Community Visioning
Lower Broadway Visioning
On April 10, 2010 approximately 200 residents, faith-based leaders, active youth and other community members gathered at St. Lucy’s Community Center in Newark to discuss one thing: transforming the Lower Broadway neighborhood into a safe, healthy community.
This community-wide gathering required all individuals and organizations that live, work and/or serve the Lower Broadway community coming together to work collectively to improve their neighborhood.
The goal of the Visioning Meeting was to identify ideas and changes that residents believe would improve the health of the neighborhood. This Visioning Meeting consisted of two parts:
- A brief examination of the community’s history, highlighting existing conditions and reviewing previous plans for the area.
- A visioning session for residents to express their dreams and expectations about what the neighborhood should look and feel like in five years.
As patterns of consensus develop around certain issues, priorities will be determined and those priorities will be considered for inclusion into the Quality of Life plan, which will direct the efforts for the comprehensive redevelopment of Lower Broadway.
Glance At the Process
Phase I:
Participants listened to several, brief presentations by Roberto Frugrone, GNN Program Director at La Casa, but the bulk of the day’s action took place at the tables, where attendees engaged in discussions led by English and Spanish-speaking facilitators from America Speaks, a nationally recognized public forums convener.
Individuals also completed worksheets on an array of topics including community assets, challenges, likes and dislikes designed by Mercer “Don” Edwards of Justice and Sustainability Associates, the GNN program’s community engagement consulting firm.
This was not a typical community meeting and, according to Gerard Joab, Executive Director of the local LISC program, that was intentional. “Our entire team worked tirelessly to set a new standard for community engagement in Newark because the Greater Newark Neighborhoods (GNN) program will set a new standard on how to accomplish successful comprehensive redevelopment.”
Click here to view our pictures from the April 10th event!
Download the Transforming Lower Broadway Preliminary Report.
Phase II:
After a highly successful community visioning session, Lower Broadway residents have now started the process of 
developing their Quality of Life Plan. Based on the challenges highlighted at the visioning meeting, stakeholders have formed four Priority Committees and have established vision statements for each committee.
Each committee, comprised of 6 to 12 members, met four times between May and June empowering residents and external stakeholders to develop preliminary recommendations for the community's Quality of Life Plan. Each group covered one of the following issues identified by residents and stakeholders as needs of Lower Broadway:
- Family Empowerment
- Access to Quality Education
- Safety & Community Engagement Committee
- Economy & Affordable Housing Development
Click here to see the vision statements of each Priority Committee.
Next Steps:
The next step in this process is to refine the recommendations of the Priority Committees to form the Quality of Life plan and move with implementation. To bridge the visions of the community into concrete tools for sustainable growth including:
- Producing the Lower Broadway Quality of Life Plan;
- Developing implementation strategies for the recommendations of the Priority Committees;
- Identifying institutional partners to take the lead on implementation.
LISC and La Casa have teamed with Pratt Center for Community Development. As a part of the Greater Newark 
Neighborhoods Lower Broadway team, Pratt Center will bring its nearly 50 years of helping community groups revitalize their neighborhoods to Newark. Pratt Center has worked across the New York Metro Area preserving affordable housing, promoting local job creation, and promoting environmental sustainability. Its work in comprehensive community development stems from the birth of the community development movement, as the first university-based advocacy planning and design center in the U.S.
Contact:
For information about any GNN program activities, please contact Robin Brown, LISC Sustainable Communities Program Officer at rbrown2@lisc.org. You may also visit www.broadwaynewark.com to view the day-to-day activities of the GNN Lower Broadway initiative.
You can also stay up to date on all GNN activities by signing up for our enewsletter.