Norwescap Seeks Ideas to Help Dover

North Jersey organization's next steps depend on resident feedback to create an action plan.

Story and photos by Heath Rumble

Jason Rowe and Fabi Soto addressed the people who came to The Amp Arts to explain how Norwescap can help Dover get assistance.

Fabi Soto and Jason Rowe wanted to hear suggestions from Dover residents on how to revitalize Dover. The pair from Norwescap gained valuable insights from community members already connected to local helpers.

Norwescap, short for Northwest New Jersey Community Action Program, is designed to empower Garden State individuals and families to move away from financial insecurity and toward successful independence. Founded in 1965 under the President Lyndon B. Johnson administration’s “War on Poverty,” and fueled by the advocacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Norwescap has grown over nearly six decades to build a comprehensive array of programs and services that, together, positively impact tens of thousands of people each year. The six categories of support are:

• Education

• Employment

• Financial Capacity Building

• Health & Nutrition

• Housing & Community Development

• Volunteerism

Through a mix of happenstance and strategic networking, those who braved the heavy rains and local flooding for the event are deeply involved in helping those in need, and so they all naturally had exceptional insights on how to access Dover’s communities. This group went from mostly strangers to a communal think tank optimizing outreach ideas.  

Soto, a Norwescap program assistant, is a lifelong Dover resident, with a family who has deep roots in town. She’s been at many events in Dover, including the “Art on Blackwell” event that kicked off Dover Art Week. She was seeking engagement for the survey, which is key to designing a plan to apply for Neighborhood Revitalization Tax Credit (NRTC) funds. “We're hoping to address economic development through affordable housing, small business development, and then also community events,” Soto explained then.

Three weeks later, she was joined by Rowe, a community planner who studied public policy and economics at Harvard and now consults on community planning with Norwescap. He’s spent decades involved in community development and supporting those in need through organizing efforts, including helping immigrants and union laborers with campaigns and policy research. 

Rowe and Soto mingled with guests over refreshments before diving into introductions and their presentation. Rowe, who quipped that “Ancestry.com said he has a distant ancestor from Dover,” explained to the attendees how Norwescap hoped to use the program’s funds to improve the town, and what the nonprofit had already learned from the grant. Rowe and Soto translated their points and answers between English and Spanish to communicate clearly with everyone. 

FUNDING FOR MANY USES 

NRTC funds have been awarded to a variety of groups, from faith-based organizations to nonprofits like Habitat for Humanity in Paterson. Norwescap secured funding earlier this year for Phillipsburg and Sussex Borough in New Jersey through the state program, run by the Department of Community Affairs. In essence, the NRTC program incentivizes businesses with at least $25,000 in tax liability to invest in community-enriching projects organized by nonprofit groups. The major funders for the recent round of awards were mostly local financial groups, such as First Hope Bank and Provident Bank.

Under the program, at least 60 percent of contributions from these businesses must go toward housing and economic-development activities, with the rest supporting small businesses, removing barriers to self-sufficiency, and promoting the integration of mixed-income neighborhoods. In exchange, business entities receive a 100 percent tax credit against various state taxes, allowing them to fund community initiatives run by groups they work with directly. The funds can support a range of revitalization efforts, from restoring storefronts and creating community gardens to youth programs and supporting first-time homebuyers. Norwescap has also used NRTC grants to fund community events, such as Phillipsburg’s “Pork Roll Palooza” (that’s Taylor Ham to most of us), which happens each October. 

Neighborhoods qualifying for grants must be experiencing economic distress under state-determined criteria and have revitalization plans for the funds approved by all stakeholders. Dover is Morris County’s only eligible town.

Rowe said the plan is “like a menu of options,” delivering annual disbursements over a 10-year period. “Depending on the opportunities and the needs… you get to make your order from the menu, and if you’re successful those grants are granted and they usually have a two-and-a-half to three-year term to completion.” To create that plan, the state mandates a participatory planning process “where community members have an opportunity to give meaningful input,” Rowe explained, which is vital “for both principled and practical purposes” to give residents a say in plans that are designed and executed for their towns. 

Soto said last week that months of ICE raids and detentions in Dover made residents reluctant to share input at businesses and public institutions, such as the Dover Free Public Library and the “Basement Bash” celebration that capped off Dover Art Week. 

“Obviously, there has been a chilling effect with the current immigration enforcement,” Rowe  said, adding that while the phase of community discussions, research and planning is slated to last through spring of 2027, “we can structure the planning calendar in a way that makes sense… there’s no need to rush it.” 

Attendees used this map to prioritize sections of Dover for various target programs.

IDENTIFYING TARGET AREAS

Soto and Rowe shared first steps with attendees, including the top Norwescap priorities for receiving grants and the Dover borders where lines should be drawn for the proposals. The plan’s current borders include downtown Dover, centered on a stretch between Blackwell and East McFarlane Streets. The northernmost point is where Mount Hope Ave. curves to meet Cooper St.; the southernmost is Dickerson, which includes the train station; the western border falls where Blackwell St. becomes Route 46, and the eastern edge comes on Sammis Ave marks. They explained that the current borders can still be changed. Rowe invited attendees to split into two groups and use stickers to label parts of town for opportunities and assistance:

• Green marked places they wanted to replicate in Dover; 

• Orange highlighted spaces with potential, but could be at risk as a trouble spot;

• Red indicated current places that had become undesirable locations.

 The groups then reconvened to discuss their choices. Not surprisingly, residents are concerned about the lack of commercial and residential parking, noting that planned apartment projects on Basset Highway would only add parking for residents. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: Want your voice to be heard? Click here to fill out the survey.

“Parking in Dover in general has been a struggle,” from the corner of Sussex and Blackwell to places like the Dover Little Theater, which is currently just outside the zone. They wanted Crescent Field included in the zone, since the funds could improve the use of fields there; one resident called it a “hub of Dover.” Participants said they’d heard about flooding in new apartments on Route 46, and that vacant lots along the train tracks just before S. Salem Street were marked in red. Green stickers highlighted businesses around Mercer and Blackwell Streets as positive places, along with JFK Park.

The next activity had attendees vote in a live, anonymous poll with a QR code to sort the revitalization options by priority, from highest to lowest. Programs for children and youth won clearly, followed closely by affordable housing. Medical, legal, and other social services were third, with parks, good jobs, and walkability filling out the middle.

 “Housing is like a huge deal here.” Jamie Rodgerson, who works for Zufall Health’s mobile food access program among other pantries, and also helped create the Connecting Dover networking-and-outreach group. “They have health, they have their market and businesses, they have everything all here on Blackwell and in walking distance. So this is like, numero uno, where everybody wants to live,” Rodgerson explained, “But they can’t because of lack of housing, and work to support it.”  

JoAnn Quattro, who runs the Morris County Organization for Hispanic Affairs, had concerns about what more housing could bring if “In the future, there are plans to build high-income housing. Which makes normal housing become more expensive in the long run.” 

Rowe welcomed the feedback, agreeing that these concerns should guide planning. But he wondered why public safety was the lowest priority listed. 

Tatiana Atehortua Saavedra, a musician who’s part of Mutual Morris, a volunteer-based, mutual-aid group that strives to provide all of those in need with necessities free of eligibility requirements, gave an answer that was echoed by many in the group: Public safety translated to “cameras and surveillance. Not necessarily like, pedestrian safety.” 

Others commented that between the well-trained police department and the lack of issues they had experienced in town, they already felt safe. 

Rowe asked a question that sparked the most discussion: How can Norwescap generate more resident engagement? He and Soto were enthused by suggestions to boost engagement by leaving surveys at the library for residents to submit anonymously. 

Saavedra recommended offering free transportation to meetings, and communicating that online. A special-education teacher pitched going to schools for meetings because people already felt safe there. 

Soto felt good about the conversations from the small gathering. “People showed up. They were willing to talk; they had good conversations. I think some people brought some excellent points about different things,” she said. “So it was exciting for this first meeting, and I'm hoping that our next meeting will be better attended, because people like to run with what they heard and saw, and will tell their family and friends.”

Still, the specter of reluctant residents hung in the air. Soto’s husband, Carlos Vazquez, an activist from Puerto Rico, said that some in the community are “so scared about everything going on, that [they] don’t think having these conversations are necessary until things change. But, if we don’t have these conversations, then things will not change.”