“Core to the success of who we are and what we’ve been able to do is the trust we’ve built within the community.”
– Khaatim Sherrer El
Interview with Khaatim Sherrer El
A Newark native, Khaatim Sherrer El has built a career at the intersection of education and urban redevelopment, forging strategic partnerships to address social challenges by leveraging the community’s strengths and empowering residents to shape solutions. As the leader of Clinton Hill Community Action, he prioritizes listening to community voices, meeting their needs, and fostering active involvement in the neighborhood’s revitalization.
We selected Khaatim as a Community Champion for his commitment to addressing root causes of inequity during his decades of service in the nonprofit and public education sectors. His work creates pathways to opportunity, strengthens community connections, and empowers families to thrive.
What’s the core mission of your organization and how do you carry it out?
We’re a community development organization centered on seeing residents as a part of the solution, not just the ones pointing in the direction of where the problems are. We invest heavily in listening to the community and surfacing its priorities. We then engage residents in bringing about the change they want to see. Not that residents alone can tackle the issues facing the community, but they certainly should be at the table and be part of the solution making. That will get us the stickiness around sustaining changes needed in the community.
Our mission is to revitalize the Clinton Hill neighborhood with residents and ensure that development in the community is equitable and just and positions the community for long-term change.
We have 5 priority areas, including housing and environmental justice, the founding body of work for our organization. When I conducted community listening for the Victoria Foundation what came up in those conversations time and time again was the need for an organization in the community that supported residents facing eviction, residents looking to become homeowners, and supporting existing homeowners in keeping their homes. The housing work was really clear and then, boom, the pandemic hit and opened up other pathways where we could be helpful, including food security.
And the most exciting element of that work is we opened a resident-run grocery store. It’s the first phase of our food co-op and it’s a mutual aid grocery store, so it’s like a food pantry on steroids. We us that to more consistently help people facing episodic hunger and also promote nutrition and healthy eating habits.
Our work also includes the arts. This community always had a connection to the arts and culture scene. And we’re bringing that back in our partnership with NJPAC, where we work with residents to organize arts events every month. And the thing that took me by just pure, pleasant shock is the reminder that in the midst of crises and urgent needs folks deserve joy. And the arts programming has been that.
The other thing it’s done for us is beginning to change the narrative about how people see the community. Unfortunately, the neighborhood has had a reputation of, “You don’t want to be here after dark if you don’t have to.” And we now hear how residents very proudly invite their friends, their families, and others to the community because of our programming. We had a” jazz in the streets,” white linen tables, red carpets, you name it. Everybody was in their duds and it was on the main boulevard, a place completely transformed by this event.
Our last area of focus is advocacy. We contribute to the broader network of policy change work happening by bringing resident voices to the issues. Through our digital media fellowship program in photography, videography, and editing, we train residents age 18 to 30 to cover stories about issues facing the community.
What accomplishment are you most proud of?
Core to the success of who we are and what we’ve been able to do is the trust we’ve built within the community. A lot of great organizations do a lot of great work, but that trust-building process allows residents to do something as simple as believe again, and not just believe that change is possible, that change is for them — but that they can be a part of the change process, that things are not being done to them, but instead as being done with them.
The way we built that trust is simply by doing what we said we’d do. When the housing crisis hit, we were hit the hardest in Newark, we have more foreclosures than any other neighborhood in Newark.
What’s the biggest challenge facing families in the first 1,000 days?
One is child care. La Casa De Don Pedro and Clinton Hill Community and Early Child Care Center run a child care center for us that serves 198 children and families in the state-of-the-art Clinton Hill Early Learning Center we built.
In addition, families need to feel connected in the community. When you need a resource, you need a pathway to connect to that resources. It’s a shame so many of us sitting on this side of the equation know all of what’s out there but residents don’t.
The disconnect with community is the lost opportunity. People don’t know these resources are out there. They get discouraged when they try to access those resources if there’s a hurdle. For young families in particular, it’s being connected in community enough to know that if you’re in need, raise your hand. Don’t wait until you’re down and out and have to dig yourself out of a hole.
And the third thing there — the game-change element, is that you have a coach to support you through finding out about that resource, help you get over the hurdles of access, and then find out what else you need. Then we want to get you, as somebody who benefited from this, to be our spokesperson out in the community promoting the availability of resources for the next person.
What gives you hope for the future?
We’ve always wanted to have our board chair and a majority of our board be neighborhood residents to keep those lines of accountability clear. Building on that, we asked ourselves, “What could this work look like if it was led by, empowered by, folks who live in the community?” So over 95% of our 34 staff members live in the neighborhood where we work, which represents about $2.5 million reinvested into the community through salaries and other employee supports.
We already see the benefits. At least 2 employees have bought houses since they’ve been working with us. A few moved out of mama’s house and got their own place, and others are deepening their commitment to this community.
What’s the secret to a great partnership?
It’s that old adage: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” No one organization can do this work by themselves, no one person has all the answers. You have to make a deep commitment to figuring it out together. Our partnership with residents and other community-based organizations is what helps to power who we are and what we do.