Meet Our Team: Kisha Ingraham, Community Organizer
“I never knew this type of work existed in my community…”
Kisha Ingraham started as the team lead on a survey project four years ago and soon after was brought on as Clinton Hill Community Action’s (CHCA) first Community Organizer. Prior to CHCA, Kisha worked in the medical field and has always been passionate about helping people. “I know my day goes better when I smile and I know that I’m making someone else feel better,” says Kisha.
Kisha is a lifelong Newarker who grew up in the South Ward’s Weequahic neighborhood. For the last decade, she has made Clinton Hill home where she raised her two sons. “South 13th Street, Girard, Shanley, Baldwin–I didn’t know how beautiful the homes were. Like wow, these are mansions,” she says in awe in talking about the neighborhood. Kisha sees her work as not just her job but her personal mission to make Clinton Hill better, safer, and cleaner.
As the Community Organizer for CHCA, Kisha works directly with residents on action projects that they are leading to improve the quality of life for people living in the neighborhood. She most recently served as facilitator for Concerned Citizens of Clinton Hill, a neighborhood association made up of residents and block leaders that meets monthly to discuss issues and collaboratively problem solve. As facilitator, she kept the group going by switching to virtual meetings during the pandemic and growing the membership from 10 to 34 active members.
When Kisha’s not on the clock, she enjoys binging on Netflix, spending time with her sons and two grandchildren, and singing songs while listening to the radio reflecting on her days at Arts High School where she was a vocal music major.
Meet Our Partners: Greater Newark LISC
“There’s no place without its people…”
Greater Newark LISC (GNL) has been a critical partner for Clinton Hill Community Action (CHCA). Established in 1986, GNL is one of almost forty local offices in the national LISC network. Breaking down the acronym–Local Initiatives Support Corporation–reveals its core mission.
Judith Thompson-Morris, Deputy Executive Director, describes GNL’s purpose as “making sure that we create communities of choice where residents can live, work, and play, and improve the quality of life for those residents in the communities.” The primary way GNL has been serving this mission is by providing access to capital through loans and grants to nonprofit community development organizations throughout the greater Newark area, like CHCA.
The Thriving Neighborhoods Initiative is one of the place-based initiatives of GNL; it is funded and managed in partnership with the Victoria Foundation and the Rutgers Joseph C. Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies. This pilot program employs a multi-year strategy to create “opportunities that engage and activate residents’ power in collaborative decision-making processes with the goal being to influence equitable neighborhood outcomes,” according to Milan Sledge, GNL’s Community Engagement Officer dedicated to Clinton Hill.
Support to neighborhood organizations like Concerned Citizens of Clinton Hill and the Clinton Hill Block Club Coalition looks like strategic advisement and seed grants for quality of life projects. GNL partnered with CHCA on the Care and Share Block Pantrywhere, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, 240-260 families received grocery bags of food every week.
GNL and CHCA have furthered this collaboration by engaging with residents and other community-based organizations to develop a new neighborhood plan for Upper Clinton Hill. GNL believes that building a thriving neighborhood takes active involvement from residents, and neighborhood plans become custom-tailored blueprints for how to actualize these communities. In all its program initiatives, GNL sees local people as assets in creating comprehensive solutions for their own communities. This is the same approach applied to GNL’s work in Clinton Hill.
