JOE GARLICK, executive director of Woonsocket-based nonprofit NeighborWorks Blackstone River Valley, was recently awarded the 2018 Murray Family Prize for Community Enrichment from the Rhode Island Foundation. The $50,000 award recognizes those who help revitalize neighborhoods. Under Garlick’s leadership since 1994, the nonprofit developed $18 million in single-family housing and $98 million in rental housing in northern Rhode Island.
What are your plans for the $50,000 from the Rhode Island Foundation? I’d like to travel and incorporate some “busman’s holiday” side trips to visit some people, places and organizations in the U.S. … and around the world … that have done some innovative work in ramping up the production of affordable housing and elevated the practice of comprehensive community development to new heights. I’d also like to support the organizations that support the work of nonprofit community developers – Local Initiatives Support Corp. and the Housing Network of Rhode Island.
Your organization runs a child-development program called College Ready Communities. Can you explain what the program offers? Our program provides free before- and after-school programming and enrichment activities for elementary, middle and high school students. The program offers academic enrichment and tutoring, exercise classes and other recreation, arts programs, tech and “green” training, gardening and neighborhood beautification, summer jobs, service-learning and leadership activities, and college tours and guidance.
What does the state need to do to increase affordable housing, given that many communities in Rhode Island are still below the 10 percent requirements for affordable housing? Housing prices are rapidly outpacing the wages of the majority of the state’s workforce. A dedicated source of state funding, comparable to our New England neighbors, is a critical item to jump-start greater progress. A prominent role for nonprofit community-development corporations in meeting state and community housing goals will also pay dividends.
What additional projects, if any, are currently in the works by NeighborWorks Blackstone River Valley? We’re wrapping up 96 apartments in Burrillville that have helped put the town over its 10 percent goal. We’re working on the mixed-use rehab of several mills in a historic district in Woonsocket; a mixed-use rehab of a historic mill in North Smithfield; new construction of affordable apartments in Chepachet [in Glocester]; [and] getting our new after-school learning center in Burrillville up and running.
