Emissaries, Inspiration and Hope Converge in East Trenton

Trenton, NJ, July 16, 2011 —In our line of work, it’s easy to become discouraged. Rebuilding inner city neighborhoods is not for the faint of heart. It’s difficult to explain why and how we do this. Funding is scarce; politics are inconstant. Protocols are complicated and nearly impossible to navigate. Most often, the neighborhoods that CityWorks serves are deemed hopeless. However, once in a great while, everything comes together, and we feel energized and hopeful again.

This past week, 400 enthusiastic junior and senior high school students from all over the country—including 15 from Mercer County—began their week long encamped at Joyce Kilmer Elementary School in Trenton. These students signed on for a summer camp experience to do much-needed repairs on 60 homes in the poverty-stricken neighborhood of East Trenton—an area that many believe is too far gone, forgetting that for some people, it’s still home. This past week, thanks to these workcampers, East Trenton is not just another overlooked inner-city neighborhood. Instead, it was a landscape for life-changing events.

To attend this camp, student-volunteers pay a fee, which covers transportation and food. Their labor covers the rest of the expenses. There is no horseback riding, tennis, or swimming. Instead, there is hard work, and a unique opportunity to make a discernible difference in people’s lives. The repairs these student-volunteers perform would not otherwise be done, because for these residents, paying for food takes precedence.

Not only did East Trenton residents receive essential repairs, they were also given some reason to take heart. Along with my colleagues who are also working within the community--Connie Mercer of HomeFront, Tom Caruso at Habitat for Humanity, and Perry Shaw from A Better Way--I witnessed first-hand that we can sometimes beat the odds to improve living conditions and perhaps even rebuild a neighborhood.

I’m grateful to these students who set aside their vacation to travel here and help out. I am also grateful for support from New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance Company and the Department of Community Affairs who share my passion and compassion. I know that we all come away with renewed motivation and the hope that we’ll soon have the opportunity and resources to do more.

by Tom Clark, Executive Director, CityWorks, Inc.

The East Trenton Collaborative To Host 400 Student-Volunteer Workers To Give Facelift to East Trenton Neighborhood

Trenton, NJ, July 5, 2011 —On July 10, over 400 student volunteers will descend upon a section of East Trenton to begin tackling home repairs on more than 60 neighborhood homes. The students hail from all over the United States and are part of the 2011Workcamp, a program operated by Group Cares (formerly Group Work Camps Foundation) located in Loveland, CO. Hosted by the East Trenton Collaborative (ETC) and made possible by a contribution from New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance Company to the Neighborhood Revitalization Tax Credit Program, the 2011 Workcamp will provide the volunteers with a weeklong hands-on home repair experience.

Workcamp teams will complete an array of exterior and interior home improvements. “The teens will repair sagging porches, rebuild unsafe stairs and steps, construct needed wheelchair ramps and weatherize and paint homes for those homeowners in East Trenton who lack the resources or ability to address these improvement needs,” explains Tom Clark, executive director of CityWorks and administrator of the ETC-NRTC Program. “Their presence, as well as their work will make a huge impact on this neighborhood. The residents are very excited!” With the assistance of A Better Way, Inc., the ETC team solicited applications from interested homeowners, inspected the potential homes, conducted work write-ups for the Group Cares project review team enabling them to select the sixty homes that will be repaired.

The ETC is an umbrella organization for several nonprofit groups focused on the revitalization of East Trenton through housing, commercial development and social services. This joint effort with Group Cares is led by Habitat for Humanity-Trenton Area Chapter and includes CityWorks, Inc., HomeFront, Isles, and Martin House-Better Community Housing of Trenton and A Better Way.

Fifteen of the Workcamp students will be from HomeFront, a local non-profit and member of the ETC. “Although our kids come from very different worlds, the experience will as enriching as with any of the other students,” says Connie Mercer, HomeFront executive director. “The project provides on-the-job training, and the teens also develop a sense of community and purpose as they become a part of a team working for a great cause. Our kids, who come from the very community that is being rehabbed, are excited about working with kids from around the country.”

“These are remarkable young people,” says Clark. “We are certainly fortunate to have them here in Trenton.” This effort is part of Group Care’s national effort to assist communities in need. This year, Group Cares projects 25,000 volunteers will participate in 43 Workcamps across the U.S. and Canada.

“The experience is life-changing for these kids,” explains Tom Caruso, Habitat for Humanity-Trenton Area, executive director. “I’ve seen first hand how the kids become connected to the community and to the residents they help. They call it a ‘home repair’ camp, but in reality it is so much more. When the day is finished on Friday, they pack their gear to leave, but as they leave, they know they have touched the lives of their fellow campers and the people they have helped.”

Local volunteers from schools, churches, corporations and local businesses will provide comfort and hospitality services to the home repair teams. Building materials are being purchased from local vendors and other Workcamp expenses are funded, in part, by New Jersey Manufacturers as part of contributions made through the NJ Department of Community Affairs' (DCA) Neighborhood Revitalization Tax Credit Program.

The Neighborhood Revitalization Tax Credit Program offers businesses a 100 percent tax credit against various state taxes for investing in the revitalization of low-income neighborhoods in eligible municipalities. DCA disburses corporate contributions to reimburse nonprofit organizations for completion of work specified in neighborhood plans. The funds may be used for neighborhood revitalization, health and safety, home improvement, and social services.

About the East Trenton Collaborative: The East Trenton Collaborative (ETC) is a group of non-profit and community development organizations whose mission is to strengthen the physical, social, and economic fabric of the East Trenton Community by acting as a catalyst for neighborhood revitalization and community building.

For more information visit: www.easttrentoncollaborative.com. The ETC is part of CityWorks whose mission is to fill the commercial and service voids that exist in our inner cities through partnerships with community development corporations.

For more information about Group Cares visit: www.groupworkcamps.com.

CityWorks Gets Financial Boost For East Trenton Neighborhood

Trenton, NJ, April 15, 2011 —The administrative process to disburse New Jersey Manufacturers’ (NJM) $1 million contribution to CityWorks is complete. CityWorks, who leads the East Trenton revitalization effort, will now distribute the funds to members of the East Trenton Collaborative (ETC) for neighborhood revitalization, health and safety, home improvement and social services. The ETC is an umbrella organization for HomeFront, Habitat for Humanity-Trenton Area, Isles, and Martin House-Better Community Housing of Trenton and a Better Way.

According to Tom Clark, CityWorks executive director, “NJM's contribution toward revitalization will help Habitat for Humanity develop ReStore, a facility that provides inexpensive building supplies to local residents and businesses for maintaining their properties. Isles’ Healthy Homes program will receive help for testing older homes in the area for lead dust, indoor asthma triggers and energy leakage. HomeFront will receive funds to allow them to expand their client support services in a facility provided by Habitat for Humanity on North Clinton Avenue. Better Community Housing of Trenton will provide job training to East Trenton residents and A Better Way will continue its Safe Streets Initiative which helps create a safer neighborhood.”

Clark also points out that these funds will support the upcoming East Trenton WorkCamp, a summer community service project in which 400 high school students will converge on Trenton this summer and spend four days repairing, painting and cleaning over 60 homes in East Trenton. “Some of the kids are from Notre Dame High School and HomeFront, but most are out-of-state. It is an amazing program that gets to the core of neighborhood revitalization and community outreach,” explains Clark.

This marks the second year that NJM has demonstrated their support to the revitalization effort. “Their roots are here, and they are committed to the area’s positive growth.” NJM was established in Trenton in 1913. The company's headquarters are in Ewing on Sullivan Way. They also have facilities in Parsippany and Hammonton,” Clark says.

The NJM contribution was presented to the state Department of Community Affairs (DCA) Neighborhood Revitalization Tax Credit program last June. The DCA uses corporate contributions to reimburse nonprofit organizations as they complete the projects outlined in neighborhood plans. The DCA program offers businesses a 100 percent tax credit against various state taxes for investing in the revitalization of low- and moderate-income neighborhoods in eligible municipalities.

CityWorks’ goal is to provide new jobs, commercial goods and services, physical renewal and economic vitality to communities that have traditionally been left out of the economic mainstream. They work by assisting non-profit organizations in developing commercial and other non-residential real estate projects in economically distressed neighborhoods throughout New Jersey.