Reimagining Justice, Paterson Healing Collective getting $1M in new federal funding

PATERSON — In a city long plagued by shootings, officials gathered Thursday to announce a $1 million federal grant they said will expand a community-based violence intervention program.

The funding will go to local nonprofit Reimagining Justice and its partner, the Paterson Healing Collective, in their efforts to combat the city’s gun violence problem.

“The nation reckons with the gun violence epidemic from coast to coast. No one escapes it — and our city hasn’t been spared,” said Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., a Paterson Democrat. “If you don’t believe me, go down to the emergency room and hang around for a few days.”

The federal grant will allow the Healing Collective, composed of 14 team members, to hire more staff and train new recruits, the groups said.

“We’re from the community, so we can defuse the situation,” said Healing Collective program coordinator Teddie Martinez, who has suffered 13 bullet wounds during his life.

The program has helped more than 100 violence victims since it started in 2020, Martinez said. He said the group’s violence intervention workers use their street smarts to introduce sometimes-reluctant patients to caseworkers, who then connect them to social services and mental health counseling.

Targeting Retaliation:How Paterson Healing Collective works to stop the chain reaction of gun violence

'I cry every night':Mom seeks justice a year after Paterson teen Robert Cuadra's shooting

NorthJersey.com and The Record's view:Paterson Healing Collective's work remains essential, even as violence ebbs | Editorial

The youngest outreach worker at the Healing Collective is 23-year-old Isaiah Elam, who also has been a victim of gun violence.

“I can relate to the teenagers who are getting into trouble and try to lead them to the right way,” said Elam, who grew up on Presidential Boulevard.

Liza Chowdhury, founder of Reimagining Justice, was Elam’s probation officer before recruiting him as an outreach worker.

“We’re not saying we have all the solutions, but the police can’t do it by themselves,” Chowdhury said.

Thursday’s announcement came on the anniversary of the death of 18-year-old Robert Cuadra, a Paterson honor student killed by the crossfire of a gang fight when he was only months shy of beginning college. Cuadra, who was awarded a scholarship to Montclair State University, became a symbol of the senseless gun violence and heartbreak that are common in the state’s third-largest city.

The funding for the community groups comes on the heels of a $700,000 federal grant that Pascrell said he helped secure for his hometown for the creation of a Crime Gun Intelligence Center.

“We’ll be able to trace these guns and not have to wait six months,” Pascrell said. “We want to stop violence, not look at it after it happens.” 

Darren Tobia is a contributing writer for Paterson Press.