Thriving Neighborhood Initiative

In the fall of 2017, Victoria Foundation, Greater Newark LISC, and the Joseph C. Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies at Rutgers University-Newark developed the Thriving Neighborhoods Initiative (TNI). This place-based community change pilot program focuses on the Fairmount Heights and Upper Clinton Hill neighborhoods in Newark, New Jersey. The TNI project, designed to be comprehensive in scope and to operate over a seven-to-ten-year timeframe, represents a significant departure from the Victoria Foundation’s previous grantmaking strategies. Rather than relying on short-term grantmaking investments that focus on a single area of community development, the TNI project was envisioned to address multiple domains simultaneously. However, an important feature of the TNI’s comprehensive community change model places special emphasis on building the civic and leadership capacity of community residents. Working directly with residents to identify on-ramps for civic engagement, strengthening residents’ leadership capacity, and identifying and building on community assets were all viewed as essential components of the community change process. Comprehensive community development programming aims to foster residents’ sense of ownership in all aspects of the community enhancement efforts.