Community Involvement
Activism in Local Tutoring Program:
Trenton Meeting's concerted work in community involvement originated from its strategic plan retreat in summer 1993. Its first and still most important project consists of a small tutoring program for children in the immediate neighborhood. It began in December 2003 when the Latino Land Trust, a neighborhood community housing project, asked the Meeting to provide tutoring services for children who live across the street from the Meeting. Several members and attenders happily volunteered, coordinated by the leadership of the Community Involvement Committee (CIC). Working with parents and the trust, the committee established basic guidelines and a schedule of two one-hour periods per week. Students are all in grades 3 through 7.
Early opinion and feedback from both children and parents rate the program a success. Many parents have helped with supervision, escort, and tutoring for the project. Clearly, the parents are grateful and Trenton Meeting has become known to the community.Despite initial concerns, organizers fairly easily met the program's demands for volunteer tutors in the first year of operation. To celebrate the year's completion, on August 21, 2004, fourteen students and nine parents traveled with five tutors via the Riverside Rail to the New Jersey State Aquarium.
The tutoring program reopened in November 2005 with ten students, each receiving up to two hours on two days (Monday and Wednesday). The Meeting has demonstrated its commitment to tutoring by adding new lights and repainting the instructional area. The CIC also expects this year to establish a computer lab for the students.
Activism in Support of a Vibrant Neighborhood:
As a critical part of its overall mission, Trenton Meeting of Friends seeks to build relationships within its local community and nearby community organizations. For example, Trenton school and gang violence are key problems for families and children in the area. The problem must be addressed by involving not just schools, but also law enforcement agencies, churches, and parents. The CIC has already assisted The Old Trenton Neighborhood Community Development Corporation in preparing applications for Community Development Block Grant funds to continue its efforts in ameliorating gang and school violence. The OTNCDC proposes basing bilingual staff at local ward community centers to educate and divert "at-risk" youth from involvement in the web of gang-related activities. Future CIC programs may involve work with other community organizations interested in keeping youth connected with creative and constructive community activities.
In the immediate environs of the Meeting, an active, involved community is trying to build a vibrant family neighborhood, with safe streets, parks, and schools, without drugs or violence. Supporting this effort our Meeting has joined with other local organizations to form the Hanover Street Neighborhood Association. This association has sponsored community meetings when with Trenton Police officials, including Police Director Luis Santiago and Area Supervisor Lt. Edelmiro Gonzalez. We hope that strengthening neighborhood relations with police will ease community tension and begin making an inroad on community violence and drugs.Trenton Meeting actively assisted the Crisis Ministry's effort to conduct a coat drive and distribution program in both Princeton and Trenton by hosting distribution in our meeting house. From November 9 to 11, about two thousand coats were given away, including one thousand heavy-weight coats. The Crisis Ministry also works in cooperation with Mercer Street Friends to distribute food to needy families.