A FIVE-YEAR Strategic Business Plan Summary

Transcription

1 A FIVE-YEAR Strategic Business Plan Summary YEARS New Jersey Community Development Corporation 32 Spruce Street, Paterson, NJ Phone: Fax: Website:

2 A Message From The CEO Robert F. Guarasci NJCDC Founder & CEO July, 2012 Dear Friends: On behalf of the Board of Trustees of New Jersey Community Development Corporation (NJCDC), I am pleased to share the summary of our organization s new Strategic Business Plan for the next five years. This plan is the result of considerable thought and input from a variety of our stakeholders, and expresses a clear direction for NJCDC s future. Since founding NJCDC in 1994, it has been my objective to guide an organization capable of transformative community change, and I believe that this plan will better enable us to reach that vital objective. I am proud to acknowledge the ongoing commitment and dedication of NJCDC s current and past Board of Trustee members, each of whom has helped to advance the organization s mission over the course of these past 18 years. I am also proud to salute my colleagues at NJCDC, whose dedication has helped us to become an indispensible organization making a difference in the lives of over 1,500 individuals on a daily basis. Lastly, I wish to offer our appreciation to The Henry and Marilyn Taub Foundation and The Citi Foundation, whose generous support assisted us in making this Strategic Business Plan possible. Robert F. Guarasci Founder and Chief Executive Officer 2 New Jersey Community Development Corporation Strategic Business Plan Summary 2012

3 STRATEGIC BUSINESS PLAN SUMMARY YEARS NJCDC s Area of Focus The Greater Spruce Street Neighborhood New Jersey Community Development Corporation Strategic Business Plan Summary

4 Executive Business Plan Summary Brief Background and Core Focus Eighteen years after its founding by Bob Guarasci, New Jersey Community Development Corporation (NJCDC) has grown into a strong and vibrant presence in the Greater Paterson area. NJCDC s various programs and services are centered in the City of Paterson but extend outward to several surrounding communities as well. The organization employs over 140 people, operates over 20 programs and serves approximately 1,500 children, teens, and families each day. It is one of the largest community development corporations in northern New Jersey with a current budget of just over $10 million. The elementary charter school it founded and the high school it founded and supports in partnership with the Paterson school district (both under separate governance structures) employ an additional 125 people with expenditures in excess of another $10 million. NJCDC offers programs and services in four main areas: education, youth development, housing and community/neighborhood revitalization. NJCDC has a strong real estate development arm that has grown substantively over the course of the last 8 years. NJCDC has developed over $45 million in new and adaptive reuse projects in its neighborhood, which includes over 100-units of affordable and supportive housing, new schools, and innovative programming space designed for neighborhood and community revitalization goals. Creating a Strategic Plan for the Future Over the past 18 months, NJCDC has engaged in several efforts designed to help it develop a stronger, more strategic sense of what the organization wants to accomplish in the future, both as an agency and for the people it serves. These efforts have come together in the form of a five-year Strategic Business Plan covering the years 2012 through This recently adopted plan identifies what NJCDC envisions as its main programmatic focus during the next five years, describes the actions required to accomplish those things, assigns responsibility for performing the actions, provides implementation time frames within which the actions are to occur, and estimates new resources needed to make the plan operational. The plan is informed by a series of extensive discussions involv- 4 New Jersey Community Development Corporation Strategic Business Plan Summary 2012

5 STRATEGIC BUSINESS PLAN SUMMARY YEARS ing, in the first instance, NJCDC s senior management, program directors, and staff. These discussions were enriched by input provided by some of the organization s key stakeholders, including members of its Community Advisory Board, Youth Council, partners with whom it collaborates, foundation executives, state and local government officials and leaders of other non-profit agencies in the City of Paterson. NJCDC s leadership was assisted in the development of the Strategic Business Plan by BCT Partners, a national consulting firm providing program management, research and evaluation, and technical assistance services, including strategic planning. This assistance enabled the leadership to carefully think through how the agency should evolve as a non-profit social services and community development organization serving children and families in the period ahead. Building from a Position of Strength It is uniformly acknowledged that among NJCDC s many strengths, foremost are the organization s unquestioned commitment to the city of Paterson, the passion with which it approaches the work it performs in service to the city s residents and its ability to stick with it despite heroic challenges. The organization is credited with having a strong, talented, and experienced leadership team who manage a professional and high-quality committed staff. These strengths are reflected in NJCDC s ability to operate strong housing, youth development, education, and community development programs as well as its capacity to provide an array of services that appeal to a broad cross-section of Paterson residents and individuals in need. A Plan for the Future NJCDC s leadership views the work of the Harlem Children s Zone (HCZ) in New York City as setting the national standard for evidence-based approaches to urban revitalization and positive outcomes for children and families. The leadership believes a very real and concrete opportunity exists in New Jersey and Paterson in particular to draw from the HCZ s work in order to develop New Jersey Community Development Corporation Strategic Business Plan Summary

6 and neighborhood level, HCZ s success is built upon four interrelated principles: (1) a place-based, block-by-block Zone approach; (2) a continuous and comprehensive pipeline of evidence-based programs from birth through college for neighborhood children and families; (3) a fanatical commitment to the use of data and accountability; and (4) scaling up its programs to increase impact in the Zone. HCZ also leverages substantial private resources to achieve its ambitious goals (HCZ s budget has evolved into one that is roughly 40% public, 60% private). and execute meaningful policy and practice initiatives. NJCDC s leaders believe the organization should modify its current mission and seek to replicate appropriate features of the HCZ model in Paterson. At the organizational Through this new strategic business plan, NJCDC proposes to adjust its programmatic and operational infrastructure in order to become a more focused, data driven, outcome-oriented and accountable organization serving children and families in the Greater Spruce Street Neighborhood. In pursuit of this, a new organizational action plan has been developed that defines what NJCDC seeks to do and the conditions necessary to achieve improved outcomes for children, families, and one of Paterson s most crucial neighborhoods. The action plan intentionally draws from important elements of the HCZ model and takes the form of six operating principles that will govern the organization s future behavior and activities. The next page explains our principles and guiding philosophies in greater detail. 6 New Jersey Community Development Corporation Strategic Business Plan Summary 2012

7 STRATEGIC BUSINESS PLAN SUMMARY YEARS Our Six Guiding Principles Below are our six guiding principles and some examples of the types of programs, services and initiatives we plan to implement for each of them: PRINCIPLE I: An Organizing Principle Central to NJCDC s Strategic Business Plan is an adherence to an overarching organizing principle which states college graduation and career readiness must be a viable option for all children and families as well as developing strong partnerships and a network of collaborators to make it possible. This organizing principle must become NJCDC s mantra, evident in everything the organization does, and interwoven throughout its wide variety of programs and services. And to achieve this, NJCDC must engage partners and establish strong and willing partnerships to help deliver needed services and fill service gaps. Some of the key things NJCDC will endeavor to accomplish, in order to realize this principle will be: * Establish college graduation and career readiness as an organizing principle and embed it within NJCDC s various programs, services, and operations. * Develop and implement an audit to assess the strengths and weaknesses of all educational programs as a means of improving them. * Maintain and create new, agency-wide, Partnership Council composed of key stakeholder representatives to help implement NJCDC strategic plan and its goals. PRINCIPLE II: A Place-Based Approach Taking a neighborhood, or place-based approach towards providing core services and achieving lasting revitalization is critical to the strategic business plan. For NJCDC, the Greater Spruce Street/Great Falls Neighborhood will continue to be the target zone for programs and services all of which will be available to children and families living in and/or attending school in the zone. Residents from across the city may engage NJCDC programs and services through participation at one of the program sites within the zone. For NJCDC this also means continuing to provide community outreach, organizing, and neighborhood empowerment programs as well as innovative and catalytic real estate and community economic development initiatives. Several key deliverables will be. * Creating a Neighborhood Advocacy Center to ensure families, children, and neighborhood stakeholders have access to all governmental, non-profit, and private-sector resources that can assist them in improving opportunities for themselves and their families. * Designing and implementing a Community Gardens & Playgrounds Initiative to promote healthy living, neighborhood stability, and community cohesion. * Managing neighborhood input into the design and creation of the Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park through the General Management Planning Process of the National Park Service. New Jersey Community Development Corporation Strategic Business Plan Summary

8 Completing NJCDC s current pipeline of housing & community development projects and fostering future comprehensive neighborhood developments is also a major focus for this principle. This will be realized by developing a separate, complimentary strategic plan for NJCDC s future real estate development efforts, which will include: * Fostering larger-scale mixed-used/mixed-income development projects; * Building a new Middle School for the Community Charter School of Paterson (CCSP); * Completing infill and adaptive reuse projects in coordination with our Great Falls YouthBuild program; * Addressing parking and circulation issues; and * Creating a comprehensive youth development center PRINCIPLE III: A Pipeline Approach Central to achieving NJCDC s future goals is developing a continuous and comprehensive pipeline of best practice programs, services and opportunities from birththrough-college. To positively change lives, NJCDC needs to be in contact with those who live in the zone as early and as often as possible, and build mechanisms to pull children and families into its pipeline of programs and services. NJCDC has already built important parts of the pipeline in our targeted neighborhood, but work needs to be done in cooperation with additional partners to enhance and complete it. In order to develop this pipeline it is important to foster education reform at various levels and to develop core education reform solutions that drive the Great Falls project zone and inform/complement other solutions. Critical to this effort will be creating conditions to ensure that all children in the Zone are identified, offered services, and given every opportunity to be part of the pipeline approach. Several of the key ways NJCDC aims to accomplish this are: * Fully implementing the Full Service Community Schools Model in four schools within the zone. This approach creates a vehicle for providing academic, social, health and other services to all children and families in the zone. * Supporting the Community Charter School of Pater- 8 New Jersey Community Development Corporation Strategic Business Plan Summary 2012

9 STRATEGIC BUSINESS PLAN SUMMARY YEARS son (CCSP) to improve academic performance and expand to middle school grades. * Creating comprehensive and high quality early learning programs and a strong network for children age 0-3. This will be achieved by launching the Great Falls Family Learning Center to support parents who are pregnant, have infants and/or toddlers and begin preparing them for preschool within the zone. Of major importance will also be focusing on the end of the pipeline through college & career readiness programs and initiatives such as: * Strengthening zone high schools and increase successful student transition to college and careers. * Transforming NJCDC s existing Great Falls Youth- Build program into the Great Falls YouthBuild Academy as an alternative and second chance high school for students to obtain a high school degree, vocational training and job skills A final element of NJCDC s future pipeline will be offering youth, family, and community supports designed to strengthen young people, their families, and the community as a whole. PRINCIPLE IV: Commitment to the use of Data, Evaluation and Accountability In order to spur continuous growth and improvement in the programs and services we provide, NJCDC must be dedicated to offering the best programs and services available from a non-profit community-based organization. Critical to achieving this goal is constantly collecting, analyzing, and utilizing data in a way that can drive program success, innovation, and decision-making. In order to achieve this, NJCDC will: * Hire new Director of Research and Evaluation. * Acquire a new data management and software platform for data collection and analysis. * Begin tracking cohorts of youth, families, and residents. New Jersey Community Development Corporation Strategic Business Plan Summary

10 PRINCIPLE V: A Strengthened Organization Through Strong Management Infrastructure and Operating Systems The work being proposed by NJCDC is ambitious, yet certainly not unprecedented given the HCZ example and that of other award-winning community-based organizations. Facilitating the kind of organizational culture NJCDC wants to foster requires having in place smoothrunning, well understood systems built on relatively easy to navigate procedures and processes. These systems must drive the interplay between and among the fiscal, human resources, communications, and operations functions of the agency. Achieving efficiencies with appropriate controls and a customer-service mindset is the goal. A major emphasis on leadership development and attracting and retaining high caliber staff is essential if NJCDC is to coordinate and effectuate our Strategic Business Plan. Below are some of the key ways we intend to maintain the management infrastructure and systems necessary for success: * Reorganizing NJCDC for effective management of the strategic business plan and enhanced capacity. * Enhancing NJCDC s daily operations around the organizing principle, strategic direction, and fostering a culture of high-performance and reward. * Conducting performance audits of programs and services to analyze integrity to organizing principle and strategic goals. * Development of annual performance plans for all agency personnel, complete with annual evaluations. 10 New Jersey Community Development Corporation Strategic Business Plan Summary 2012

11 STRATEGIC BUSINESS PLAN SUMMARY YEARS * Growing and further developing NJCDC s Board of Trustees. * Developing board member engagement expectations including fundraising and other resource development responsibilities and roles. A well-designed strategic plan has value only if it is implemented with strong intent and reinforced by close monitoring and regularly measuring progress. NJCDC s Board of Trustees and staff are committed to the implementation of this plan and believe it provides an important framework for the organization s future growth and lasting impact. While there are more specific programs and initiatives tied to the core elements of the completed plan, this document aims to provide a thumbnail sketch of the comprehensive nature of the plan and the ambitious scope of what NJCDC hopes to achieve in the years to come. For more information on the plan and the ways in which NJCDC hopes to effectuate it, please contact Mike Powell at or by at mpowell@njcdc.org. PRINCIPLE VI: A Commitment to Obtaining Flexible Resources. Last, but of critical importance, is a determined recognition that all of these principles and associated actions will cost money. NJCDC s Strategic Business Plan takes this factor into account and attempts to document the costs of actualizing NJCDC s six guiding principles on a year-by-year basis. Resources, especially unrestricted, long-term, and flexible funding, are needed if NJCDC is to achieve the outcomes it seeks. Several of the key mechanisms NJCDC hopes to achieve requires a higher level of flexible resources to achieve this plan. Consequently, some of the ways in which NJCDC hopes to implement this principle is by: * Hiring a new Senior Manager for Development & Communications. * Designing a comprehensive fundraising strategy that increases amount raised annually through enhanced individual, corporate, and foundation giving. New Jersey Community Development Corporation Strategic Business Plan Summary

12 NJCDC s Board of Trustees Robert Daleo (Chair) Thomson Reuters Anthony Coscia (Vice Chair) Windels Marx Lane & Mittendorf Jeff Schechter (Treasurer) Cole Schotz Edward Truscelli (Secretary) Princeton Community Housing Donald Buckley TD Bank Joseph Cabrera Cushman & Wakefield Etta Denk Bank of America Jennifer Farrington BD Robert Garrison County of Bergen Noreen Giblin Gibbons P.C. Bob Guarasci (Ex-Officio) NJCDC Founder and CEO Gil Medina Cushman & Wakefield of New Jersey Robert Nixon New Jersey State PBA William Pascrell III Princeton Public Affairs Group Kenyatta Stewart, Esq. Hunt, Hamlin & Ridley Tom Webb Skanska USA Building Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park 12 New Jersey Community Development Corporation Strategic Business Plan Summary 2012