Paterson One Square Mile: Aligning academic, institutional and economic resources with community-identified priorities
Montclair State University is a public-serving, metropolitan institution committed to advancing the public good. Located near Paterson — one of New Jersey’s most historically significant cities facing a unique set of challenges — Montclair recognized that persistent inequities in housing stability, educational attainment, workforce readiness and health access were limiting community well-being and economic mobility for residents in Paterson’s first, fourth and fifth wards.
In response, Montclair University, with essential support from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, launched the Paterson One Square Mile (OSM), a comprehensive place-based community engagement strategy that aligns the university’s academic, institutional and economic resources with community-identified priorities.
Since its launch, Paterson OSM has served more than 800 community members across education, health and community support initiatives. Highlights include early college programs enabling high school students to earn college credit, adult ESL courses expanding access to workforce opportunities and rapid-response regrants that strengthened the reach of frontline community organizations. In parallel, Montclair launched the Paterson Anchor Collaborative, aligning local anchor institutions around workforce development, hiring pipelines and economic mobility for residents. Additionally, Paterson’s Eastside High School now operates as a full-service community school, connecting students and families to integrated academic, health and social supports.
Paterson One Square Mile began implementation stages through a comprehensive community-led engagement strategy. Central to this effort was the “Gathering Voices” Community Feedback Campaign, conducted in partnership with Transform Consulting Group (TCG), a highly accomplished external consulting agency with deep expertise in community engagement, collective impact, and strategic planning.
Through this large-scale engagement effort, OSM and TCG gathered input from more than 300 community members, representing residents, service providers, educators and local leaders. TCG synthesized the qualitative feedback with publicly available data to produce the Community Data & Feedback Summary Report. The report illuminated a range of interconnected needs facing Paterson families, identifying housing as the primary focus area for the first action phase of OSM.
Addressing five goal areas
With housing established as the initiative’s central priority, Montclair and TCG conducted extensive research to ground the strategy in local assets and evidence-based practices. This included development of an asset map of organizations providing housing-related services in Paterson; review of best-practice models from comparable communities; and analysis of policy opportunities and systemic barriers.
The findings were compiled into a comprehensive Housing Research Report, which informed a strategic planning session in May. During this convening, the Paterson OSM Advisory Committee collaboratively developed strategies around five core housing aims that now anchor the OSM Housing Plan:
- Expand housing affordability
- Increase supply and stability
- Improve housing quality
- Create safe housing and neighborhoods
- Build assets and wealth
To deepen and validate the emerging strategies, Montclair hosted two additional Gathering Voices housing-focused events in June 2024. The feedback collected during these sessions refined and prioritized the draft strategies. TCG incorporated this input into the initiative’s first comprehensive housing strategic action plan, Housing in Paterson One Square Mile: A Foundation for the Future.
Complementing the strategic plan, Montclair and TCG launched a public housing dashboard, now available on the Paterson OSM website. The dashboard provides ongoing access to key housing indicators, ensuring transparency and supporting data-driven accountability.
On November 21, 2024, Montclair and TCG formally unveiled the housing strategic plan and dashboard during a public launch event attended by community members, partners, and stakeholders. To encourage further involvement, TCG created an engagement one-pager containing a QR code linking residents to an interest form where they can learn more and participate in future activities.
