Philanthropy officials will tour Camden for ideas

Camden is in the spotlight again, and this time money's on the line.

About 50 philanthropy representatives will tour the broken city Monday, looking at how several foundations have invested millions of dollars in redevelopment and how they could do the same there or in other urban areas.

The tour is part of the annual convention of the Council on Foundations, which is meeting in Philadelphia. It will examine how anchor institutions such as Campbell Soup, Cooper University Hospital, and Rutgers University-Camden can contribute to community revitalization, and how foundations can help through funding.

However, just as the visitors are about to arrive, one of Camden's key investors, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, is packing up to leave.

After a decade in which it invested $5 million in one major project and commissioned reports on redeveloping Camden, the foundation feels it has built a framework for institutions and grassroots organizations to work together, spokeswoman Lisa Hamilton said. The private charitable foundation is wrapping up similar work in other distressed cities.

The Casey foundation came to Camden in 2000 and stayed longer than planned because of "the growing capacity, continued enthusiasm, and success of these local partners," Hamilton said.

It has gradually phased out its investments in Camden and transferred its day-to-day duties to the Center for the Study of Social Policy in Washington. That group works with private and public organizations toward change in mostly poor cities.

The Casey foundation spent thousands of dollars helping Camden Churches Organized for People, the Cramer Hill Community Development Corp., and the Greater Camden Partnership, among others, to devise community plans.

One of the highlights of the tour Monday will be the Cooper Plaza and Lanning Square redevelopment, where the Casey foundation concentrated its funding in recent years.

There, in partnership with the Ford Foundation, the Casey group hired consultant Urban Strategies Inc. to draft a plan to include the specific needs of residents to improve their quality of life beyond bricks and mortar.

"Long-term rejuvenation has been our focus," said James Gibson, who, through the Center for the Study of Social Policy, has worked with the Casey foundation's Camden plan over the last decade.

Other stops on the tour will be the Salvation Army's Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center in the Cramer Hill neighborhood and the site of the future Rutgers graduate-housing building on Cooper Street.

For Camden to actually be revitalized, "you have to have the poor on board," Gibson said.

The Urban Strategies plan included a list of priorities ranging from safety and security to increasing employment to the rebuilding of Lanning Square Elementary School. The plan also looked at how to achieve those goals.

David Foster, chief executive of the Greater Camden Partnership, said his group - in partnership with other community groups and larger institutions - had worked on the initiatives outlined in the 2008 plan.

"It's an ongoing blueprint for what needs to be done," he said.

The physical redevelopment of the Cooper Plaza and Lanning Square neighborhoods also continues.

Mayor Dana L. Redd said she was sad to see the Casey foundation leave but was confident in the work it did.

"They've laid out a foundation we can work with," she said Friday.

The Casey foundation will spend $220,000 this year and possibly next year in Camden before the Center for the Study of Social Policy takes over its work.

Not every idea worked out. The foundation paid to bring in Rana Sampson, a nationally known consultant on problem-solving in community policing, to work with residents, police, and officials of Camden Churches Organized for People to develop a plan for Camden. That plan was scrapped when the Police Department was reorganized, said the Rev. Ed Livingston, executive director of the church organization.

Gibson said he was optimistic about leaving the city in the hands of its current leaders.

"It's a new day in Camden," he said. "There were a number of seeds that were planted, and now we're just ready to see them grow."