. 2000. “Let’s End Housing Vouchers.” V10, n4. City Journal. (Autumn). http://www.city-journal.org/html/10_4_lets_end_housing.html

Newark Star Ledger Archives. http://www.starledger.com/

Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey. http://www.njcitizenaction.org/

Guide 2 Newark. http://www.guide2newark.com/plan_pdf/08appendixB.pdf

Human Development

NCC. 2001. New Community Corporation Department of Human Development Board Report. (December 17).

Welfare-to-Work (TANF) and Work-First New Jersey

Koralek, Robin, Nancy Pindus, Jeffrey Capizzano, and Roseana Bess. 2001. “Recent Changes in New Jersey Welfare and Work, Child Care, and Child Welfare Systems.” State Update No. 7. Assessing the New Federalism. The Urban Institute. (August). http://newfederalism.urban.org/html/NJ_update.html

New Jersey Department of Human Services. Work First New Jersey. http://www.state.nj.us/humanservices/dfd/wfnjws.html

Work First New Jersey. Mathematica’s Five-Year Evaluation. http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/3rdLevel/wfnj.htm

Legal Services of New Jersey. Welfare Updates. http://www.lsnj.org/WelfareUpdates.htm

State Employment and Training Commission. Strategic Five-Year Unified State Plan for New Jersey’s Workforce Investment System. http://wnjpin.state.nj.us/OneStopCareerCenter/SETC/up_main.htm

New Jersey Department of Labor. Labor Fast Facts. http://www.wnjpin.state.nj.us/OneStopCareerCenter/LaborMarketInformation/lmilist.htm

NCC Projects

NCC. 1998. Description of Workforce Development Center.

Reardon, Christopher. 1995. “Career Ladders: How Newark Residents are Moving from Welfare to Work.” Ford Foundation Report (Spring):4-10.

KOG Associates, Inc. 2001. Return on Investment Study, Welfare Transition Program. Prepared for New Community Corporation, Gateway to Work.

Harrison, Bennett. 1995. “Case Study: New Community Corporation: Newark, New Jersey.” In Building Bridges: Community Development Corporations and the World of Employment Training. A Report to the Ford Foundation.

Poverty

Legal Services of New Jersey, Poverty Research Institute. Hard Times Amid Prosperity: A Current Profile of Poverty in New Jersey. http://www.lsnj.org/PDFs/poverty_report_7-27-00.pdf

ACNJ. Some Facts About Working Poor Families. http://www.acnj.org/Public%20Policy/Campaign4kids/WorkPoorFam.htm

ACNJ. 2002. Strengthening Families. (Distributed in Class).

February 12. Neighborhood Indicators

Knight Foundation. “Sources of Data.”

Sawicki, David and Patrice Flynn. 1996. “Neighborhood Indicators: A Review of the Literature and an Assessment of Conceptual and Methodological Issues.” V62, n2. Journal of the American Planning Association. (Spring): 165-183.

Development Leadership Network. 2000. Success Measures Guide Book. Version 1.2. Massachusetts: Development Leadership Network and Silver Spring, MD: McAuley Institute. http://www.developmentleadership.net/smp/manual/toc.htm

Examples of Innovative Neighborhood Indicator Projects:

Philadelphia COPC http://westphillydata.library.upenn.edu/
The Providence Plan. http://www.provplan.org/
Minneapolis/St. Paul http://www.npcr.org/MNIS.html
Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Project http://www.bnia.org/
Community Mapping Assistance Project: http://www.cmap.nypirg.org/
Neighborhood Knowledge Los Angeles: http://nkla.sppsr.ucla.edu
Cleveland Area Network on Data and Organizing (CANDO): http://povertycenter.cwru.edu/cando.htm

February 19. Group Presentations: Top 5 Public Policy Issues

February 26. Democratizing Access to Data

Richman, Neal and Yoh Kawano. 2000. “Neighborhood Information is NOT Just for the Experts.” Shelterforce Online. (Sept/Oct). http://www.nhi.org/online/issues/113/richman.html

Sawicki, David and William J. Craig. 1996. “The Democratization of Data.” V62, n4. Journal of the American Planning Association. (Autumn): 512- .

Newman, Kathe and Philip Ashton. 2001. West Side Park Data Atlas. New Brunswick: Rutgers Community Outreach Partnership Center (RCOPC), Center for Urban Policy Research. http://policy.rutgers.edu/cupr/rcopc

March 5. Planning with Communities

Innes, Judith and David Booher. 2000. “Public Participation in Planning: New Strategies for the 21st Century.” Working Paper. University of California at Berkeley, Institute of Urban and Regional Development.

Cortes, Ernie. 1993. Reweaving the Social Fabric: The Iron Rule and the IAF Strategy for Dealing wit Poverty Through Power and Politics. New Brunswick: Center for Urban Policy Research, Rutgers.

March 12. Project Meeting at NCC

April 2. Drafts Reports and Presentations Due

April 9. Project Work

April 16. Final Reports and Final Presentation Due

April 23. Presentation to Bloustein Community

Practice a dry run for constructive criticism from Bloustein community

April 30. Final Presentation