Through the Community Leadership Initiative projects, Leadership Newark provides high-level management and policy support to various community based organizations in and around the Greater Newark area. Additionally, these projects affords Leadership Newark fellows the opportunity to work toward resolving real community needs in partnership with a non-profit organization or government entity. These very community partnerships have given the organizations the right tools to continue serving their constituents in public policy areas such as health, education, social services, arts & culture, environmental industries and more, thus becoming effective community based entities and advocates on behalf of those they serve.
Dr. Karen Thomas, CEO of the Marion P. Thomas Charter Schools system once shared, “The Leadership Newark [CLI] project turned out to be the “gift that keeps on giving.” Using it as a template, our school now has a foundation that gives children scholarships to go to high school, and we have had multiple classes that have graduated into college. We have used the LN template for multiple other projects, such as to set up the screening, application and interview process for prospective MPT students.”
