The HUUB

The Ben Jones Community Garden BJCG was started at HUUB in 2021 as a response to decades of disinvestment and the poisonous legacy of heavy industry seen in many majority-minority neighborhoods like Orange. It was created to share solutions to environmental health hazards while increasing access to fresh healthy food. It provides public and productive community and education spaces at HUUB for Orange residents to explore and reimagine their outdoor spaces. Programs sprouting from the BJCG include Orange Patches designed to spread enthusiasm for and education about greenspaces stewardship environmental justice and sustainability throughout Orange's four wards and Trail Mix which brings youth to local South Mountain Reservation to experience and explore the richness of the outdoors even in urban environments like Orange and Essex County.

Planning to Stay P2S is a multi-year collaborative effort organizing a grassroots coalition of local stakeholders to create and advance an equity based development narrative and subsequent planning policies in Orange NJ. Over the last two years P2S has grown from the idea of a few organizations mobilizing stakeholders into a resident-led coalition guided by a 10-person steering committee developing equitable policy proposals and demanding to be heard in public forums. With technical support and guidance from the HUUB and its partners the steering committee and coalition are fighting to stay in Orange actively working to slow displacement while both protecting and supporting existing tenants homeowners and small businesses. P2S has benefited many communities in Orange easily reaching hundreds of residents.

The Joe Thomasberger Fellows Program provides local people stipends to design and implement community based programming while teaching them community organizing and leadership skills. There are currently six Fellows and their programs have benefitted more than 100 people.