Our Mission and Vision
Norwescap’s work throughout New Jersey empowers individuals and families to move away from the crisis of poverty, and towards a future where they can thrive. Our mission is to strengthen communities by creating opportunities that improve the lives of low-income individuals and families, and our vision is to help build a community that transforms poverty into opportunity.
Founded in 1965 under the Johnson administration’s “War on Poverty,” and fueled by the advocacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Norwescap has grown over nearly six decades to build a comprehensive array of programs and services that, together, positively impact tens of thousands of people each year.
Norwescap works to accomplish this mission through a comprehensive array of
strategies, programs and services that generally fall into six categories of support.
Education
Norwescap creates access to high-quality educational opportunities for young children, youth, and adults, ensuring that everyone has an opportunity to learn and grow.
Employment
Norwescap supports individuals in securing employment, building career growth, and succeeding in a professional environment.
Financial Capacity Building
Norwescap’s financial programs help individuals and families build savings, gain assets, and take control of their financial futures.
Health & Nutrition
Norwescap’s programs for food, nutrition and health help children and adults improve food security, manage illnesses, and work towards healthier lifestyles.
Housing & Community Development
Norwescap helps people navigate housing challenges, remain in their homes, and maintain safe and affordable living environments, while also creating stronger, more thriving communities.
Volunteerism
Norwescap creates opportunities for people of all backgrounds and income levels to be a part of our work and participate in bettering our communities.
As an organization, we will invest our funding and management time in the highest
value projects or agency improvements that can best help families and individuals
reach self-sufficiency and strengthen our communities.
Our Values
Our organizational values are core to what guides our daily work and long-term vision. We strive to embody these values in everything we do.
VALUE – We will be dedicated to providing measurable value to our clients, our community, and our co-workers;
ADVENTUROUS – We will be adventurous, creative and innovative in bringing new resources to impacting poverty and improving our communities;
LOYAL – We will be loyal stewards holding the organization to the highest standards and earn the trust of the public and the community;
UNIFIED – We will be one unified agency representing the promise and hope of every person.
EMPATHETIC – We will be empathetic, understanding, nonjudgmental with our clients and passionate in our approaches to impacting poverty.
Our Commitment to Anti-Racism and Equity
Norwescap was founded in 1965 as part of the effort to eliminate poverty during the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, and that remains our central focus today. While we have made much progress on many fronts since that time, there are still deep, painful disparities that must be addressed. Central among those remaining issues is that poverty and race remain inextricably linked in the United States of America. This is the painful legacy of slavery, Jim Crow laws, segregation, red-lining, and the institutional racism that still stubbornly insinuates its tentacles into our daily lives. This truth is at the heart of the work that Norwescap does for the people we serve.
Racism is wrong and morally repugnant, and we must work together to end it. We cannot end poverty without addressing racism. To that end, Norwescap has adopted an Anti-Racism Resolution, which you can read in full here. We are committed to the work we must do internally to live up to our resolution, and to creating dialogue and driving progress in the communities we serve, in the State of New Jersey, and in our country.
Our Impact Last Year
Norwescap works tirelessly to support our community members through our broad portfolio of programs. We provide support to tens of thousands of individuals each year, but our commitment goes much deeper than simply delivering services. We have developed robust systems to measure short- and long-term outcomes, so we can gauge our participants’ progress towards their goals, and we also invite their feedback on how we are doing. We want to ensure that our work is making a meaningful difference in people’s lives and supporting them on their journeys to stability.