The Anti-Poverty Network of New Jersey is becoming part of the New Jersey Citizen Action family of organizations, the two announced this week.
After 21 years as a standalone organization focused on helping New Jerseyans in deep poverty, APN will become a program within Newark-based NJCA, according to a news release. APN’s executive director, Renee Koubiadis, will now become NJCA’s anti-poverty program director, part of the organization’s Advocacy and Organizing Team.
“Having often worked very closely and in tandem with NJCA, uniting our organization allows APN to continue the phenomenal work it has achieved over the last two decades,” Cuqui Rivera, president of the APN board of directors, said in a prepared statement. “With Renee as the anti-poverty program director under NJCA, the transition will be seamless.”
NJCA provides direct support services to low- and moderate-income families and advocates for policies that benefit them. It hopes the combination with APN will expand its work and focus.
“APN and Director Renee Koubiadis have been working closely with NJCA for many years,” Phyllis Salowe-Kaye, NJCA’s executive director, said in a statement. “I am thrilled that we are formally combining our efforts, and I look forward to working with Renee and the rest of the staff to increase education and outreach, mobilize coalitions and secure more victories for New Jersey’s most vulnerable populations.”
Added Koubiadis: “I look forward to continuing to provide a framework for discourse on the causes, effects and remedies for poverty in New Jersey as I join forces with NJCA to fight for social, economic and racial justice.”
