Help the City of Trenton Help You: My Trenton Project

Princeton University, in partnership with Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora, has developed a community-focused project aimed at gauging the heightened challenges surrounding racial injustice and the COVID-19 pandemic. In conjunction with the university, the Mayor is asking municipal employees and local business owners to complete a survey to help workers in the city of Trenton.

The objective of this project is to understand the work-related needs and expectations of Trenton businesses during these challenging and uncertain times. By participating, the city hopes this survey will help Trenton improve employee work-life balance.

“This is a project that started in 2019 with idea to improve public policy, design and delivery in Trenton,” said Nicoleta Acatrinei, Ph. D., Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education at Princeton University and the Principal Investigator for the ‘My Trenton’ team. “When COVID-19 came, we were almost ready to launch the survey and we had to wait.”

The My Trenton team has worked carefully to develop this survey model over the lengthened time period. The project is meant to create a unified vision and a platform with tools to organize the workforce adequately. In its entirety, the My Trenton project aims to strengthen businesses in the community through gathering individual survey responses.

“There is a lot of work my team and I put into it. I participate with the mayor and his team working on business offerings an incentive to design public policy to see what are really the strengths of the business community in Trenton and what are the weaknesses,” said Acatrinei. She poses the question, “What can we do to enforce the strengths and to mitigate the weaknesses?”

The survey itself is anonymous and smartphone-friendly and takes approximately 20 minutes to complete. Some of the questions tackle sensitive, but important and valuable information the city would like to understand further from the business owner and employee perspectives.

According to the initial statement made by the Office of the Mayor, “One of this project’s primary concern is the diversity and inclusivity of all categories of populations, as the City of Trenton is a multiracial and diverse community. Several questions address the issue of inclusivity and equal treatment at the workplace for all races and minorities. The results will provide data to help the City identify and correct racial or minority triggered biases.”

The My Trenton team encourages the city to share their stories and experiences. “The purpose of this project is to serve the community,” said Acatrinei. “Make Trenton your Trenton! Help the city of Trenton help you!”

To get the link to the survey, please contact Nicoleta Acatrinei, Ph. D., at nicoleta@princeton.edu.

To learn more about the “My Trenton” project, click HERE. 

To watch the “My Trenton” informational video, click HERE. 

To read the Objective and Summary statement of the My Trenton Project, click HERE. 

Para leer la encuesta en Español:

  • Click Aquí for Municipal Employees
  • Click Aquí for Business Owners

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