Program areas at New Jersey Council for the Humanities I
American recovery program:in 2022, njch awarded and supported grants to 36 organizations around the state to help them recover from the covid pandemic and build organizational capacity of nonprofits around the state.
General program operations:general program operations include informing the public and special constituencies, such as federal and state government officials, of Council activities and major issues in the public Humanities, as well as advocating for the value of the Humanities.
Grant making:in keeping with our philosophy of working in partnership with other organizations, we have dedicated a significant portion of our budget to grant making. Grants are awarded through a competitive proposal review process and provide capacity-building support and expertise from njch staff. All grants are matched dollar for dollar, so that our support leverages private giving for the Humanities. This work has resulted in a variety of projects, including cultural festivals, lecture series, exhibitions, and documentary films.
Civic engagement:njch supports a number of community engagement programs, including museum on main street, a traveling exhibition program that provides New jerseyans with important historical exhibits designed by the staff of the smithsonian, and a community conversations program on democracy that allowed over 500 New jerseyans to share their thoughts on the state of our democracy in a web-based collection.informed nj:working in partnership with the New school's program of journalism + design, New Jersey's blossoming grassroots journalism community, and New Jersey's community colleges, informed New Jersey seeks to work closely with communities around New Jersey to create a multi-vocal, responsive, local journalism ecosystem and to enhance media literacy among community members.community history: njch provides cohort-based training in the principles and practices of community history to organizations that do not have history-based expertise among their staff, as well as a grant for a pilot project that all cohort members use to develop their own projects while still part of the program and supported by njch staff and the peers from their cohort.