Rep. Payne, Jr. Helps Secure $30 Million Grant for South Ward Promise Neighborhood Organization     

Washington, D.C. — Rep. Donald M. Payne, Jr. praised the South Ward Promise Neighborhood today for being one of only seven organization’s nationwide to receive a $30 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education.  The five-year grant comes from the department’s Promise Neighborhoods Program.  Rep. Payne, Jr. helped establish the program and made it a permanent grant program with his Promise Neighborhoods Act of 2015 (H.R. 2882), which was introduced and signed into law that same year as part of the Every Student Succeeds Act.  The Program provides resources to help children in underserved communities.

“This new grant is great news for Newark and my district,” said Rep. Payne, Jr.  “I am proud to have written the bill that made the Promise Neighborhoods Program permanent and helped it become law.  Now, one of the program’s grants is going to bring improved housing, health care, and educational resources to my district.  Today, South Ward Promise Neighborhood does exceptional work to provide resources and care to my constituents in Newark as well as create educational opportunities to prepare our youth for college and future careers.  I know this grant will help them continue that work as well as build more quality and affordable housing, improve maternal and infant health, and open more high-quality schools in the future.”

South Ward Promise Neighborhood (SWPN) plans to use the grant to expand services into Lower Clinton Hill and Weequahic, two additional South Ward neighborhoods in Newark, NJ. The grant will allow the SWPN to build more housing in the district; advance health equity and infant health with a new South Ward Wellness Center; support new parents and children throughout the South Ward Healthy Beginnings program; and expand access to academic support programs for neighborhood children. The SWPN unites the work of more than 26 local organizations to support families and children in the South Ward.  It is the second consecutive time that SWPN has been awarded this grant, which makes SWPN the first minority-led organization to earn that distinction.