Making Newark Work for Newarkers is the full report of the Rutgers University-Newark Project on Equitable Growth in the City of Newark, written by CLiME and incorporating research conducted in conjunction with a university working group whose work began last April. We viewed the goal of equitable growth first in the context of housing issues before expanding to think about the fabric of community life and economic opportunity in the city.
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As Newark experiences unprecedented growth potential, Newarkers express more and more anxiety about the prospects of housing displacement brought on by the processes of gentrification that have transformed urban neighborhoods across the United States. Given the recent history of other cities in its metropolitan neighborhood—New York, Hoboken and Jersey City—Newark would seem poised to attract the kind of global capital that has accelerated so much economic development among …
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The City of Newark is undergoing rapid transition, with creative political leadership and development cranes dotting its sky. In February 2016, CLiME launched a comprehensive study of housing trends in the City. In May 2016, CLiME led a Rutgers University-Newark anchor initiative that researching laws and policies that might promote more equitable growth in the City as it changes. This Housing Research Brief represents the first installment of our almost year-long work. It provides quantitative snapshots …
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The Rutgers University-Newark Project on Equitable Growth was formed as a team of university researchers led by CLiME to provide research and recommendations about spreading the benefits of potential economic growth to all wards and neighborhoods in the City of Newark. Although housing and housing-related issues dominated our work, we viewed the task more broadly and asked: How does a working-class city in the midst of economic interest from a fast- growing metropolitan region harness …
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On May 5, 2017, the Rutgers Center on Law, Inequality and Metropolitan Equity (CLiME) hosted an interdisciplinary all-day conference on the institutional responsibility of schools in responding to childhood psychological trauma, particularly in low-SES communities where early life trauma exposure is disturbingly ubiquitous. The conference brought together a group of panelists and audience members from diverse fields related to childhood trauma.
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Going to court is a stressful and frequently expensive ordeal. Most court appearances result in a monetary retribution, whether to an adversary or the state, and usually come with fine print. Financial obligation to another always comes with strings attached. For those unable to immediately meet their fiduciary duty, penalties can be severe. Inability to pay a fee often results in the tacking on of another fee, for being unable to pay the initial fine. With all these fines being imposed, one may feel as though being poor is a disadvantage in the justice system. The possibility of going to …
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This analysis addresses the disparity in prenatal health outcomes between the City of Paterson and Wayne Township in New Jersey. It guides the reader through the experiences of a hypothetical pregnant woman living in Paterson to examine the institutional and non-institutional factors that prevent this pregnant woman, and others like her, from accessing appropriate prenatal care. This paper also discusses the relationship between the inability to access proper prenatal care and the perpetuation …
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Each year, psychological trauma arising from community and domestic violence, abuse and neglect brings profound psychological, physiological and academic harm to millions of American children, disproportionately poor children of color. This Article represents the first comprehensive legal analysis of the causes of and remedies for a crisis that can have lifelong and epigenetic consequences. Using civil rights and local government law, it argues that children’s reactions to complex trauma represent the natural symptomatology of severe structural inequality—legally …
Read MoreWhat is the practical reality of “emotional disturbance” classifications under the IDEA? The vagueness and ambiguous nature of the “emotional disturbance” classification under the IDEA fails to accurately identify children affected by trauma as well as provide beneficial and effective services for those who do qualify. Emotional Disturbance (“E.D.”) is defined as a “condition exhibiting [at least one of five] characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.” A child needs to exhibit one …
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County, New Jersey between 2000 and 2015. The number of children living in poverty in Essex County has increased over the past 15 years, and in some places, quite dramatically. Increasing numbers of Essex County’s poor children live in neighborhoods of extreme poverty. There are also preliminary signs that child poverty has spread into formerly no- or low-poverty neighborhoods.
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The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence of exposure to childhood trauma and related disorder in a sample of children with significant emotional and behavioral problems, enrolled in a partial-hospitalization program serving the Greater Newark, New Jersey area.This exploratory study took place at a community-based, urban mental health clinic between Dec 2015 and August 2016. Study participants included children aged 8 to 16 years. To assess exposure to traumatic events, children and parents/legal guardians completed the Traumatic Events Screening …
Read MoreThe most common consequence of trauma, such as war and natural disasters, on children is the development of post-traumatic stress disorder (“PTSD”). There are two types of trauma that a child experiences that can result in PTSD. Type I of trauma “refers to a one time, horrific, and clear cut life-endangering experience.” When “chronic stress and adversities . . . are a part of [a child’s] daily life,” it is considered Type II trauma. Based on the following research, it appears Type I can develop into Type II.
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This report provides a critical and comprehensive review of the empirical literature on the sequelae of childhood exposure to potentially traumatic events (PTEs), with special emphasis on low socioeconomic status (SES) populations at disparate risk for exposure to PTEs across the lifespan. First, I will outline the categories and characteristics of childhood PTEs. Second, I will synthesize research on the proximal and distal consequences of childhood PTE exposure. Third, I will identify significant mediators (i.e., how or why PTE-related outcomes occur) …
Read MoreThere are as many ways to think about what poverty is as there are to chronicle its historical roots. For many of the 47 million Americans currently living with incomes below the federal poverty line, being poor is working poverty—they manage low-wage, often contingent work, or see their incomes fall temporarily below the official line while struggling through a career transition, a divorce or a serious illness. For every poor person or family, poverty represents a deprivation of key resources that is accompanied by a loss of power over how to reclaim them. For persistently poor …
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Presented April 8, 2016 as part of the Equity and Opportunity Studies Fellowship writing seminar series, a partnership between CLiME at the Rutgers Law School, and the Graduate School at Rutgers University-Newark.
Read MoreThis memo is the second in a series of documents prepared as part of the Center on Law, Inequality & Metropolitan Equity's (CLiME) Trauma, Schools, and Poverty project. The classroom, as the centerpiece of a child’s daily life, is one place where theneeds of childhood trauma victims can be both collectively and individually addressed. CLiME does not assume that existing special education or antidiscrimination law in schools is the optimal means for protecting or supporting victims of childhood trauma; however, we commence this research by investigating whether schools …
Read MoreThis memo is the first in a series of documents prepared as part of the Center on Law, Inequality & Metropolitan Equity's (CLiME) Trauma, Schools, and Poverty project. At this stage in the research, CLiME does not propose that existing special education and antidiscrimination law are the optimal means for providing legal protection to victims of childhood trauma. Rather, we asked whether there currently exists a public duty to provide supportive services to traumatized children. This point of entry led our research to the school system, which holds a central presence in the …
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Presented December 12, 2015 as part of the Equity and Opportunity Studies Fellowship writing seminar series, a partnership between CLiME at the Rutgers Law School, and the Graduate School at Rutgers University-Newark.
Read MoreThe achievement gap is often defined as the difference in academic achievement of minority and/or low-income students and their White and/or more affluent peers. Its status is evaluated through state standardized assessments, mandated under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), as well as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
Read MoreSince the economic collapse of 2008, American citizens have grown increasingly skeptical oftheir government’s ability to pass socially and economically beneficial legislation. As citizens criticize large-scale government entities, such as the federal government or state legislatures, lower-level politicians have attempted to keep the masses at bay by passing legislation that will appease the voters in their districts. However, much of this newfound legislation is at odds with the policymaking efforts of their superior levels of government. In particular, over the last three years …
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