EAST TRENTON
The East Trenton Collaborative
Community Grants Program
The East Trenton Collaborative (ETC) is a community organizing initiative that exists to help make East Trenton a great place to live, work, and play. Through community organizing efforts led by residents, ETC addresses issues of importance to the neighborhood, with funding provided by the NJ Department of Community Affairs (DCA).
In 2016-2017, I Am Trenton collaborated with ETC to administer community grants in the East Trenton neighborhood. The program supported 16 projects. Subsequently, ETC decided to sunset this program and transition their approach from supporting community projects to funding small businesses and home repairs directly.
Project showcase:
Trenton Music Makers Summer Camp
Thanks to the ETC grant program, Trenton Music Makers (now Capital Harmony Works) was able to host its first intensive music summer camp for members of its orchestra at the Grant School. The session met daily, with a concert at the end. Children received a healthy breakfast, daily string studio, musicianship class, frequent orchestra rehearsals, and visits from special guest artists who provided instruction in yoga, hip-hop dance, and Dalcroze Eurythmics, which fosters appreciation, ear training, and improvisation using the body as the instrument. A total of 43 students, almost all from East Trenton, participated. The ETC grant program enabled TMM to pilot a program they had designed directly to respond to the needs of their students and their families. The program has since continued and grown.
Photos: students in the first TMM intensive music summer camp.