The Passaic River Coalition is a long-standing nonprofit organization that safeguards the Passaic River and its watershed and has helped communities manage flood issues in the Passaic River watershed in the last 55 years. The Coalition has been active in flooding issues of the Passaic River Basin since its formation in 1969, including in the Paterson area. Some of the Coalition’s projects in Paterson are the restoration of the Mary Ellen Kramer Park at Paterson Great Falls (funding from Green Acres), the continued sponsorship of the Paterson Water Day celebration as its leading organization for the last four years (funding from the Harbor Estuary Program), and the ongoing work with the Paterson Board of Education and others to increase green stormwater infrastructure projects in the area.

The Coalition initiated a community engagement campaign in Paterson to identify current flood risks and neighborhood impacts, understand the potential for changes in these risks due to greater flooding hazards, and understand differences in the needs of at-risk neighborhoods in preparing for, experiencing, and responding to flooding events. This campaign called for a joint project between the Passaic River Coalition and the New Jersey Institute of Technology, a public and technical research university in Newark, New Jersey, to develop the Paterson Flood Resilience Hub to enhance community engagement, collaboration, and flood resilience in Paterson. This project was presented at the NJIT International Undergraduate Summer Research Symposium on July 24th and July 25th, 2024.