Newark Access To Opportunity: Connecting Neighborhoods To Local Economic Development

Newark Access to Opportunity: Connecting Neighborhoods to Local Economic Development is a project that focuses on regional opportunities and local strategies for increasing access to living wage jobs for the residents of four target Newark neighborhoods. The goal is to capitalize on existing assets and relationships to help revitalize traditionally poor, underserved communities, moving them closer to becoming stable, thriving, mixed-income communities.

This project builds off of prior planning efforts, existing institutions, and local stakeholder input and aims to:

1. Identify opportunities and barriers for accessing living wage jobs locally and regionally for residents in four target neighborhoods
2. Identify opportunities and barriers for living wage jobs with businesses located within pedestrian and transit accessible areas for residents of the four neighborhoods
3. Capitalize on the multi-layered interventions that are already underway by working in cooperation with neighborhood associations, community development corporations, the city and others
4. Build on existing forums for discussion to further empower residents to engage in conversation and decision-making about sustainable regional development

The project’s study area encompasses four neighborhoods in the City of Newark: East Ferry in the Ironbound, Fairmount in the Central Ward, Lower Broadway in the North Ward, and Upper Clinton Hill in the South Ward. For research and implementation purposes, the City of Newark, Essex County and the Greater Newark area were included in the analysis conducted. The product is a stakeholder-driven plan that offers strategies to improve access to living wage jobs for residents living in the four study area neighborhoods.