Newark Capacity, Access, and Resources for Early Success (CARES) Network (2022-present)

Newark CARES Network (NCN) was launched in May 2022 by Newark Trust for Education (NTE) in partnership with Unified Vailsburg Services Organization (UVSO) and Clinton Hill Community & Early Childhood Center (Clinton Hill). This staffed network is the culmination of intentional learning by this partnership from Family Child Care educators, families who use FCC, and national experts. In order to reap the full potential of culturally sustaining, strengths-based care for diverse early learners and their families, we established a demonstration network that centers families’ early learning, connections to resources, and daily leadership opportunities. We are well-positioned to serve as core hub co-partners leading citywide early learning networks in the future. To review the conceptual framework and other materials, please go to: 

Contingency Grants Program for Child Care Agencies (2020-2021)

In 2020, NTE, with the support of LTCFF, launched a grant program for Family Child Care (FCC) and small and medium-sized Early Learning Centers (ELC) to help them recover from COVID-related setbacks. Eight FCC and ELCs won small grants to develop physical environments that were COVID-compliant, procure additional learning materials for children, engage in professional development for staff, and support parent engagement activities.  To read more about how centers used their grant, please review: 

Building School Wide SEL (2019 - 2022)

NTE’s Safe and Supportive Learning Environments’ grant initiative began to build an infrastructure for social-emotional learning (SEL) in schools through connecting schools with SEL capacity builders and developing administrative awareness and buy-in for improving SEL in schools. Based on lessons learned from early work, as well as broader research on whole school initiatives, NTE refocused the initiative on school wide capacity building in SEL through the Building School Wide SEL (BSWSEL) program. Launched in 2019 with five Newark schools, this multi-year, systemic SEL grant program aimed to provide three years of funding and implementation support guiding schools through envisioning, planning, implementing and improving school wide SEL through including students, families, and staff. To learn more about NTE’s extensive work in centering students’ learning and development through SEL, including a landscape paper, policy brief, and a case study of Franklin Elementary School, a participant in the BSWSEL program, please visit:

School-Based Mental Health (2016 - Ongoing)

As part of the Safe and Supportive Learning Environments initiative launched in 2016, NTE has funded school-based mental health or Tier 3 work in 11 schools. The schools contracted with 6 established community-based mental health agencies to provide school-based mental health services. This working paper closely examines the school-based mental health grant program in the context of current thinking and practice in this field. It draws from interviews with 60 stakeholders including district and school representatives, parents, mental health professionals. To learn more about the two models of service delivery observed in schools, please read: