Research Centers and Initiatives

CENTER FOR CHILDREN AND CHILDHOOD STUDIES
Myra Bluebond-Langner, Director

The Center for Children and Childhood Studies marked its fourth birthday with a dazzling array of accomplishments in a variety of areas. The Center received $777,262 in individual gifts and grants from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the Johnson and Johnson Family of Companies, the John S and James L Knight Foundation, the Kurr Foundation, the William Penn Foundation, and the Schumann Fund for New Jersey to support various Center programs and projects. Center faculty associates received $103,575 in grants and fellowships in support of their own individual research and service and outreach projects.

With these funds the center was able to launch its first public education program, “Remembering Childhood: Meet the Authors, Hear Their Stories;” expand the already successful Camden Campaign for Children's Literacy to include a certification program for over 500 childcare development associates in Camden; continue the well regarded regional and associate seminar series; and disseminate the results of the Center's work on our website and in our quarterly newsletter. In addition, three new books came out in the Childhood Studies book series published by Rutgers University Press and Center faculty associates gave a number of presentations at professional meetings and conferences and published articles in refereed journals and chapters in books.

Remembering Childhood: Meet the Authors, Hear Their Stories

Students, faculty, and members of the greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey region turned out in unexpected numbers to hear three prize winning authors offer their perspectives on childhood and how their own childhood experiences influenced their work. Faith Ringgold, a renowned African American artist, quilt maker, poet and recipient of the Caldecott Honor Book Award and the Coretta Scott King Award for her children's books, dazzled the audience with slides of her past and current work as she pointed to the place of her childhood experiences in their development. Tanya Maria Barrientos, feature writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer, held the audience in rapt attention as she alternatively read from her two novels Frontera Street and Family Resemblances and talked about their sources in her own childhood growing up in Guatemala and El Paso, Texas. World renowned and Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Chabon captivated the audience with a reading of a new piece “Golems I Have Known” (or “Why My Elder Son's Middle Name is Napoleon.”)

Camden Campaign for Children's Literacy [CCCL]

The accomplishments of the Camden Campaign for Children's Literacy continue. Since its inception in September 2000, the CCCL through its various initiatives has touched the lives of over 50,000 children and 14,000 adults in Camden. Close to 90,000 new and gently used books are now in the hands of these children. The CCCL's Abbott Preschool Registration Campaign has resulted in 24% increase in enrollment and over 1.3 million dollars for preschool programs in Camden. As a result of the CCCL Library Outreach Initiative, card registration increased by 38% and circulation at the Camden Library increased by 26%. Over 300 parents have participated in the CCCL's Parent Literacy Program. Pediatric health care professionals in Camden received additional training in discussing literacy issues with parents. Children found books and programs waiting for them in clinic and hospital waiting rooms and prescriptions to read at their well child visit.

New this year was the expansion of the Childcare Literacy Training Initiative to include a year long program to prepare Camden childcare professionals for certification as child care development associates. Of the 227 individuals enrolled in the program, an estimated 107 will receive their certification this year. The others will complete their work over the course of the next year. We will also welcome a new cohort into the program in September.

Through the efforts of Angela Connor Morris, program director the results of these groundbreaking projects have been presented at both statewide and national conferences on literacy and early childhood.

Rutgers University Press Series in Childhood Studies

This year three new books were published in this multidisciplinary series in childhood studies including: In Sickness and In Play: Children Coping With Chronic Illness, by Cindy Dell Clarke, Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies, Penn State University; At Play in Belfast, by Donna Michelle Lanclos, Research Associate, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley; and Rethinking Childhood,edited by Peter B. Pufall, Professor of Psychology, Smith College and Richard P. Unsworth, Senior Fellow, Kahn Liberal Arts Institute, Smith College.

Regional Seminar Series and Fellowship Program

We continued to attract an impressive array of scholars from the NY-DC corridor to our monthly regional seminars series. The first and last meetings of the seminar were devoted to discussions of the field of childhood studies and what graduate work in this field would look like. In between, we heard presentations from the six individuals selected as junior and senior fellows in the program.

Senior Fellows:

Chris Boyatzis, Associate Professor of Psychology, Bucknell University, presented the paper, “The Construction of spiritual Meaning in Parent-Child Communication.”

Ellen Handler Spitz, Honors College Professor of Visual Arts, University of Maryland, presented the paper, “Picture Books and the Inner Lives of Children.”

Junior Fellows:

Kimberly A Scott, Assistant Professor of Sociology of Education, Hofstra University, presented the paper, “Because I Love You: African American and Latina Girls' Collectivism in a State-Operated District.”

Maria Kefalas, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Saint Joseph's University, presented the paper, “What Good Mothers Do: Low-Income White, African American, and Latina Mothers' Childrearing Strategies and Philosophies.”

Loretta Bass, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Oklahoma, presented the paper, “Making Sense of Children's Labor and Childhood Sub-Saharan Africa.”

Ellen Fennick, Assistant Professor of Education, Widener University, presented the paper, “After-School Programs and Children and Youth with Disabilities: Issues for Future Research.”

Center for Children and Childhood Associates Series in Childhood Studies

Faculty associates come together to discuss research in progress and to learn about the approaches and methods in childhood studies outside their own disciplines. This year's seminars included:

Myra Bluebond-Langner: “Choiceless Choices: Decision-Making For Children With Cancer When Cure Is Not Likely”

Tom Donnelly: “Factors In Adolescence That Promote Civic Participation In Young Adulthood”

Joseph Barbarese: “The Harry Potter Phenomenon: Literature, Hype and Hope”

Holly Blackford: “Multicultural Responses To Canonical Voices: Reading Huck Finn And Scout Finch”

Cati Coe: “Youth, Learning, And The State Of Ghana”

John Wall: “ Ethical Perspectives on What Children Are: A Critique of Rational Choice Theory”

Tetsuji Yamada: “Healthcare Services Accessibility of Children in the USA”

CENTER FOR STATE CONSTITUTIONAL STUDIES
Alan Tarr, Director

In 2003-2004, the Center expanded its international activities, while also extending its presence in states across the country. Listed below are highlights of the Center's year.

New Jersey Constitution Initiative
Responding to calls for a limited constitutional convention to remedy New Jersey's fiscal problems, the Center has published a series of Background Papers dealing with the process of constitutional reform. These papers are available on the Center's web site: www-camlaw.rutgers.edu/statecon/ .

State Constitutions for the Twenty-first Century
The Center, with funding from the Ford Foundation, has continued its initiative in charting directions for the reform of American state constitutions. SUNY Press will publish three volumes emanating from the project in 2005.

International Association of Subnational Constitutional Law
The Center, with funding from the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations, convened a conference on "Federalism and Subnational Constitutions" at the Rockefeller Foundation's conference center in Bellagio, Italy, in March, 2004. Attending the conference were representatives from federal or quasi-federal systems, including Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Ethiopia, Germany, Mexico, Italy, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, the United States, and Venezuela. The success of the conference led the participants to form the International Association of Subnational Constitutional Law, for which Center Director Alan Tarr serves as the organizer.

Global Dialogue on Federalism
The Center has served as Theme Coordinator for "Constitutional Origins, Structure and Change," the first component of the Global Dialogue on Federalism. Sponsoring the Global Dialogue are the International Association of Centers for Federal Studies, of which the Center is a member, and the Forum of Federations, which is underwritten by the governments of Canada and Switzerland. The aim of this collaborative project is to promote solutions to common problems afflicting federal systems through interchange among officials and scholars from those countries. As part of this project, a series of books on comparative federalism will be published by McGill/Queens University Press, with the first (co-edited by Alan Tarr, Director of the Center) appearing in 2005.

State Constitutional Lecture
In February, 2004, Jeffrey Amestoy, Chief Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court, delivered the fifteenth annual State Constitutional Lecture. His address--"Pragmatic Constitutionalism: Reflections on State Constitutional Theory and Same-Sex Marriage"-- will be published in 2004 state constitutional issue of the Rutgers Law Journal.

Center Lectures/Presentations
July, 2003: Robert Williams, the Center's Associate Director, lectured and led discussions at New York University's Institute for Judicial Administration Seminar for New York Appellate Judges.

August, 2003: Alan Tarr, the Center's Director, gave a series of lectures on constitutionalism in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil, at the invitation of the U.S. Department of State. Robert Williams led discussions on state constitutional law at the American Bar Association Appellate Judges Seminar Series in Providence, Rhode Island.

September, 2003: Robert Williams delivered a lecture on "Decentralization in the United States" at a conference in Cordoba, Argentina. Alan Tarr delivered a lecture on "State Constitutional Interpretation" at Ave Maria Law School in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

January, 2004: Alan Tarr presented a paper on "Rethinking the Selection of State Supreme Court Justices," at the annual conference of the Southern Political Science Association in New Orleans and at the conference of the Comparative Judicial Politics section of the International Political Science Association in London.

February, 2004: Robert Williams spoke at a conference in New Hampshire focusing on “Twenty Years of State Constitutional Law in New Hampshire.” His article will be published in the New Hampshire Bar Journal. Alan Tarr participated in a panel discussion on "The Courts, the Legislature, and the Executive: Separate and Equal?" at the mid-year meeting of the American Judicature Society in Washington, DC. The transcript of the discussion appeared in Judicature 87 (March-April 2004). Robert Williams moderated a discussion among state supreme court justices about state constitutional law at Valparaiso Law School. The transcript of the discussion, as well as Williams’s article on “Continued Commitment to State Constitutional Law,” was published in Valparaiso University Law Review 38 (Spring 2004).

April, 2004: Robert Williams delivered two lectures on state constitutional law at the University of Minnesota Law School, for a symposium sponsored by the American Constitution Society.

June, 2004: Alan Tarr and Robert Williams presented a program on State Constitutional Law to the annual conference of the Pennsylvania Appellate Courts at Farmington, Pennsylvania.

THE MID-ATLANTIC REGIONAL CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES

Howard Gillette, Director

This was the first year since the NEH planning grant helped launch MARCH in 2000 that we operated without Temple's partnership. Temple's withdrawal clearly delayed our progress, but the transition has been made. MARCH continues under Rutgers-Camden's leadership to extend networks and to advance cultural practice in the Mid-Atlantic states. We provide below a summary of the year's work as we approach the July 31 final deadline for the NEH challenge grant.

NEH Grant

Temple's withdrawal from the partnership required Rutgers to reapply for standing as a challenge grant recipient. NEH chair Bruce Cole approved our request, and Rutgers-Camden qualified for a $177,500 challenge grant, active through July, 2004.

Ford Foundation Grant

MARCH received a $112,000 grant from the Ford Foundation for the academic year to support the documentation of two post-industrial cities in periods of transition: Camden and Richmond, California. Funds have been used primarily to support Camilo Jose Vergara as MARCH's first regional fellow. A MacArthur Fellow, Vergara has been photographing inner city areas, including Camden, for a quarter century. He is preparing a web site that will allow scholars and students in a range of disciplines to access the powerful legacy of disinvestment. In the second year of the project, Vergara and Howard Gillette will speak at conferences, including the national urban history meetings in Milwaukee, about the uses of the documentary record of both cities. Thomas Sugrue and Wendell Pritchard, both of the University of Pennsylvania, serve as consultants to the project.

Bethlehem Steel Site Initiative

MARCH continues to believe that its efforts should be strategically chosen to move important demonstration projects forward. We continue to work with an ad hoc group of historians and civic leaders to advance the commemoration at Independence National Historical Park of the presence of the President's House and of enslaved Africans on the site. In the spring, we turned to work with a range of organizations anxious to preserve and to interpret the core of the Bethlehem Steel site in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. With key structures threatened with demolition and an effort to form a National Museum of Industrial History faltering, MARCH convened a day-long workshop on March 17th to establish a vision for future use of the site. Addressed by Mayor John Callahan and attended by members of his staff, the workshop included more than two dozen participants, including the directors of the South Street Seaport and the Sloss Furnaces historic site in Birmingham, Alabama. Under MARCH program director Shan Holt's leadership, we crafted a vision statement that has guided the work of interested organizations since. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has named the site one of the eleven most endangered in the nation, and members of the coalition formed in March have begun to meet with a new developer to discuss responsible adoptive reuse of the site. A charette on future uses will be held in July. Details of this effort can be accessed on our web site.

Fredric Miller Memorial Lecture

Known for his work as both an archivist and a program officer at the National Endowment for the Humanities, Fred Miller set a high standard for history and research in the region. It seemed only appropriate that MARCH assume responsibility for managing the annual lecture and endowing it. Supported for the past six years through funds contributed through the Philadelphia Foundation, in the next two years the lecuture will become MARCH's responsibility. With the support of family and friends, we have raised since December $25,000 towards our goal of $40,000. Ted Muller, of the University of Pittsburgh, gave this year's lecture, on the heritage of industrial sites. His talk can be found in the Bethlehem section of our web site.

People and Place Data Base

Now in its second year, the new MARCH web site features a data base to help individuals and organizations access information on best cultural practice in the Mid-Atlantic states. Although submissions have been slower to come in than we would like, we have already received reports of networking being done between individuals and groups who have learned of resources in other parts of the region. We hope in the coming year to get other associations working with us to build up this important resource.

Teacher Training Workshops

Following a successful set of summer offerings in 2003, MARCH teamed up with the New Jersey Council for the Humanities this summer to offer workshops on the environment and New Jersey writers. A third workshop on ethnicity will be offered independently. We have begun to discuss a workshop next summer in cooperation with the Maryland Humanities Council to demonstrate the use in teaching of African American sites in the state which have been identified in a broad survey conducted by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. MARCH associate director Tyler Hoffman directs this program, using the web site to assist teachers in communicating with one another as they develop lesson plans following the workshops.

Heritage Tourism

MARCH has formed a partnership with the South Jersey Tourism Corporation to work with a range of organizations to build capacity for greeting and informing visitors to this part of the region. A kickoff meeting featuring Kathryn Smith, Executive Director of Cultural Tourism D.C., drew some 200 participants. Students in the Rutgers-Camden public history seminar continued to work with select participants in surveying their programs and getting them listed in the MARCH People and Place data base.

Meetings and Lectures

MARCH hosted a first annual meeting in Washington in April. Featured besides the Fredric Miller Memorial Lecture, were a walking tour of the historic Shaw neighborhood conducted by Kathy Smith, an assessment of the crisis at the D.C. Archives, and plans to form a Steel Workers Archive in Bethlehem. In early March, we hosted a panel at Rutgers-Camden on the documentary film “Miss America.” MARCH's web producer Jeanne Houck, the film's producer, was joined by University of Pennsylvania historian Kathy Peiss and Rutgers graduate student and former Miss New Jersey, Jill Horner. MARCH was a co-sponsor of a series of lectures offered by Rutgers-Camden's Center for Childhood studies that included Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Chabon. We are working with Heritage Philadelphia to organize a series of lectures in the coming academic year aimed at introducing new scholars in the Philadelphia area to curators, archivists, and others working in the public sector.

CENTER FOR STRATEGIC URBAN COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP
Gloria Bonilla-Santiago, Director

During the 2003-2004 academic year, the Center focused its efforts on six major initiatives: development of a Graduate Educational Policy and Leadership Track under the Graduate Department of Public Administration; strengthening and expansion of the Rutgers/LEAP Initiative and its Centers of Excellence; development of the Institute for Best Practices and Innovation in Education as the vehicle to launch the replication of new and innovative practices to the larger educational community; strengthening and expansion of leadership and professional-development programs; planning and implementation of the Early Childhood Development Initiative; and Research and Faculty Collaboration. An effective fundraising campaign yielded funds amounting to $2,517,135, with grants from private and government organizations, including: the NJ Departments of Community Affairs, Education and Human Services; the Geraldine Dodge Foundation; Washington Mutual; New Brunswick Tomorrow; the Knight Foundation; Wachovia; Camden Board of Education; U.S. Department of Education; and Commerce Bank.

Under the auspices of the Offices of the Provost and Dean of Arts and Sciences & Graduate School, Dr. Gloria Bonilla-Santiago spearheaded the planning and design activities for the development of a graduate level Educational Policy and Leadership track under the Department of Public Policy and Administration. The pilot process of developing the track will be completed in May 2005. Fifteen students from Camden City Public Schools will simultaneously complete their Master's degree in Public Administration, while fulfilling the requirements for principal certification in New Jersey. In 2005, the program will be opened to the larger South Jersey region. The availability of this program as part of the graduate school's offerings to the region is significant. Schools represent one of the major elements in improving the housing market, attracting commercial investments, promoting families to stay in the region-city, and improving neighborhoods.

The Rutgers/LEAP Initiative continued to expand its programs. LEAP Academy University Charter Schools now serves 702 students in grades PreK through 11th grade. Its new high school building will open its doors in January 2005 and will house grades eight through twelve. As reflected in the 2004 Summary of School Performance prepared by the New Jersey Department of Education, LEAP students are showing tremendous academic progress and the school is becoming one of the best public schools in the state. Seventy point four percent (70.4%) of LEAP fourth graders passed the NJASK Language Arts Literacy section, thus placing LEAP above the mandated Adequate Yearly Progress Benchmark of sixty-eight percent. In Mathematics, 53.7% of the students successfully passed the examination, placing LEAP above the mandated Adequately Yearly Progress Benchmark of 53%. In 8th grade, 53.8% of the students passed the GEPA Language Arts Literacy Section, thus placing the school in Safe Harbor. Fifty-six point one percent of 11th graders passed the HSPA Math, thus placing LEAP above the mandated Adequately Yearly Progress Benchmark of fifty-five percent. Sixty-eight point three (68.3%) of the 11th grades passed the Language Arts section, thus placing LEAP in Safe Harbor.

Through the Rutgers Centers of Excellence, the Center for Strategic Urban Community Leadership was successful in securing funding for a variety of programs to support the LEAP Academy. With grants from the Departments of Education and Human Services and Camden Public Schools-Abbott, the Center coordinated a pre-school program serving forty-five students age four and providing for a quality early childhood curriculum with emphasis on literacy and cognitive skill development. The Rutgers/LEAP GEAR UP Program continued to tackle the challenges of preparing LEAP Academy students for rigorous post-secondary academic performance and college readiness. With the addition of the 11th grade to LEAP, we have raised the expectations for our students by providing advanced level courses in math and science, tutoring programs for students who are falling behind or need reinforcement, exposure to careers and colleges, mentoring support, opportunities for engaging in internships, and specialized academic programs. The Dean and the Provost's Office have agreed to facilitate the opportunity for LEAP scholars to enroll in college level courses during Fall 2004. With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Rutgers/LEAP Health and Human Services Center continued to provide comprehensive medical services to families and children enrolled at the LEAP Academy. Last year, patient enrollment increased by thirty percent, with enrollment of 295 capitated patients and 1,970 visits.

Central to the Rutgers/LEAP Initiative is the efforts for replication of best practices. With support from the Geraldine Dodge Foundation and Washington Mutual, the CSUCL continued to offer the Teacher Development and Performance Institute to Camden schools. The focus of this effort is on improving the performance of schools and the achievement of students by strengthening the competencies of teachers and school management teams.

With a four-year grant from the Knight Foundation, the Center launched the Rutgers/LEAP Early Childhood Development Initiative, a comprehensive effort targeted at strengthening early childhood education and family literacy in Camden City. The project brings together Rutgers University's CSUCL as the lead partner, the Children's Literacy Initiative, and the Camden Abbott Early Childhood Program in a collaborative and multifaceted effort with a focus on Teacher Development, Parent Engagement, and Capacity Building. Discussions are underway to expand the Early Childhood Initiative to include a research component that will include children ages 0-3. The overall thrust for this effort is to study and evaluate effective practices for comprehensive early childhood programs that begin at birth and extend through 1st grade.

The Center's efforts in providing leadership training opportunities were channeled through the South Jersey Regional Leadership Institute, the Latino Fellows Leadership Institute, and New Brunswick Leadership Tomorrow. Participants on these programs engage in activities and training aimed at developing their own personal, professional, and organizational skills, while enhancing their sensitivity and understanding of public service and economic development. The Center was also invited to customize training programs and providing professional coaching to a variety of companies and organizations.

Through the efforts of the CSUCL, a number of institutional partnerships have been forged that provide for faculty and student exchanges, as well as for collaboration in joint research and service projects. Institutional partners include the University of Havana in Cuba, the University of Puerto Rico, and UMDNJ. After several visits to Cuba, a formal agreement was drafted and signed by the University of Havana and our campus. Two Public Policy students will participate in a two-semester internship in Cuba. Faculty from both institutions have joined in presenting academic papers at international conferences, including the International Planning History Society Conference in Barcelona and the Latin American Studies Association International Congress in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The Center Director, Dr. Gloria Bonilla-Santiago has continued to serve the state as a policy expert for various programs and initiatives, including amendments to the charter schools law and the administrative code governing charter schools. The CSUCL has begun the process of formulating and implementing a research agenda linked to its many projects. Evaluation studies are been commissioned by the Geraldine Dodge Foundation and Knight as part of their funding support of teacher and early childhood development. A monograph highlighting the best practices of the LEAP Academy is being completed for publication.

SENATOR WALTER RAND INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Dr. Deborah Wright, Acting Director

For the period of July 1, 2003 to June 30, 2004 the Senator Walter Rand Institute (WRI) for Public Affairs continued its expanded research and public service activities in the areas of regional/community development, government capacity building and non-profit technical assistance, while maintaining its commitment to providing applied research and professional development experiences to graduate and undergraduate students on campus. We were assisted in meeting our organizational goals through on-going collaborations with Rutgers-Camden faculty on a variety of projects and contracts. We continued to provide significant assistance to municipalities, non-profit organizations and residents of southern New Jersey by drawing on the resources of the Master of Public Administration Program, the Forum for Policy Research, and the Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice Department. During the reporting period, WRI attracted approximately $1.6 million in grants and contracts from the American Community Partnerships, the United Way of Camden County, the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General, City of Camden, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Respond, Incorporated. In addition, the Institute generated over $24,000 in student scholarships at the annual Celebration of South Jersey Fundraiser at which we honored Wallace R. Barr, Pres. & CEO, Caesars Entertainment, Inc.; Debra P. DiLorenzo, President, Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey; and Honorable Joseph J. Roberts, Jr., Assembly Majority Leader, New Jersey 5th District as 2004 South Jerseyans of the Year. WRI also regularized its annual state funding in the Rutgers system at the level of $175,000.

These successes have allowed us to support a total of seventeen students (twelve graduates, one post-graduate,three undergraduates, and one graduate student intern from Temple University) to work on various research and public service projects. Students frequently reported that the depth and breath of the experiences they gained through their WRI work helped to expand their education and respective theoretical understandings through interesting and relevant real world applications.

On the regional/community development front, WRI completed its DCA-funded smart growth project for Camden County (the Camden HUB Plan) and is continuing its work with the 14 participating municipalities and the County Improvement Authority to identify specific projects consistent with the Plan and worthy of state funding. In a larger, regional context, WRI is extending its study of development in the seven southern counties of the state by developing a GIS-based forecasting model; this effort builds on our linear projection model completed in 2002-2003. Also, WRI continued to serve as one of the lead units on the Rutgers-Fairview Neighborhood Partnership (RFNP), a community based development office that provides community, business and legal assistance to residents and businesses in the Fairview neighborhood of Camden. Currently, designated RFNP and WRI staffs are working toward the development of a neighborhood plan for the community.

This year, WRI was awarded two major continuing grants to assist the City of Camden. The first, a roughly $600,000 New Jersey state supported contract, represents the second phase of a multi-phase project designed to increase the governmental capacity of the City, develop a tiered training and professional development program, develop position descriptions, and assist in the hire of nonpartisan staff for City Council, as well as to analyze the City’s information technology and organizational systems. In this effort four Master of Public Administration professors (Drs. Bonilla-Santiago, Brenner, Garnett, and Gramby-Sobukwe) and several graduate students worked closely with senior WRI staff. In addition, the Institute received a roughly $151,000 continuation grant from the State Attorney General’s Office to serve as the local site facilitator/convener for the Camden Safer Cities Initiatives. The project brings together multiple representatives from law enforcement, community, and nonprofit organizations to better identify Camden’s underlying public safety issues and develop customized initiatives to address them. In this project we will be partnering with and utilizing the expertise of a Criminal Justice professor, Dr. Jon’a Meyer, as well as funding a Criminal Justice student.

On the non-profit development front, our major activities were derived from a variety of sources designed to increase the capacity of non-profit organizations in Camden and southern New Jersey. The on-going relationship with the Annie E. Casey Foundation resulted in an expanded WRI role from convener and facilitator of the Camden Asset Building Coalition (CABC) to site co-coordinator for the overall Camden asset development campaign, with an accompanying $300,000 grant. The CABC represents a collaboration of key Camden non-profit organizations, financial institutions, and the Internal Revenue Service working to provide free tax preparation services (especially earned income and child tax credits), promote financial literacy, and general asset development services for low and moderate income Camden families. Also, WRI completed a county-wide community assessment for the United Way of Camden County. This $119,000 fee-for-service contract culminated in a substantial report of residents’, non-profit leaders’, community leaders’, and business leaders’ opinions about the issues facing Camden County. The contract utilized a variety of assessment tools (i.e., telephone surveys, key informant interview, census data, etc,) and benefited from the services of the MPA Program (Drs. Harrison and Mareschal), the Rohrer Center for Management and Entrepreneurship (Dr. Douglas), and several WRI undergraduate and graduate students. In addition, we established fee-for-service contracts with several non-profit organizations, such as American Community Partnerships, Aids Coalition of Southern New Jersey, Respond, and New Jersey Department of Human Services, to provide grant development, training, longitudinal program assessments, program evaluations, executive coaching and related services. The unit increased its collaboration with other University offices and departments, such as the Provost’s Office and the Department of Public Policy and Administration (for the purposes of increased service and funding opportunities through grants and coordination of the International Public Service and Development community placements, respectively). Finally, the non-profit development unit continued to deliver related non-profit capacity development services to Camden’s non-profit community. At the close of the fiscal year, the unit established active training and technical assistance relationships with approximately 130 non-profit organizations and service agencies.