Greater Newark Conservancy Inc.

“After preparation of the 990 Tax Return, a draft copy is emailed to the Board Treasurer, Executive Director, and Finance Director for review and approval.”

“In the annual meeting, the Board Members are required to sign a conflict of interest statement. When a conflict of interest is identified, the Board Member recuses themself from voting.”

“Executive Director's salary is reviewed by the Executive Committee, who then recommends any salary change to the full board. For all other Directors, the Executive Director reviews and recommends any changes. The Executive Committee conducts a review and comparison to market rates for the positions before setting a new salary rate.”

“The Conflict of Interest Policy, Audited Financial Statements, and all Governing Documents are kept on file and are available to the public upon written request.”

“Greater newark conservancy promotes environmental stewardship to improve the quality of life in nj's urban areas. Founded in 1987, the conservancy has four program areas--environmental education, community greening and gardening, job training and advocacy for environmental justice.”

“Education Program - The Conservancys education program annually brings innovative, hands-on, science-based lessons and field trips to approximately 8,000 inner-city schoolchildren from Newark and its environs. Programming focuses on the urban environment and includes environmental education field trips to the Prudential Outdoor Learning Center in downtown Newark, in-class reverse field trips, living laboratory outdoor teaching gardens at Newark schools, nutritional health lessons and activities, and farm to school programming. Since the Prudential Outdoor Learning Center opened 13 years ago, it has hosted over 32,000 underserved children who have engaged in environmental field trips.”

“Community Greening - The Conservancys community greening program annually serves over 2,000 Newark residents through its community gardens with resident-adopted planting plots; urban farm lots that generate fresh, local produce; and a farm stand operation that makes nutritious, healthy foods available to the inner-city population. Last growing season the programs urban farms, including a 1 acre farm and a 2.5 acre farm in Newark generated over 30,000 pounds of fresh produce, bringing fresh, nutritious vegetables to Newark's low-income residents.”

“Ex-offender reentry services A component of the Conservancy's reentry program for ex-offenders is the New Jersey reentry corporation ("NJRC"). In November 2015 the conservancy became a designated satellite site of the NJRC, serving all Essex County. This Initiative provides counseling to ex-offenders, including referrals for substance abuse treatment, job placement assistance, personal health assessment and referrals, housing assistance, legal services, and opportunities for continuing education. Annually, the NJRC at the Consvervancy is serving between 500-600 Essex county ex-offenders (mostly newark) with a 60 percent job placement rate and an 11 percent recidivism rate (the statewide recidivism rate is 31 percent).”

“Other Programs Environmental Justice program builds partnerships with Newark's residents to promote urban environmental issues and strives to empower them to recognize their ability to improve the city's environment. For a number of years the Conservancy has actively advocated for quality of life issues in the city's new Master Plan. More recently, the Conservancy has advocated for an environmentally sensitive cleaning of contamination in the lower Passaic river. The Newark Youth Leadership Project ("NYLP")component of the Conservancy's job training program provides supervised training in landscaping, horticulture, education, and office administration for up to 60 newark high school youth each year, seeking to increase employability. The program provides participants with a sample of career options in various environmental fields, an appreciation for their urban environment, and opportunities for pursing higher education. In January 2016, the Conservancy launched its City Bloom Landscaping initiative, which is a fee-for-service landscaping business that generates revenue to help support Conservancy programming while at the same time providing job training experience for ex-offenders. Participants learn skills in the fields of landscaping, horticulture, hardscaping, light construction, and equipment maintenance. Trainees who complete the program are better qualified to seek more permanent employment in the landscaping industry. This past year, the City Bloom Landscaping program earned $176,000 in revenue and trained ten ex-offenders. The clean and green transitional job training program works with formerly incarcerated Newark residents and ex-gang affiliated members to assist them in making the transition from prison to gainful employment. Training focuses on a variety of horticultural and landscaping skills. Throughout the program, participants clean highway gateways and medians and hundreds of vacant, city-owned lots in Newark. A major emphasis has been on developing and helping to maintain the Conservancys two larger urban farms.”