The Foundation for Newark’s Future Invests in Three Areas of Impact:

The K-12 Educational Experience and Beyond – We know that children are not created alike. Our kids thrive in different learning environments and have different interests and learning styles. Therefore, we believe it is crucial to support a system in Newark in which every student has access to an excellent school, and that their parents have a right to play the key role of selecting that school. Our schools need great teachers and leaders, and we have provided significant funds to support their work as well. But the school hours are not enough, so we have supported social and emotional supports for our students, youth leadership programming, expanded learning time initiatives, and the journey to and through college through the Newark City of Learning Collaborative and college access programming.

Early Childhood Education – Newark has a robust community of early childhood education champions, providers, and funders. From the beginning we have partnered with this community to advance our goal of increasing the quality of early childhood environments and expanding access of early childhood services to the neediest of families. We have also doubled down on literacy as the gateway to success through our funding of Raising a Reader, My Very Own Library, and our partnership with the City of Newark’s Read and Believe campaign.

Community Engagement – We firmly believe that the people who live in Newark and are committed to this city for the long-term should decide its future. Our role is to support them in creating an education system that serves all students. We do this by investing in community, neighborhood, and citywide collective impact initiatives that advance the well-being of children and families and by investing directly in youth through programs such as Summer Youth Employment.