On the first Thursday evening of March, a group of 12 people, including two from Maplewood, sat around a toddler-sized table at the Harmony Day Care in Irvington. They had gathered to plan the next phase of an out-sized ambition to raise Irvington up by getting people involved in a series of community-driven initiatives.

Maplewood resident Lucila McElroy would never own up to masterminding the project that brought everyone together around the tiny table. But she will take credit for “planting a few seeds,” as she says.

In a matter of months, Irvington Up has evolved from a notion about the need to do something positive for Irvington, to a full-fledged organization with an executive director, a two-pronged agenda and a proposal in the works to receive non-profit status.

A primary goal of the Thursday meeting, the most recent of several that have been held over the last few months, was to plan a week of events that would highlight the town’s history and culminate in a peaceful march, followed by a celebration with motivational and local speakers. Irvington Week, planned for May, will kick off the group’s long-term efforts to provide much-needed services to Irvington residents, starting with the creation of educational programs and neighborhood block associations.

Irvington Up is the result of a broad collaboration, but it’s fair to say that it began with Ms. McElroy’s personal desire to bring about change in the communities around her. Irvington, with one of the state’s highest violent crime rates per capita, troubled schools and drug- and crime-ridden streets, begged for attention, she says.

“I can’t sit here and not doing something about it,” said Ms. McElroy.

Ms. McElroy’s initial idea was a one-day event for Irvington mothers that would be billed as a day of nurturing, and feature inspirational speakers and perhaps massages and manicures.

A focus on women was a good fit with Ms. McElroy’s ongoing MOMentum initiative that brings together groups of women — there are three local groups so far — to inspire them to challenge the status quo, awaken their inner potential and be a force in their worlds.

But it was soon clear — especially to Meredith Caplan, whom Ms. McElroy had recruited to help — that Irvington’s needs ran much deeper than what a one-day event could address.

After being out of the workforce for nine years, Ms. Caplan — a former international human rights lawyer who then spent five years traveling to poverty-stricken areas around the world to develop programs for Planned Parenthood — was ready to throw herself into a meaningful project.

Relying on the vast connections of Ketty Michel, the director of the Harmony Day Care, she helped organize some early meetings of community members to find out more about their needs.

Ms. Caplan, now a board member helping with strategic planning and funding, realized, “We have to roll up our sleeves and really do something dramatic.”

The message to do something lasting and dramatic came from other quarters, as well. Ms. McElroy was in touch with Molly Raskin, a journalist and Maplewood resident, who viewed Irvington Up as ideal subject matter for a documentary.

Professionally, she felt a need to create awareness around Irvington’s dire situation. But the story also tugged at her personally.

“I couldn’t let go of the idea that a mile away from me well-meaning, hard-working people were truly struggling,” said Ms. Raskin.

Ms. Raskin and Ms. McElroy met with Mike Salort, head of a movie production company who lives in Maplewood, and the pressure to go beyond a one-day event mounted further.

“I told Lucila, ‘You’ve got to go big or stay home,’” said Mr. Salort.

That’s because “the dark forces of poverty and lack of funding would totally eliminate anything positive that would come from a one-off event,” he said.

Mr. Salort is now on the group’s advisory board and exploring ways to find funding for the documentary.

So what started as an inspired plan to lift the spirits of Irvington mothers through a single day of events has morphed into a broad and deep initiative to bring lasting change to a town devastated by crime, poverty and violence.

Members of the Irvington community are already filling leadership roles in the effort. And a handful of Maplewood residents can be credited for their role in shaping the vision.

To become involved or to support Irvington Up, please contact Ricot Jean Baptiste at irvingtonup@gmail.com.

Every year, the entire 5th grade at Jefferson School in Maplewood chooses a Service Project and works to help a charity or organization in need.

This year the students chose Harmony Day Care in Irvington — with the help of parent moderators.

The students collected hundreds of books from the entire Jefferson community to help create a new library for the children at Harmony. Students sorted books during recess, and, on March 21, the books were delivered to Harmony.

On March 22, eleven 5th grade students came to Harmony to read to the children at the day care.

“They also cut the ribbon for the brand new Harmony Library,” said Dawn Yoselowitz, Jefferson parent and co-chair of the 5th Grade Service Project along with another 5th grade parent, Kristin Chamorro.

Harmony, with its director Ketty Michel, acts as more than a day care center. It provides educational enrichment opportunities for youngsters and social services to the Irvington community at large.

“I wanted to show how we are getting help from another community as we emphasize literacy as our top priority,” said Michel. “This is a fun project. They have worked hard.”

Added Michel, “The long-term impact it will have for our preschool is just formidable.”

The same could be said of the long-term impact on the Jefferson students:

“Next month we will bring another group!” said Yoselowitz.

Pictured are, left to right, Jefferson fifth graders Katherine D’Andrea and Shana Dominique reading to students at Harmony Day Care. Photo by Dawn Yoselowitz

“We want to teach kids to carry out the right thing,” said Giada Litner, founder of the nonprofit that teaches kids about the environment and not to litter, and the host of Tuesday’s event in South Mountain Reservation. “We want to use the environment to inspire them and teach them that the world should not look like their backyard.”

Litner organized a two-day, no-litter event Tuesday and Thursday to help teach kids about the consequences of trashing the planet.

The hour-and-a-half event Tuesday pulled more than 70 underprivileged preschool kids, between two-and-a-half years old to five years old, from Harmony Day Care and Montvail Day Care, both in Irvington. Thursday’s event is a clean up at the Servicemen Club in Irvington.

Litner took the kids on a one-mile hike Tuesday through the reservation from Tulip Springs in West Orange to Hemlock Falls, to spot litter and learn about nature.

At Hemlock Falls, the group met Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street, as well as Seton Hall University students who performed a skit about littering in the waterfall.

Lianne Messina, a junior at Seton Hall, said she volunteered with Playdate Earth to work with children and help her fraternity.

“I want to teach in an inner city area, so when I heard (Playdate Earth) was working with unprivileged three- to five-year olds, it was something I wanted to get involved in,” she said. “Going green is very important and teaching them at a very young age is the biggest reason why we will take a step forward in cleaning the environment.”

Messina and six other Seton Hall University volunteers are part of a service-based coed fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega, that focuses on friendship, leadership and service.

“We try to get involved in any way that we can in helping those around us,” said Messina.

Jesse Beutell, a senior at Seton Hall and a member of Alpha Phi Omega, said Messina got him involved with the program.

“I’ve always enjoyed helping kids and the environment and this just seemed like a simple decision,” he said.

Laura White, educational director of Harmony Day Care, said with the help of the school’s executive director, Ketty Michel, the day care was able to work with Litner’s Playdate Earth to develop the no-litter event.

“It’s an experience in nature, walking, talking with a familiar character like Oscar the Grouch about garbage and preservation,” she said. “The next step is to take them to experience actually helping clean up.”

David Alexander, environmental educator and naturalist for Essex County Environmental Center, said Tuesday’s program by Playdate Earth is an advantage for the county to help teach in a natural environment.

“It’s a perfect, short hike for these children so they can experience and enjoy nature,” he said.

Alexander said the county teaches kids and adults about the “Four Rs” (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rethink) and hosts classes on environmental protection at the county’s environmental center.

Sharone Thomas, one of the 70 preschoolers, said he looked forward to the hike to search for animals — in addition to litter.

“I want to see elephants and squirrels,” he said.

Brenda Marshall, a grandparent of one of the students on the hike, said the students learned about the environment in the classroom and now are experiencing more than textbooks.

“They get to learn about nature and the land and how to treat the land so it lasts longer,” she said. “You need to clean up the garbage and trash, so now they’ve come to see what they can do to save the land.”

Ricot Jean Baptisce, assistant director of Harmony Day Care, said the events will help kids understand human impact on the environment.

“Through the children, hopefully, it will carry on to the parents and the adults, as well,” he said. “Litter is an ongoing issue within the community and, hopefully, this will be a stepping stone on how important the environment is to all of us.”

Litner said her nonprofit is focused on hands-on activities, such as Tuesday’s hike and Thursday’s clean up.

“At this age, that’s all they have attention for,” she said. “We do so by giving them a problem (in this case the waterfall with the litter) and the opportunity to fix it and feel like they are part of the solution.”

Irvington, N.J., is known to many of its neighbors—including Maplewood—as a town to pass through quickly or be avoided altogether. Overcrowding, poverty, crime, narcotics, corruption—these words are often associated with Irvington.

But a group of Irvington boosters are looking to make other words synonymous with Irvington: community, hope, education, commitment, opportunity.

Afiah Atakora represents an Irvington that many outsiders do not know: a young, educated professional woman, she lives in Maple Gardens, a large and well-maintained market-rate apartment complex off Springfield Avenue near the Garden State Parkway. “There are lots of residents there who work at UMDNJ and Beth Israel, as well as students.” Atakora noted that Irvington provides affordable housing options for many who cannot pay the rents or home prices of towns to the west—like Maplewood.

But Irvington is also plagued by unemployment, low-performing schools and crime.

One sunny morning in March, Patch met with Atakora, Ketty Michel and Ricot Jean Baptiste to talk about their plans for Irvington Up, a new branch of Michel’s nonprofit foundation Harmony Education & Life Partners (HELP).

While HELP has and will continue to focus on the educational and enrichment component of elevating Irvington residents, Irvington Up is a new effort focusing civic engagement and community outreach, said Jean Baptiste. The goal ultimately is to build a greater sense of community and connection among residents, increase voter turnout, build community centers and provide employment to residents, as well as better connections to social services.

Jean Baptiste is leading the Irvington Up effort, with Atakora providing communications support. “Reality smacked me” one day, said Ricot when a 3-year-old at Harmony Day Care (operated by Michel and where Jean Baptists runs afterschool programs) told him that the only way to be a man was to be incarcerated.

“I needed to stand up, step up,” said Jean Baptiste.

Irvington Up is not a lone voice crying in the wilderness. Other supporting organizations are helping bring it along and have led the way including Harmony Day Care Center, the OYSA soccer league, More from Men, and the Maplewood-based MOMentum.

Said Atakora, “We have the same goals.”

Like Jean Baptiste, Ketty Michel lives in Elizabeth, but has a passion for Irvington. When asked why, Michel responded, “It’s a love affair. My passion is to work with underprivileged children. And the parents need help too.” Through Harmony Day Care Center and HELP, Michel has built programs over the last 18 years that not only provide day care and afterschool enrichment, but also workshops for parents on bereavement, how to obtain health benefits, how to obtain credit, and how to buy a home. “We are a resource center,” said Michel.

The day care is accredited and is supported through private grants and through fees on a pay-what-you-can scale. The afterschool program is funded similarly and has a focus on academics with its “100 A’s club” and awards like “student of the month.”

Irvington Up will provide services on a different scale, said Atakora. “There are existing programs,” said Akatora, “But we actually want to be able to pool their resources better.” She pointed to organizations that focus on disciplines like athletics or the arts.

“Irvington is not a bad community. But residents have bigger issues. You have single parents with tunnel vision. They are not using the community.”

“We want to do neighborhood development. Cleanups, getting people involved in neighborhood groups, getting them involved in elections. Bottom-up community building.”

Both Atakora and Jean Baptiste would like to work to support higher census response. Irvington was counted in the 2000 Census as having a population of 60,695. But most experts and officials think Irvington has been woefully undercounted—not uncommon for communities with large immigrant populations. Said Atakora, if Irvington can get to 75,000, “we are then a city not a township.” This could translate into more funding and more attention.

Atakora lamented Irvington’s lack of a major employer. Irvington UP would like to increase employment, most notably by hiring counselors and through construction jobs as the group builds community centers throughout Irvington.

Atakora and Jean Baptiste talked of Irvington’s immigrant groups, including West Indian, African, Russian, Haitian and Mexican. Both are first generation Americans themselves. Jean Baptiste’s family is from Haiti while Atakora’s father is from Ghana and her mother from Trinidad.

“We are trying to connect with these groups.”

Both also noted that while they and Irvington Up will be working in future on increasing voter turnout, Irvington Up will not endorse any candidates. (See Richard Khavkine’s roundup of the five men currently vying for Mayor of Irvington, with incumbent Wayne Smith as the favorite. The election takes place tomorrow, May 11.)

For now, Irvington Up is working to organize itself. This summer, the nascent organization is helping to send 60 children to summer camp in Sussex County and is also working to fund afterschool programs with the YMCA (state funding was cut) that will include an afterschool swim program.

You can stay in touch with Irvington Up and watch its progress through its new Facebook page. Patch will next be profiling Irvington’s More from Men organization and its director, Frank Bryant.

The economic collapse is particularly hard on poor parents. In March 2007 I wrote about a popular parenting program run for 25 years by the Cornell Cooperative Extension in Riverhead, on Long Island, that taught parents how to discipline without screaming and hitting; it was recently eliminated from the 2009 Suffolk County budget. Harmony Day Care in Irvington, N.J., which I wrote about in October 2006, stays open to midnight to serve poor single moms who work late shifts at the malls and McDonald’s; its enrollment has dropped from 158 children to 143 this year, as women have lost their jobs, said Ketty Michel, the director.

Girl Scouts who are great at selling cookies often get great support from their families. In the case of Ayazhia Lee of Uniondale, that also included grandparents, uncles, aunts and godparents. When I saw Ayazhia one night last March, she was selling cookies with her grandmother at the Roosevelt Field mall and was up to 717 boxes; she finished with 2,100 boxes, second best in Nassau County and just 4 boxes behind the top seller, Mikaela Schwartz of Island Park.

In April 2007 I wrote ”Young, Gifted and Not Getting Into Harvard,” about my alumni interviews with terrific kids who never got in. I still get e-mail messages about that column from all over the world. Since then, I’ve interviewed four more terrific kids who didn’t get in.

Last summer I visited Six Flags Great Adventure amusement park in Jackson, N.J., to talk to parents who were vacationing close to home because of the bad economy. In November, in the midst of the deepening recession, Six Flags officials reported ”the best year in the history of the company.”

Abbie Ives of Bedford Hills, N.Y., the goalie on a 10-year-old boys’ traveling hockey team that plays 60 games a season, is still going strong. The team recently won a Silver Sticks tournament, which qualified them for a Canadian tournament in January. Abbie’s dad, Tim Ives, a minister, has mixed feelings. ”They’re very excited,” he said, ”but we don’t need another hockey tournament.” Abbie recently asked what happens to girl hockey players after college. ”They go to medical school,” her dad said.

In 2007 I wrote about Zach O’Connor, the young man from Madison, Conn., who came out about being gay in seventh grade, was embraced by his parents and, after being harassed in middle school, thrived in high school. Zach entered American University in Washington in the fall and loves the excitement of big-city life, said his dad, Dan, an American Express executive. ”Zach called us on election night, at 11:30, he was outside the White House with thousands of others celebrating in the street,” Mr. O’Connor said.

As for my own brood of four who have had to put up with me revealing their not-quite-deepest secrets, they’re all healthy and happy and probably relieved that I’ll start a new assignment, a column for Sunday Styles, next month. With the three boys home from college for the holidays, the refrigerator is being emptied daily, and we’re up to five washes a day again. They’re all terrific, though, astheir dad, it is my duty to say they could be better. Ben needs a haircut. And I wish Adam were going back to school instead of taking the semester off to bike around the country. And Sam’s idea to pay for college expenses by selling funny T-shirts is great, but he has to do better than nine shirts.

PHOTOS:CATCHING UP: Clockwise from top right, Ed Kwiatkowski and his teacher Noah Lipman at graduation; Zach O’Connor and his parents; Abbie Ives, a goalie, with her father, Tim. (PHOTOGRAPHS BY SUSAN FARLEY FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES; C.M. GLOVER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)

”If a crew person tries to say something, who are you? Just a crew person.” As second-shift manager, she’d supervise eight people. ”It was between me and someone with no kids,” said Ms. Alexander, a 27-year-old single mother with a 2-year-old boy. ”I felt like if I didn’t take it now, no telling when.”

Second shift is from 3 to 11 p.m., but her day is longer than that. The McDonald’s is in suburban Boonton, a half-hour’s drive from her Newark apartment. Plus she gives rides to two co-workers from Newark; it’s hard finding suburban people to work at McDonald’s.

At first she left her son, Jabari, with family — her mother, grandmother or uncle — but she wasn’t comfortable with that. ”They’d say, ‘No problem.’ But you can hear the undertone in their voice. They’d rather be doing something else.”

So last month she switched Jabari to a late-night child care program. She now drops him off at Harmony Day Care in nearby Irvington at 2:15 p.m. and picks him up at 11:45. ”I have consistency, I don’t have to worry about where he is, and I have no problems with undertone,” she said.

There are new problems, though. By the time they get home, it’s after midnight, and Jabari is wide awake. ”He’s ready to play,” Ms. Alexander said.

Over the last decade late-night child care has spread, fueled partly by the growth of a 24/7 corporate culture. But it is also a response to federal welfare reform. With welfare recipients now required to work, states have had to finance flexible day care to support them. In New Jersey, three dozen day care centers are licensed for late-night hours.

Ketty Michel, director of Harmony in Irvington, a poor town bordering Newark, doubled her program size last year, opening a second building in a converted Blockbuster video store. Her nonprofit agency serves 140 children, 80 percent of them getting a state subsidy. The parents are mainly single mothers and typically pay $30 of the $175 weekly fee.

For these families, Harmony is a safe haven — from the local methadone clinic; from the dealers; from the three shootings nearby in the last month. On a recent night, eight children were still there at 9 o’clock. Most were asleep or sat quietly in a dark classroom. When Patricia Jones arrived, Aaron, 7, and Nyree, 4, raced for their coats and backpacks. Aaron comes after school, but Nyree had been there 13 hours. ”They’re ready to go,” Ms. Jones said. She works as a nursing-home aide by day, then takes a course to become a licensed nurse.

Keisha Saunders arrived at 9:30 for her son, Nasir, 2. She is a sales clerk at a clothing store in the Short Hills mall. She was lucky this night; she got a ride. Otherwise it is 40 minutes on the No. 70 bus. ”Where’s my baby?” she asked, picking up the sleeping Nasir and carrying him away on her shoulder.

Two children slept, but not Jabari. He was tossing on his small cot. ”Jabari knows when all the other children leave, it’s time for his mother,” whispered Harriet Williams, the night worker. ”Sometimes he sits in the little blue chair by the door. He can see her through the glass.”

When it was clear Jabari wouldn’t sleep, Ms. Williams took him to the corner where light shone from the office, put him on her lap and read ”Patch the Puppy.” ”Where’s the duck?” she whispered. ”What happened to the puppy?”

”Uh-oh,” Jabari said. The puppy fell in the water.

Outside, it was storming, and with every lightning flash, Jabari rushed to the window and said, ”Oh, God.” For an hour, he built skyscrapers out of cloth blocks with Ms. Williams and kicked them over. Then they both said, ”Uh-oh,” and he did it again.

When Veronica West arrived at 11:35, her 2-year-old, Marcus, appeared asleep. But he jumped up and beamed at her. ”It’s hard,” said Ms. West, who works as a counselor at a program for the disabled. ”It’s the only job I got and the only shift they’ll give me right now.”

Near midnight, Ms. Alexander arrived in her white manager’s uniform. Jabari showed her how he and Ms. Williams played choo-choo train derailment. By the time Ms. Alexander dropped off her co-workers, it was 12:30. She unlocked the front door and Jabari hopped across the living room to the DVD. ”Time for ‘Dora the Explorer,’ ” Ms. Alexander said. Jabari fidgeted until she sat beside him on the couch. ”Jabari can’t watch his show alone,” she said.

She’s not sure the shift manager’s job is worth this life. It pays 50 cents more an hour, and most of that goes for extra child care. ”I didn’t know it would only be $8 an hour,” she said. Ms. Alexander dropped out of high school, got her G.E.D, then did a tour in the Navy. When she came out, she went to a trade school to learn medical billing and coding, but said she couldn’t find work and wound up at McDonald’s.

She worries about how much time Jabari spends in day care. ”In the afternoon, we pull in the parking lot, he says, ‘No, no, no.’ ” At day care he’s taught to throw dirty paper plates in the garbage; at home, he thinks he’s being good when he throws his mom’s dishes in the garbage.

Ms. Alexander says she tries to spend all her free time with him. Before bed, they read books, say good night to the posters on his wall, sing the ABC’s together.

She has hopes for Jabari. ”I want him to be safe and smart, that’s the major thing. Whether he’s a lawyer or works in a corner store, as long as there’s no chance of going to jail.

”I love being with him. I wouldn’t take back having him at all. Just knowing I’m needed — if I don’t go to work every day, he won’t have food or clothes. He’s such a character. When I’m with him, we don’t have any worries. We sit and make silly noises. We make faces at ‘Dora the Explorer.’ Who wouldn’t want to do this?” Jabari hopped off the couch and wiggled like the dancing moose on the DVD.

At 1:30, Ms. Alexander said they wouldn’t be up much later. ”He’ll have his tub and we should be in bed by 2,” she said. ”We have to get up early to do laundry.” There’s a Laundromat a 10-minute drive away, in East Orange.

Drawing (Drawing by Robert St. James)