25 Years of WRI: Looking Back and Moving Forward
Authors: Mavis Asiedu-Frimpong, Angelina Cheng
This year, the Senator Walter Institute for Public Affairs at Rutgers–Camden (WRI) is celebrating its 25th anniversary. In 2000, WRI was founded with a vision of creating a research center devoted to Camden City, South Jersey, and its namesake, Senator Walter Rand. Senator Rand was best known for his exceptional service in public affairs throughout the region. His dedication to serving his community helped kickstart the development of Camden City’s downtown Waterfront area, a popular tourist attraction today, and he was the chief architect of New Jersey’s Transportation Trust Fund and the South Jersey Transportation Authority (SJTA). Over the last 25 years, WRI has successfully continued the legacy of Senator Rand, providing critical research and data analysis support for over 150 research projects that support communities in all eight counties of the region.
When WRI was first established, its primary focus was community development within Camden City and County. One of its first projects was the Camden County HUB Strategic Plan, which envisioned a clear and sustainable network of healthy communities throughout the county. Through the Institute’s research in determining which improvements were most needed within the county’s municipalities, WRI supported the critical development of an agenda to not only improve Camden’s population and employment rates, but also to enhance the quality of education, transportation, neighborhood preservation, environmental remediation, key urban redevelopment projects, and other socio-economic issues.
In addition to community development, WRI also focused its research on projects in criminal justice and violence prevention early on. In 2006, the Institute partnered with the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General and four District Council Community Boards (DCCBs), composed of community members throughout Camden City, on Operation Ceasefire: a project aimed at connecting the community, law enforcement, clergy, and other key groups in an effort to create an anti-violence crime prevention strategy to improve the quality of life within Camden City. This project existed in conjunction with the New Jersey Project Safe Neighborhoods Program, which had a similar agenda to Operation Ceasefire, but placed a heavier emphasis on youth crime and gang prevention through the introduction of re-entry assistance and youth programming. WRI regularly analyzed police, crime, and demographic data and conducted neighborhood surveys to support the goals of this initiative.
Over time, WRI broadened its geographic reach to other Southern New Jersey counties and welcomed additional research content areas to fully realize its mission of being the region’s research hub. The Institute began to engage in research on education, population health, social services delivery, substance use and the opioid epidemic, food security, and economic stability issues across the region. Along the way, WRI built strong, long-term partnerships that allow for WRI’s research agenda to be driven by the issues of the day and needs across the region. One highlight from this expansion was WRI’s ten-year (2012-2022) collaboration with the Pascale Sykes Foundation to evaluate a family support program in Atlantic, Gloucester, Cumberland, and Salem counties. The project facilitated multiple partnerships with community providers across the region and led to a variety of supplemental research studies around cultural responsiveness in social services delivery, and the impact of Family Advocate support, among others.
Further, the COVID-19 pandemic was an opportunity for WRI to support not only the South Jersey region but the entire State with critical analysis and research to guide decision-making. The Institute’s innovative COVID tracking tool compiled data around COVID cases and deaths by towns, the first in the State to do so at such granular levels. WRI also collaborated with Rutgers–Camden faculty and New Jersey Health Initiatives (NJHI) to estimate COVID-related hospital bed and regional health system shortfalls due to the pandemic. Governor Murphy relied on WRI’s analysis in describing how the pandemic was unfolding in our State. Another collaboration was New Jersey’s COVID-19 Storytelling Project, in partnership with the New Jersey YMCA State Alliance to gather the personal accounts of New Jersey residents, especially those most affected by the pandemic. Through the integration of interviews, focus groups, social media dialogues, creative artworks, journaling, participatory observation, and document analysis, WRI was able to identify themes and key disparities that continue to inform actionable recommendations for improving public health in Healthy New Jersey’s 2030 State Health Improvement Plan.
WRI’s growth over these two and a half decades has been tremendous. In the last five years alone, WRI has secured over 10 million dollars in research funding and led over 40 projects in partnership with community-based organizations, foundations, and State and local agencies. WRI continues to support the region while never losing sight of our home city of Camden. Here’s a snapshot of a few current projects: WRI is the Opioid Overdose Fatality Review Team data analysis partner for Cumberland and Burlington counties, conducting an evaluation of a social-emotional learning program in Gloucester County K-12 schools, leading community health needs assessments in Atlantic, Salem, Cumberland, and Gloucester Counties, and investigating the transportation preferences of communities in Camden County. In Camden City, WRI is research partner for the Food Security Collective and gathering community input for an exciting initiative to bring a community-owned grocery store to the city.
Twenty-five years after its inception, WRI has built a strong and reputable foundation for conducting impactful community-based research in and for South Jersey. We are looking forward to taking this year to reflect and celebrate our growth, projects, and partnerships. The Institute’s recently released 5-year strategic plan is a blueprint for even further impact in the future. Over the next five years, WRI will be focused on enhancing its research portfolio, linking Rutgers–Camden faculty and staff to regional issues, fostering a variety of opportunities for public engagement with WRI research, and expanding an already robust set of offerings for student engagement opportunities. WRI is ready for the journey ahead. Here’s to the next 25 years!