Publication Highlights
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Co-location of Services in South Jersey: Meeting the Community Where They Are
Authors: Devon Ziminski, Natalie Passov, Kristin Curtis
Drawing on WRI’s research and partnerships, this brief highlights the insights we’ve gained around co-location of services from different research projects and its potential to strengthen service delivery across South Jersey. Throughout our work, we hear from partners and community members about the value of existing co-located services and the growing desire for more. Our goal is to inform ongoing conversations and planning efforts around service integration and centralizing resources, and to support the development of accessible, coordinated, and responsive systems of care for communities in South Jersey.
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Inspira Health Community Health Needs Assessment 2025-2027
Authors: Devon Ziminski, Madeleine Alger, Carla Villacis, Amanda Ekelburg
This report provides a summary of the findings of the Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) for Inspira Health’s service region, covering Gloucester, Cumberland, and Salem Counties for 2025-2027. Detailed breakout reports for each county are also available.
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Clayton Model Expansion and Evaluation
Authors: Celine Thompson, Amanda Ekelburg, Madeliene Alger, Kiersten Westley
WRI is in Year IV of a five-year evaluation of the Clayton Model, a social-emotional learning program in Gloucester County schools. Recent funding from the NJ Department of Education is aimed at expanding to other New Jersey schools, and WRI is evaluating this expansion over the five year period. Brochures high-level findings from the Year II and Year III period are available.
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Evaluation of Camden Coalition’s Medical-Legal Partnership at the Cooper Center for Healing in Camden City
Authors: Devon Ziminski, Madeliene Alger
This brochure details the case study of the Camden Coalition’s Medical-Legal Partnership (MLP) with the Cooper Center for Healing in Camden City, and presents the program’s impact, effectiveness, and broader implications beyond Camden.
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The Intersection of Social Work and Libraries: A Southern New Jersey Perspective for Expansion
Authors: Kristin Curtis, Kiersten Westley, Amanda Ekelburg
This report builds on the assessment of the New Jersey State Library’s Social Work Informed Library Services in New Jersey (SWILIBS-NJ) Pilot Program in Middlesex, Monmouth, and Somerset counties and provides exploratory research in and implications for Southern New Jersey.
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The Impact of Family Advocates and Addressing the Social Determinants of Health for Families in South Jersey
Authors: Kristin Curtis, Madeliene Alger
Report outlines research into the impact of Family Advocates (FAs) in addressing social determinants in rural areas in South Jersey – Cumberland, Gloucester, Salem
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Transportation Accessibility in Southern New Jersey: Barriers, Effects, and Considerations
WRI synthesized ten years of its primary data to outline, explore, and highlight the role and impact of public transportation, in Southern New Jersey.
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AtlantiCare Community Health Needs Assessment 2022-2024
This report provides a summary of the findings of the Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) for Atlantic County.
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Community Conversations: Pandemic Perspectives, New Jersey’s COVID-19 Storytelling Project
Authors: Kristin Curtis, Devon Ziminski, Carla Villacis, Martha Carey, Kiersten Westley Henson, Helen Ard, MA, Richard Duran, Amanda Ekelburg, Trista Harig, Joseph Mendoza-Martinez, Mary Mitsdarffer, Lili Razi, Benjamin Rudolph, Ummulkhayer Sameha, Priyal Shah, Michelle Lyttle Storrod
This report provides overview, context, and summarized findings from participants in New Jersey who shared their personal experiences as part of Community Conversations: Pandemic Perspectives, NJ’s COVID-19 Storytelling Project. The findings generated from the analysis reflect the most common themes experienced by nearly 600 participants throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Seeking Work in Southern New Jersey
This report outlines the workforce development barriers and opportunities that both employers and job seekers face in the Southern New Jersey region.
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Evaluation of Pascale Sykes’ South Jersey Strengthening Families Initiative
Authors: Ross Whiting, Madeliene Alger, Carla Villacis
From 2012 to 2022, WRI conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the implementation of the Pascale Sykes Foundation’s Strengthening Families Initiative across multiple nonprofit interagency collaborations in Southern New Jersey.
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Southern New Jersey Economic Landscape Data Story
Authors: Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Senator Walter Rand Institute of Public Affairs
The data story provides context and background for how southern New Jersey’s economy has shifted and evolved, highlighting the region’s most recent economic indicators and population trends in each of its eight counties.
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City of Camden Economic Landscape Data Story
Authors: Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Senator Walter Rand Institute of Public Affairs
The data story provides context and background for how the city of Camden’s economy has shifted and evolved, highlighting the city’s most recent economic indicators and population trends.
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Inspira Health 2022-2024 Community Health Needs Assessment
Authors: Sarah Allred, Kristin Curtis, Carla Villacis, Madeleine Alger
This report provides a summary of the findings of the Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) for Gloucester, Cumberland, and Salem Counties for 2022-2024. The CHNA was conducted by The Senator Walter Rand Institute for Public Affairs (WRI) at Rutgers University-Camden on behalf of Inspira Health.
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Municipal Variation in COVID-19 Case Rates in New Jersey
Authors: Sarah R. Allred, Yuqi Wang, Aayush Yadav, Ryan Pletcher, Trista Harig, Benjamin Rudolph, Shwetal Sharma, Emily Rankin, Shibin Yan, Ummulkhayer Sameha, George Arthur, Sachin Saxena, Emily Greenfield, Community Organization and Development
With the goal of providing information to aid these decisions, this brief describes the timeline of COVID-19 progression at the municipality-level across New Jersey
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Camden, NJ: A New View
National Evaluation: Public Art Challenge 2019-2021 Evaluation
Local Assessment: A New View – Camden, NJAuthors: Kristin Kelly, Devon Ziminski, Carla Villacis, Lili Razi, Shibin Yan
The City of Camden partnered with the Camden Community Partnership, Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts, and curators to transform 6 illegal dumping sites alongside major transportation hubs into venues for public art, to reclaim public spaces, increase civic pride and improve perception of the city to the 65,000 people traveling through Camden daily.
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Timing County Hospital Bed Shortfall during COVID-19
Authors: Sarah R. Allred*^, Darren Spielman*, Kristin Curtis, Kristin Kelly, Sean T. McQuade^, Nathaniel J. Merrill,^ Benedetto Piccoli^, Ryan Pletcher, Shwetal Sharma, Carla Villacis, Ross Whiting, Aayush Yadav^, Doug Zacher, Devon Ziminski (* Corresponding authors, ^ Math modeling)
This follow-up brief updates the previous COVID-19 model and predicts when demand for hospital beds will first surpass capacity in each of the 21 New Jersey counties based on responses to the COVID-19 outbreak.
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Regional Health System Shortfalls with a Novel COVID-19 Model
Authors: Sarah R. Allred, Sean T. McQuade, Nathaniel J. Merrill, Benedetto Piccoli, Darren Spielman, Carla Villacis, Ross Whiting, Aayush Yadav, Douglas Zacher, Devon Ziminski
Estimating when the peak need for hospital beds will occur, the number of available hospital beds in each county, and by how much the demand for hospital beds will exceed capacity in each county based on responses to the COVID-19 outbreak.
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Camden County Police Department: Crime Analysis, Technical Assistance, and Consultation
Authors: Louis Tuthill, Ph.D., Principal Investigator; Tracy A. Swan, MPA, MCJ, Senior Project Administrator, Community Development
In 2013, facing high levels of crime, Camden, New Jersey transferred policing responsibilities to their surrounding county agency. The Camden County Police Department (CCPD) received a grant from the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) to explore the impact of this transition and identify lessons learned for other agencies. The Senator Walter Rand Institute for Public Affairs (WRI) at Rutgers University conducted this assessment and provided technical assistance to the department. This publication reports their findings on topics including arrest and clearance rates, crime locations, citywide distribution of service calls, and the effects of camera surveillance, liquor establishment checks, foot patrols, and multijurisdictional task forces.
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Are South Jersey School Districts prepared for the next recession? All South Jersey school districts – Updated October 2020
Authors: Michael Hayes, PhD, Community Organization and Development
This study examines the current financial condition of school districts in southern New Jersey and also identifies those school districts that are most financially vulnerable to a potential economic downturn This follow up brief examines the financial status of all 179 school districts in southern New Jersey.
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Are South Jersey School Districts prepared for the next recession?
Authors: Michael Hayes, PhD, Community Organization and Development
This study examines the current financial condition of the largest school districts in southern New Jersey and also identifies those school districts that are most financially vulnerable to a potential economic downturn.
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South Jersey Health Needs: Connections, Community, and Care
Authors: Sarah Allred, Ph.D., Population Health,
Summarizing findings of the 2019 CHNA, WRI researchers released an important finding about health in South Jersey: residents’ physical and mental health are surprisingly strongly predicted by their connections to the people and places surrounding them.
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CHNA: Executive Summary
Authors: Sarah Allred, Ph.D., Population Health
Summarizing findings of the 2019 CHNA completed for the South Jersey Health Collaborative: Cooper University Health Care, Jefferson Health, Lourdes Health System, Virtua Health, Burlington County Health Department, Camden County Department of Health and Human Services, and Gloucester County Department of Health and Human Services.
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Community Health Needs Assessment
Authors: Sarah Allred, Ph.D., Population Health
CHNA report completed for South Jersey Collaborative: Cooper University Health Care, Jefferson Health, Lourdes Health System, Virtua Health, Burlington County Health Department, Camden County Department of Health and Human Services, and Gloucester County Department of Health and Human Services in Camden, Burlington, Salem and Gloucester Counties.