“A Woman For All Seasons”
After 39 years, New Community’s 1st Employee Retires and continues as a Volunteer

Cecilia Faulks, who recently retired from New Community Corporation, was so popular among her colleagues and friends that she had not one, but two retirement celebrations. Together, the two events were attended by hundreds of well wishers. Ms. Faulks was New Community’s first employee and retired after 39 years on the job. She had begun working for NCC founder Msgr. William J. Linder at Queen of Angels Church as the secretary of its school in 1969. She became the first paid employee of NCC in 1973.

New Community is the largest and most comprehensive community development corporation (CDC) in the US, employing more than 1300 people. It has an operating budget of $120,000,000 and owns real estate with a replacement value of over $500,000,000.

Mrs. Faulks has been an active member of Queen of Angels church in Newark for nearly 40 years. She has served as Pastoral Council Chair and in other positions and was awarded the Archdiocesan Jubilee Medal in 2000. Mrs. Faulks decided to retire so that she could spend more time with her family and devote more time to the ministry of which she is part. She has three children, seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren and is a Eucharistic Minister. She will spend some of her time in “retirement” visiting the sick and elderly and offering companionship.
“I feel like I made a difference,” Ms. Faulks said of her long career at New Community and of her work in the community. “I don’t think you can ask for anything better in life.”

More About New Community…..
New Community’s success rests on its comprehensive approach to community development. It is active in housing, health care, education, training, childcare and economic development. It runs for-profit businesses, a community newspaper and arts program and a credit union. It has provided training to community development professionals from around the country and the world, having hosted representatives from more than 20 countries in recent years. NCC fits into the bigger universe of 1.6 million American non-profits and 4,000 CDCs, which have a total annual revenue of $621.4 billion and employ 10.2 percent of the total labor force. The CDC movement, which like New Community, is about 40 year old, has been a major force in the redevelopment and rebuilding of inner city neighborhoods, responsible for more than 550,000 housing units, 247,000 jobs and the development of 71 million square feet of commercial space. The CDC movement has succeeded in developing low-income areas where government has failed.

For more information contact:
Kara Lane, Resource Development, 973-497-4410
kara.lane@newcommunity.org
New Community Corporation, 233 West Market Street, Newark, NJ 07103