Honoring a Legacy of Leadership: Bob Guarasci Named 2025 Recipient of Prestigious State Award

Watch Bob's acceptance video

View our photo album from the award ceremony

View our photo album of Bob’s impactful work

We are proud to announce that NJCDC Founder & CEO Bob Guarasci has been selected as the 2025 recipient of the Housing and Economic Development Hall of Fame Award. He was formally honored on Wednesday, September 17 at the Governor’s Conference on Housing and Economic Development, taking place in Atlantic City.

 Bob was honored alongside other leaders shaping New Jersey’s future, including attorney and civic leader Elnardo J. Webster II, who received the Senator Ronald L. Rice Impact Award.

This prestigious award recognizes pioneers who have reshaped New Jersey’s housing and economic development landscape. For Bob, it celebrates more than three decades of building opportunities, restoring hope, and transforming Paterson — one family, one neighborhood, and one young person at a time.

As DCA Chief of Staff Kia King noted: “Bob Guarasci has spent three decades turning vision into action. Through NJCDC, he has created opportunity, restored hope, and changed the landscape of Paterson.”

From Vision to Impact

When Bob founded NJCDC in 1994, the organization consisted of just two staff members and a single AmeriCorps program. Today, that modest beginning has grown into a multifaceted community development powerhouse serving more than 4,000 children and families each day.

DCA Commissioner Jacquelyn A. Suárez, who presented the award, summed up NJCDC’s trajectory simply: “to say that NJCDC has grown exponentially would be an understatement.”

Under his leadership, NJCDC has built more than 200 units of affordable and service-enriched housing, established the Community Charter School of Paterson, and created the Great Falls Youth Center, a place where hundreds of young people each year find connection, enrichment, and opportunity. The organization has also played a leading role in revitalizing public spaces, from developing neighborhood parks and playgrounds to helping restore Westside Park, ensuring that residents have places to gather, play, and build community.

Education has always been at the heart of NJCDC’s mission. The organization now supports young people from preschool through college, with alumni going on to attend institutions such as Yale, Harvard, Penn, Stanford, and Rutgers. That educational pipeline is paired with robust community supports such as the Paterson Financial Empowerment Center and our Neighborhood Help Center, which help families build stability and pursue their dreams.

A Recognition Rooted in Community

Reflecting on this honor, Bob emphasized the collective nature of NJCDC's success: “When I look at the progress we’ve made, I see it as proof of what can happen when communities come together with a shared purpose. This honor isn’t about me — it’s about the children who are thriving, the families who are stronger, and the partners who have stood with us over the years. Paterson has always had incredible potential, and NJCDC’s role is to help unlock it.”

The Housing and Economic Development Hall of Fame Award recognizes individuals whose work shapes not only physical places but the lives of people who call those places home. For Bob, it represents a lifetime commitment to ensuring that neighborhoods work for the people who live there — because as he often says, when that happens, everything changes.

The recognition comes at a time when NJCDC is expanding its efforts to build community schools, provide innovative youth programming, and engage residents directly in neighborhood planning. These initiatives are rooted in the same values that guided the organization’s founding more than 30 years ago — that every child deserves the chance to succeed and every family deserves the chance to thrive.

A Moment to Celebrate, A Mission to Continue

While this award spotlights Bob’s extraordinary achievements, it also illuminates the work ahead. NJCDC remains deeply committed to expanding opportunity in Paterson through affordable housing development, strong schools and youth programs, and community-driven solutions.

“This is a moment to celebrate, but also a moment to recommit," Bob reflects. "The next generation of Paterson’s children deserve even greater opportunities than the last. Our mission is to make sure they have them.”

This honor belongs to Bob, but it also belongs to every resident, partner, supporter, and staff member who has helped make NJCDC’s vision reality. Together, we will continue building a Paterson where opportunity, resilience, and community thrive.

Congratulations, Bob, on this well-deserved recognition of your transformative leadership and unwavering commitment to our community!