[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC STING] - We're pleased to welcome Tish Johnson-Jones founding executive director of a terrific organization called Greenlight Fund Greater Newark.

Good to see you, Tish.

- Good to see you too, Steve.

- You got it.

Website is up.

Tell us what the organization's all about.

- Absolutely.

So Greenlight Fund is a national organization that was founded in Boston.

We currently have 13 sites across the country, particularly in Newark, we launched here about a year and a half ago.

And we work with community members and key stakeholders who identify an urgent unmet need in the city.

And then we scour the cadre for an amazing evidence-based organization.

We bring that organization to the city and help them, we fund them, help them get acclimated to the Newark environment, and really set them up for success so they can have the amount of impact that they desire to have in our community.

- And who are you working with in Newark?

- We work with a ton of people.

We have what we call a Selection Advisory Council that is composed of 36 key stakeholders in Newark.

So anywhere from nonprofit leaders of the Urban League, of United Way, of Ironbound Community Corporation.

We work with some funders here from Mcj Amelior Foundation, Prudential, and Panasonic.

And then we also make sure we work with Newarkers that have lived experiences.

So, we really have a diverse subsection of individuals that we bring together to help us close the gaps in Newark.

- You know, as a not-for-profit leader, you understand this, we spend more than half of our time raising money, securing grants.

Your dollars come from where?

- So luckily, with GreenLight Fund, before I started we amassed about five years worth of funding, so we can do the work that we need to do.

And we primarily use a number of individual donors, but we also have fantastic partners like Horizon Foundation that supports the work that we're doing.

But luckily, we don't have to raise funds until every fifth year.

So, we have funds now to do incredible work, and then we go back out there to raise funds.

- Let's do this.

I'm curious about this.

The most significant gaps, if you will, or opportunities to make a difference for the citizens of Newark.

There are so many areas that we could focus on, but you focus primarily on what out of the box?

'Cause over time you'll do other things, but right now what's the focus?

- So out of the box, our first focus was workforce development.

We conducted what we call the first phase of the GreenLight method, which is discovery, where we go out and we talk to community members, we host focus groups, we host worldwide meetings to get an idea of what the community is saying that they need most desperately.

And last year we felt that was workforce development for young people as an entry point into sustainable career pathways.

Unfortunately, the average income in Newark is about $37,000 which is not a livable wage.

We have 76% of our young people graduate from high school, but only 15% go to college.

So what are those other 60% doing to make sure they have sustainable lifestyles?

So, that's what we went to find because we knew it was really urgent for this community.

So, workforce development was the first thing we looked at.

- You know, it's interesting, Tish, the Workforce development means different things to different people.

- Yep.

- Help us understand from a very practical point of view what workforce development means.

- Yep, so for GreenLight workforce development mean looking at these 7,000, what we call opportunity youth, which are young people that are disconnected from school, disconnected from work and opportunities, and how do we make them find placement for them so they can have sustainable careers.

So when we looked at that, part of the GreenLight method is to then scour the country to find an organization to really fit the need here.

And we found an organization out of California called EMS Corps.

- Excuse me, EMS Corps, right?

- EMS Corps, yep.

- All right.

- And what they do is they train young people to become emergency medical technicians through a five month paid stipend program.

Not only are they training young people, they're providing them with stipends, they're providing them with healthcare support, with housing support, and anything that is necessary for them to overcome any barriers to program completion.

They have been very successful in other places across the country with a 90% graduation rate.

And 80% of those students actually pass their EMT licensing.

So now they're off to a very successful career in healthcare or emergency response.

So we see workforce development as really looking at what resources are required for these people to be successful and EMS was able to close that gap.

- You know, Tish, you're bringing up so many important points and I wanna follow up on this.

We have a lot of not-for-profit leaders who do work in cities like Newark, Jersey City, Trenton, East Orange, Atlantic City, particularly urban areas.

But here's what I get curious about, because there are so many not-for-profits, there are so many folks, quote, "working on many of these issues."

How do you not bump into each other?

How do you not let turf get in the way of what needs to be done for the 7,000 plus young people?

And I'm sure there are many more, but in terms of workforce development, you're talking 7,000 who need direction right now.

So, how do you avoid stepping in each other's footprint?

- Yeah, so one part that distinguishes GreenLight Fund as a funder is we look for urgent unmet needs in the community.

If a nonprofit is doing it already, we don't put another nonprofit in to compete with them.

We really try to be complimentary and not competitive to what's already taking place in the Newark ecosystem.

So we work with nonprofits, like I mentioned, nonprofits are part of that Selection Advisory Council.

During my discovery phase, I talk to nonprofits, I ask them, "What do you need?

"What do you feel like your mission creeping on a little bit "because no one else is really doing that work?"

And we specifically find organizations to really close that specific gap of what's currently not happening here.

And that's how we kind of stay out of each other's footprint or so.

- Real quick on this workforce development.

You don't check off the box and say we're done, but you are moving on to other initiatives as well.

The next gap, if you will, that your organization, that the GreenLight Fund is looking to address is?

- Education.

So right now, we're taking on education.

We're just concluding our discovery phase where we found so much about education in Newark and we're looking at three particular focus areas.

We started with about eight that we took to community, but decided to narrow those eight down to mental health supports for students and teachers, youth development.

What does out of school time space look like for students here?

And then literacy.

As you know, literacy recently has been everywhere across Newark finding that only 19% of our third graders are reading proficient based on that 2022 exam.

So, how do we close that gap?

And I would not be surprised if out of all of the focus areas we're considering, literacy is the one that specifically rises to the top and we find an organization in that area.

- I gotta tell you, Tish, and we'll follow up and make sure we have you back to talk about the progress because people might say, "Well, how do you define success?"

Well, we'll talk about that down the road when we have you back.

Tish Johnson-Jones, founding executive director of GreenLight Fund Greater Newark.

Cannot thank you enough for joining us.

Important work to be done.

You and your colleagues are doing it.

And we'll keep a focus on that work.

Thank you so much, we appreciate it.

- Thank you.

- You got it.

I'm Steve Adubato.

That's Tish Johnson-Jones.

We'll be right back.

- [Narrator] State of Affairs with Steve Adubato Is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey.

Rutgers University Newark.

Prudential Financial.

Newark Board of Education.

The Fidelco Group.

Hackensack Meridian Health.

Operating Engineers, Local 825.

And by The North Ward Center.

Promotional support provided By NJ.Com.

And by Meadowlands Media.

- (Narrator) Life is full of changes.

At Hackensack Meridian Medical Group, we're ready for them.

If you have a cold or chronic illness, our five star doctors can treat any ailment.

Whether you're starting recess or retiring, we're prepared with pediatric and adult specialists.

And if you just moved here, we are in your neighborhood.

You now have access to a health team thousand strong.

So no matter what or when, we're ready.