Neighbors Group Expands Again, Receives Senatorial Support

After just celebrating its 70th success story and opening its newest location in Emerson, the River Edge-based Neighbors Helping Neighbors job seekers group got an added boost when District 38 Senator Robert Gordon swung by on Thursday and offered his support.

"I can empathize with a lot of the challenges you are facing," Gordon said to the packed group of members. "I've been through a lot of careers and having once been laid off from a consulting job, needing to o back to school and retooling any opportunities by networking my way in to the game."

Gordon even admitted he may reach out to NHN if his  political career doesn't work in the long term, but also in the short term to find a part-time job as a full-time legislature's income does not pay all the bills.

"You have to be constantly networking, understanding what you are doing and sharing your experiences," Gordon said. "You always have to be connecting and utilizing new technology to facilitate that."

Networking is one thing that NHN encourages its members to do by expanding across LinkedIn (468), Facebook (135 members) and Twitter (27 followers). The group has 480 active members from 74 municipalities.

Created by River Edge resident John Fugazzie in January 2010, the volunteer-led group meets weekly at various libraries across Bergen, Passaic, Essex, and Morris County and will be expanding to Union County sometime in April. The group has also been contacting online about expanding to Connecticut as well.

"I am most proud of starting this group, the library where it all started and the people in this room," Fugazzie said. "The growth has been unprecendented and the credit goes to the members of the group. We're not professors or career coaches, but neighbors helping one another."

Amont the newest initiative's NHN has started is a small business outreach program led by Doug Brooks from Oradell in conjunction with each of the local library program moderators to make contact which the local Rotary Clubs in each of the towns that run library programs. According to Fugazzie, the goal is to have the Rotary members and NHN members work alongside each other in sharing potential job leads.

"The next step is to get onto college campuses in the career centers and assist upcoming graduates with finding work," Fugazzie said. "I would love to see group meetings on campus with students serving as mediators."

NHN will begin by reaching out to the local community colleges and expanding to the state universities.

NHN meets on Mondays in Westwood, Waldwick, Mendham Township, Englewood, Dumont and Fair Lawn; Tuesdays in Bergenfield, Hawthorne, and Closter, Ringwood (10:30am) and Emerson; Wednesdays in Maplewood except the fourth Wednesday of every month; and Thursdays in River Edge, Ridgewood, Mahwah, Cedar Grove and Oakland (10:30am). The group will begin meeting in Oradell at 1pm on March 27 and running every other week on Tuesday afternoons. A Cranford meeting is in the process of being set up. Unless otherwise stated, all meetings begin at 7pm.

While the groups' website is currently undergoing a redesign, members can be contacted through LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.