Childcare & Early Childhood Education
Norwescap’s programs, including Head Start and Early Head Start, ensure that families have access to affordable, high-quality childcare, and that young children have the opportunity to learn, grow and thrive in a supportive environment.
Adult Education
Learning doesn’t stop at childhood! We support adults of all ages in pursuing educational opportunities, and obtaining education grants and certifications to fuel career growth.
Employment & Career Assistance
Norwescap helps adults gain employment and build careers through skills trainings, resume and job search assistance, preparation to enter or re-enter the workforce, and more.
Financial Assistance
Norwescap’s financial programs support individuals and families in building knowledge and tools, tackling common financial barriers, and accessing resources to save money and invest in assets.
Health & Nutrition
Norwescap supports individuals and families in securing food and improving nutrition through our Food Bank and its network, WIC, and SNAP programs; while also improving health by connecting people to medical screenings and other care, and providing education and programming to support healthy lifestyles.
Housing
Support
Whether someone is facing homelessness, looking for more affordable housing, or working to purchase their first home, Norwescap’s programs help people navigate the full spectrum of housing needs.
Energy Assistance
Norwescap helps people with low income to reduce utility costs, make their homes more energy-efficient, and create a safer living environment.
Community
Development
We work to create communities where individuals and families can succeed and thrive, by partnering with local businesses and community leaders to foster safe, healthy, and prosperous neighborhoods.
Volunteer Services
Through our various volunteer and Americorps programs, Norwescap offers people of all backgrounds and income levels the opportunity to provide meaningful support to their neighbors and make their communities more vital and thriving places.
Support for Families
When a family is facing challenges, it can cause significant impact for both parents/caregivers and children. Norwescap help families navigate challenges, advocate for their needs, achieve their goals, and strengthen their bonds.
Support for Seniors
Norwescap’s programs help older adults live independently and maintain their health and well-being. Our services include improving housing safety, providing benefits counseling, and keeping seniors connected to their communities.
Our Mission
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 partner with individuals and families in creating pathways to achieve their hopes and dreams.
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.
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.
INNOVATIVE: Norwescap is innovative, creative, and data-driven, focused on forward-thinking, new ideas, and using data to drive decisions.
COMMUNITY: Norwescap works to foster community by collaborating, and being inclusive to drive a collective approach with a high priority on building bridges and working together.
CARING: Norwescap is caring, compassionate, kind, and supportive, taking an empathetic approach for individuals and families.
EMPOWERING: Norwescap is an empowering partner providing people the tools and pathways they need to succeed. Treating our program participants as partners, with dignity and respect.
INCLUSIVE: Norwescap is inclusive and welcoming to all, operating under the belief that diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging are essential to the health and effectiveness of our organization as well as the people and communities that we serve.
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.