Our Mission
The New Jersey Citizen Action Education Fund (NJCAEF) is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization, founded in 1983, promoting the empowerment of low and middle-income people through research, education and training around public policy issues and direct counseling and services. NJCAEF was originally called the Citizen Policy & Education Fund of NJ (CPEF) until May 2004, when the name was legally changed, but our mission and programs remain the same.
NJCAEF works with the state's largest citizen watchdog coalition, New Jersey Citizen Action (NJCA). A nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization founded in 1982, NJCA has 60,000 family members and 120 affiliate organizations including a range of senior, labor, religious, civil rights, civic and neighborhood groups. The organization has active campaigns working for quality health care for all; lower utility rates, fair banking and community reinvestment, lead-safe environments for all children, workers' rights, and other progressive social and economic justice goals.
Our goals are to promote economic and social justice, to empower and organize the unorganized, to build a strong progressive coalition working on issues of common concern, strengthening our base both collectively as a coalition and as individual organizations.
Our education focuses on community, senior, consumer, labor and other constituencies that would be affected by pocketbook issues like changes in the tax code, health care reform, environmental hazards, and utility rates. We have comprehensive outreach and training programs to assist families in dealing with insurers, banks, health providers, utilities, and telecommunications service providers.
Out of our work and the many community, government, and social service agencies we partner with, came the conditions to make positive changes to policy, including affordable housing and fair banking reforms, a progressive income tax, an environmental Right-to-Know Law, the Family Leave Act, an increase in the Homestead Rebate Program and its expansion to include tenants, "universal screening" for lead poisoning, the Health Care Quality Act and managed care patient protections.
2007 Annual Report
From New Jersey Citizen Action Education Fund Executive Director Phyllis Salowe-Kaye
2007 saw many great accomplishments for the New Jersey Citizen Action Education Fund (NJCAEF). We educated our members, the public, the media, and policy makers about vital progressive issues such as Universal healthcare, a safe end to the war in Iraq, fair and clean elections, and paid family leave insurance. We worked hard to lower utility rates in the state and saved ratepayers up to $2.3 billion a year by preventing the costly merger between PSE&G and Chicago-based Exelon Corporation which would have created a giant utility monopoly capable of easily manipulating energy supplies and polices. At the same time, the New Jersey Citizen Action Oil Group continued to provide lower cost home heating oil, saving members an average of $200 - $400. We also provided direct service to thousands of low- and moderate-income individuals, families, and seniors in the form of financial education, homeownership preparation and foreclosure prevention, and lead poisoning abatement. With your help, NJCAEF will have the financial resources to continue successfully promoting our progressive agenda in 2008.
This year we also organized a very successful statewide Health Care Conference bringing together hundreds of our members, policy experts, and elected officials from all over the country to discuss the need to expand health care coverage for New Jersey's 1.4 million uninsured residents. We continued to work to organize a broad-based coalition in support of expansion of the SCHIP program, which provides health insurance to low-income children who are ineligible for Medicaid. Because NJCAEF fundamentally believes health care is a right and that individuals, families, and seniors should have access to the care they need regardless of socioeconomic status, we will continue in 2008 to advocate for quality health care for all.
During the past year NJCAEF and our national affiliate, USAction Education Fund, spoke out publicly about the misplaced priority of the continued war in Iraq. We released a report, Getting U.S. Back on Track, revealing the financial cost of the war for the state of New Jersey — over $20 billion to date. As we enter 2008, NJCAEF will continue to work to get America's priorities "Set Straight in '08" and to bring our troops safely home.
Real Campaign Finance Reform made great progress in New Jersey in 2007 due to NJCAEF's tireless work in support of Fair and Clean Elections. An expanded Clean Elections Pilot Program provided voluntary full public campaign financing for candidates seeking election to the State Senate or General Assembly in the 14th, 24th, and 37th legislative districts. NJCAEF and our allies developed educational and outreach materials targeted to voters, candidates and the media in those districts to inform them about the program and to help them become familiar with the rules. In its expanded form, the program was a resounding success with 16 of 20 eligible candidates qualifying for full public financing and winning editorial praise in almost every paper in the state. Real Campaign Finance Reform is necessary to remove the paralyzing influence of money and special interests from the electoral process. Building on our success this year NJCAEF will continue to educate policy makers and regulators about the need for statewide program and the inclusion of primary elections in 2009 and beyond.
NJCAEF strongly supports the establishment of Paid Family Leave Insurance for workers to care for ill family members and newborn or adopted children. Today, many workers are forced to choose between economic security and providing vital care for family members who need it. The New Jersey Citizen Action Education Fund has worked determinedly to inform policy makers and the media about the benefits of Paid Family Leave Insurance to working families, caregivers, seniors, and small businesses. In 2008, we will continue to do so, highlighting the support for the program from the public.
The loan counseling and foreclosure prevention work that NJCAEF provides is more important than ever given the current subprime mortgage crisis affecting New Jersey's low- and moderate-income residents. We work tirelessly to keep families in their homes while providing information about predatory lending practices and scams. NJCAEF works comprehensively to address all facets of the housing foreclosure crisis on the local, state, and national levels. This past year, more than 600 families have received below-market, 30 year fixed-rate mortgages with no points or private mortgage insurance, allowing them to purchase their first homes. Hundreds have also received crisis counseling. Additionally, over the past year we have provided free tax preparation to over 1,200 people, financial education to thousands of individuals and enabled families living in homes contaminated with lead paint and other lead hazards to receive grants and low cost loans to abate the conditions.
Again, we cannot do it alone. As we approach the end of the year, your support is as crucial as ever in helping us to move forward with our progressive agenda. Together we can work to ensure quality health care for all, a safe end to the war in Iraq, an expanded state-wide Clean Elections program for real Campaign Finance Reform, and Paid Family Leave Insurance that allows individuals to care for sick relatives and newborns without suffering adverse financial consequences. We will also promote real solutions to the subprime mortgage crisis making sure that as many families remain in their homes as possible and that neighborhoods are stabilized.
Here are links to earlier Annual Reports and Our Accomplishments.