– Our YMCA, the Gateway Family YMCA, is familiar with running Playstreets. Since 2015 we’ve offered both traditional outdoor Playstreets and non-traditional, indoor playstreets to Elizabeth, New Jersey residents. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic gave us an opportunity to reinvent Playstreets once…
– The challenges of the pandemic—distress, economic strife, and unprecedented curbs on social interaction—have had a marked effect on people’s mental health. Since the state’s first shelter-in-place advisory in March 2020, SERV Centers of New Jersey (SCNJ) has received a significant…
– As part of our NJHI grant, we’ve provided stipends to programs that not only support community leaders, but promote individuals’ leadership and ownership of their health. One of the programs receiving funding for this purpose is Dudley House Veterans Transitional Housing…
– As part of our NJHI grant, we’ve worked on creating a data collection system that is an easy and effective way for Shaping Elizabeth partners to share their work with each other in real time. It needed to be simple…
– Time and again one of the biggest challenges the Shaping Elizabeth coalition members have heard from our community is that residents know resources and support services exist, but don’t know where or how to find them. Amid the COVID-19…
– Emergency food providers have been hard at work during this public health crisis to continuously offer groceries and hot meals to those in need. To support families facing food insecurity, the City of Plainfield and the Healthy Plainfield coalition have…
– These uncertain times where social distancing has moved us apart is when we need to be in closer communication. In the past, the Healthy Plainfield partner organizations have always addressed residents’ needs face-to-face, whether at the health department, library, bus…
– I was young and scared, growing up and living in Ghana. I did not see much hope for a good life. Then I got lucky. A worldwide group called the International Rescue Committee (IRC) found me and my family. According…
– This is an unprecedented time in our nation’s history, and everyone is facing uncertainty as we move through this COVID-19 pandemic. Children, families, and seniors are afraid to leave their homes, social distancing and isolation have become the new normal, and…
– As Supervisor of Physical Education, Health and Safety in the City of Elizabeth Public School District, I understand the 150-minutes-per-week physical education requirement in New Jersey is not enough to prevent modern lifestyle diseases like metabolic syndrome and build strong…
– In New Jersey, not everyone has equal access to fresh food due to systemic barriers such as 1) geographic location, 2) limited access to transportation options, 3) a minimal number of stores and 4) an overall lack of access to…
– I learned so many things during my first year in the Next Generation Community Leaders program. Elizabeth is my hometown and I was passionate about making a change here, but before I met my teammates and our coaches, I was…