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Innovators of the NCG variety must be prepared for ongoing struggle.

Gregory S. King is managing director of the Newark Collaboration Group. * * *

Part II

Consensus: The Key to Collaboration

by ANGELA STEWART

uilding consensus among its membership has been the key to making the B Newark Collaboration work. When the nonprofit organization was formed four years ago to give a boost to Newark's revitalization, it was agreed that no project would be adopted unless there was uNty . Amazingly, the 200-plus community, business, government, and education leaders have yet to disagree on anything - in public anyway.

"Consensus has been the cornerstone that sets us apart from other organizations that have not succeeded," explains Saul K. Fenster, chairman of the Newark Collaboration Group, and president of the New Jersey Institute of Technology. 'Tt is part of the trust-building," adds Fenster, who assumed the Group's chairmanship in November, 1986 and was reelected to the position last November.

Behind closed doors at meetings of the Group's 19-member executive committee, there is much more give-and-take and occasionally some strong difference of opinion, but all in a very polite, nonconfontational manner. NCG officials say this cooperative spirit exists because members are committed to doing what is best for Newark, a city that has experienced a flurry of commercial and residential activity over the past couple of years. "The NCG is the only vehicle for getting a wide and truly representative group together without fear that political or personal motives will set the agenda," notes Mayor Sharpe James who sits on the Group's executive committee.

Another hallmark of the NCG is "inclusiveness." Any organization that wants

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to join the movement to help revitalize the city is welcome. Because some organizations have declined the invitation, Group officials say they will make more of an effort to reach out into the community to bring in those who feel locked out. W e need to have more community-leadership representation,” says Fenster, “the Group was not designed to be elitist.”

Task Forces to Improve City Life Most of the NCGs activities are based on a 32-page document called “City

Life” which outlines 29 strategic initiatives or recommendations in critical areas like housing, education and development. The report, which has since grown to include initiatives on recreation and manufacturing, was formulated in 1986 by a group of 150 volunteers organized by the Group. The recommendations were presented to the public during forums held in each of the city’s five wards in the fall of 1986.

Task forces have been formed around the recommendations to identify pro- spective projects and promote those upon which NCG members agree; a wide range of undertakings has resulted. One focussed on establishing a city-wide recreation program, under which YMCA membership includes membership privileges at other facilities participating in a recreation network.

Most of the NCG’S activities are bused on a 32-page document called “city Life” which oratlines 29 strategic initiatives or recom- mendations in critical areas like housing, education and development.

Another task force called for the formation of a broad-based educational group to help improve public education in the city. Formed last October, the Newark Education Council aims to establish partnerships among the city, com- munity groups, business and government. Among those involved in the effort is Newark Superintendent of Schools, Eugene Campbell. “The problems of urban education - such as dropping out and lack of basic skills - won’t go away. They must be addressed, not only by educators, but by the various city groups that have a stake in our children’s eduction,” he said. “I’m optimistic that through efforts of the Newark Education Council we can start to tackle those problems and enhance education for all our students.” The Council’s management task force plans to conduct a review of local public schools, emphasizing instruction and dropout prevention. It will seek funding from the

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City and private sources to pay for the study and future education-improvement programs. Some are leery of the Council. They say that what the Newark school system needs is not more groups studying its problems but people willing to roll up their sleeves and do something about them.

On the housing front, the Group has succeeded in attracting a number of financial resources to address one of the city's most pressing needs. K. Hovanian Enterprises of Red Bank, the state's largest housing developer, teamed up with minority developer Donald Harris of the Vogue Housing Connection to produce 40 two- and three-bedroom, moderately priced townhouses in the Central Ward, called University Estates. Hovanian has broken ground for 168 additional units on a site adjacent to the Vogue project and plans to build hundreds more in coming years.

'7 believe that without the Group, it would have been difficult for the Vogue project to go as well as it did," said Conrad Gack, senior vice-president of Hovanian's Inner City Development Division. They made a commitment to what they seek to accomplish and are making sure it happens." Harris recalls that the Group facilitated many meetings between his firm and the city when he was trying to purchase the land for University Estates. Through his ties with the NCG, he also received a $2.6 million construction loan from the Prudential Foundation to start the project. Were it not for NCG, Vogue Housing Connection would not exist today," he said. "the Newark Collaboration Group is as responsible for the housing renaissance taking place in the city as Vogue Housing is."

With the help of New York City-based CORO Foundation, the NCG has also fashioned its own leadership training program, featuring average Newark residents who are anxious to make a difference in their communities. Graduates have formed an alumni association called Leadership Focus, Inc. Laverne MOKOW, a St. Louis consultant who directed the training, believes Leadership Focus will serve as a grass-roots organization with its own agenda. "They are educated in the process of how things work and know who the key players in the city are," she said.

Mixed Reviews Amid Success Not all NCG projects have taken off as well. Its Jobs Bank initiative was declared a flop after it failed to produce employment for residents who submitted resumes. Since then, however, it has created TAPCO (Training and Placement Correlation Organization) to better coordinate efforts to find jobs.

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Involved in the project are more than 30 representatives from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. NCG officials say it has already placed “hundreds” of applicants.

The $49 million Newark Housing Partnership has also attracted mixed reviews. This business consortium was established in October, 1986 to loan money to developers willing to build low- and moderate-cost housing. While plans call for 600 new units by the end of 1989, until very recently the Part- nership had closed on just one loan although many developers had sought fund- ing. Since Spring, 1988, however, two additional closings occurred - one to rehabilitate a six-story apartment building and the other for a townhouse development. Dede Myers, the Partnership coordinator, said the three loans totalling of $8.9 million will produce 122 units. ‘What we have accomplished is very substantial,” she said, contradicting those who feel the Partnership is not working as expected. However, while pledging to set aside at least 20 per- cent of the homes it helps finance for low-income families, only seven units fall into that range, so far.

Some have accused the Collaboration of sidestepping Newark’s most crucial problems, while others feel it is too “planning oriented.” “I don’t think it has ever really tackled the hard issues of this city,” said Victor DeLuca, coordinator of the Ironbound Community Cooperation, a Group dropout. They are talking a lot and not acting all that much.”

“The majority of folks who live in public housing don’t know what [NCG] is all about,” said Ralph Waller who heads the Central Ward Coalition of Youth Agencies. “There are other agencies that more directly affect their lives - like the Board of Education and the Housing Authority.” Waller, however, is a Collaboration member and feels the perception that it is primarily con- cerned with downtown is “not totally accurate. There are old fears, old turf battles, and misconceptions about where the Group is coming from,” he said.

Laverne Morrow, the private consultant preparing residents for community leadership roles, describes her trainees as excited, but wary. “They are truly convinced that Newark is undergoing a renaissance. But there is also a fear that people who have been here all their lives will be shifted.”

Misunderstanding and Old Fears Are a Major Obstacle Alex J. Plinio, the Prudential executive credited with starting the NCG,

feels many doubts and fears about its role arise from misunderstanding. From the very beginning, he said, NCG tried to demonstrate that it would serve as

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a "mechanism for strengthening and energizing Newark's institutions and organizations to the benefit of all residents." The Group's preference, according to Plinio, has always been to get existing organizations to take "ownership" of projects while it assists in attracting financing and providing other resources to help the ventures work. To the extent that it has accomplished this, Plinio and other Collaboration officials feel that organization has succeeded.

"I think the Group has spurred other people to reorganize themselves and get involved in the city," commented Gregory King, NCG managing director. "But the minute you are out there, people assume you can do anythmg and be all things to all people." According to King, some people have mistaken the NCG for a "grass-roots, community-based organization, which it was never meant to be. Instead, it is a business-driven organization that works as a facilitator and convener." But King was quick to note that NCG is "sensitive" to community concerns and recognizes that "people are the most precious resource a city has."

Too Concerned with Downtown? Two years ago NCG formed a self-study group headed by Robert Curvin,

dean of the New School Graduate School of Management in New York City, to determine the Group's effectiveness. In a 14-page report, the task force concluded that the NCG has played an important role in helping to shape Newark's future and has become a "principle vehicle for an expression of hope and progress." It cautioned, however, that NCG "must take into account the perception on the part of those who represent the poor and minority community that the Group is already too oriented toward downtown business development. m e ] it cannot eliminate the tension that exists between the poor neighborhoods and the wealth and power of downtown, [it is essential] that the Collaboration remain sensitive to the process of inclusion and do everything possible to assure that its efforts are balanced and that it is fair in its concerns and allocation of resources."

It's not a terribly easy process to move from CL consensus-building atmosphere to an action atmosphere.

-

Some insist that NCG has not done enough to be inclusive. "I just don't believe their purpose is to deal with people who happen to be poor," said Councilman-at-Large Donald Tucker. "If you talk about the homeless, they

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don’t deal with that. If you talk about welfare reform or day care, they don’t deal with that. They don’t deal with some major issues of concern to poor people.”

But Dr. Edward Verner, chairman of the Newark-North Jersey Committee of Black Churchmen feels the Collaboration has “served very well the intent for which it was formed. It has attempted to give direction and support to changes which are necessary for the city to progress,”‘he said.

Others have compared NCG to the defunct Newark Urban Coalition, a broad-based organization formed in 1969, two years after the riots. While both groups sought to bring people from various sectors together, their operating modes differ substantially. The Coalition was a response to a crisis,” explained Gustav Heningburg, its first president. “One day there was no Urban Coali- tion and the next, there was.” Heningburg, who is not involved with NCG for “personal” reasons, feels the NCG was created with much more deliberate thought and, “because of the times, can afford to operate in a much less con- frontational and aggressive manner.” Ten years ago he told a reporter that Newark‘s revival would succeed only with a “respectful, working communi- cation and relationship between three parties - the private business community, government, and the resident community.”

Today, Heningburg maintains that the Group has established such a rap- port but must now take the “critical step of translating the consensus it has obtained on certain projects into tangible results. It’s not a terribly easy proc- ess to move from a consensus-building atmosphere to an action atmosphere.“ He argues that the Group’s credibility rests on its ability to bridge this gap. King agrees that it is “one thing to talk about creating a vision and quite another to implement it.”

While there are strong differences of opinion about what the Collaboration should be doing, its leaders insist their effoorts must continue.

Former Mayor Kenneth Gibson, an active participant during the early NCG phases, said he never viewed the Group as an action-oriented body. “One never really expects such groups to do substantial things - the great advantage is

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that they allow people to work together to make sure various elements perform better.” Former Essex County Executive, Peter Shapiro, who once sat on the NCG executive committee, agrees. “Their greatest achievement has been to change the climate.”

While there are strong differences of opinion about what the Collaboration should be doing, its leaders insist their efforts must continue. And they say consensus and inclusiveness will remain their motto as they seek to bring in those who do not yet feel part of the enterprise. After all, they contend, the reason NCG set up shop in the first place was to ensure that Newark‘s revitalization benefits all of the city’s residents.

This am’cle was excerpted from a two pan series appearing in The Star Ledger on May 22 and 23. 1988; reprinted with permission.

Notes ‘Angela Stewart, “Four Years of Collaboration,” Ihe Star Ledger, (Newark) 22 May 1988.

2A prime factor in Newark’s downward slide (and perhaps, partly a result) was profound suspicion among key local groups. Community organizations clearly distrusted the corporate community: Elected officials had little faith in neighborhood leaders and academic institutions were dubious about everyone. As a result, one of the NCGs first tasks was to increase the comfort level of all involved parties.

’Op. Cit., Stewart.

4NCG is volunteer powered - its paid staff is small. To date volunteers have contributed over 10,OOO man-hours of service. Their skills and enthusiasm are essential to the venture.

SMichael Doyle and David Strauss of Interaction Associates formulated the preliminary model which Doyle has subsequently refined.

6The total 1986 operational budget was approximately $190,000.