SEPTEMBER 2022

Part of Isles' Increase the Peace initiative, this "Each One Teach One" mural was completed at our Tucker St. location with the help of our young artists, muralist Leon Rainbow, and handprints from members of our community including Isles CEO Sean Jackson, Mayor Reed Gusciora, program organizers Stacy Heading and Anthony Richards, and Isles Founder Marty Johnson.

LIVE GREEN AND HEALTHY

With your support, Isles continues to fight for more aggressive action to attack lead paint contamination. In June, our team educated lawmakers about funding needs for training lead remediators, lead testing, and remediation construction funds. The result is the new State budget added $170 million to be spent statewide. In July, NJ’s landmark Lead Safe Certificate went into effect – Isles championed this new law to require lead paint testing in all apartments. Isles estimates there are at least 250,000 NJ housing units occupied by children with lead paint hazards.

With only 6% of Trenton housing being built after 1978, this issue hits especially close to home. Based on Isles lead testing in Trenton, it is estimated that at least 50% of residences in Trenton have lead-based paint hazards that likely affect the IQ, learning, health and behavior of children who live there. Until each and every hazard is removed, Isles’ mission to foster self-reliant families and healthy communities isn’t finished. Thank you for helping  move us forward with our mission!

Much of our work is in collaboration with our partners. Throughout the summer, we've worked on events with organizations large and small including Mill Hill Family Association, Henry J. Austin Health Center, Tha Block, Passage Theater, Black Lives Matter NJ -- really too many to list. This is a priority for us because the issues we work to improve are long-term, systemic, and intertwined, and depend on engagement and trust with our customers. We can't do it alone; it is only in working together with all of our partners that we can see long-term change emerge.

Our new Trenton Community Street Teams (TCST) public safety initiative focuses on breaking the cycle of violence in Trenton. In partnership with Newark Community Street Teams and others, TCST is a professionally trained group of High-Risk Interventionists and Outreach Workers from the community who are responding, mediating, and intervening in potential violent incidents. This includes working with survivors, bystanders, and perpetrators of violence to connect people with needed community resources and help build a community that is intolerant of violence. You can find TCST members outside of schools providing Safe Passage, supporting survivors of violence, and working with dozens of partners and organizations across the city to support Trentonians in building a safer Trenton.

“North Trenton/Battlefield Monument Choice Neighborhood Plan wins NJ Future's 2022 Smart Growth Award”