May 18, 2026
Tiffany Caldwell didn’t know anyone when she moved to Schenectady’s Mont Pleasant neighborhood with her daughter two years ago from New York City.
The colder months, she recalls, were a struggle. It was dark and gloomy, and everywhere she turned, she saw blight - vacant buildings, crumbling infrastructure, trash.
“I immediately started thinking, ‘How can I come up with a solution?’” Caldwell said. “How can we collectively come together to sprinkle light in the midst of darkness?”
Caldwell began attending meetings organized by The Schenectady Foundation’s ONE Schenectady movement, focused on improving housing. There she met people with the same desire to bring positive change to the community.
And she decided to get to know her neighbors and invite them to join her in revitalizing the section of Mont Pleasant sometimes referred to as Engine Hill.
Caldwell, 46, isn’t doing this work alone. She is one of ONE Schenectady’s “creative changemakers” - a group of 10 Schenectady County residents selected to participate in a months-long program to transform their bold ideas for community change and building a more vibrant, resilient future into actionable plans.
“I’ve learned so much,” Caldwell said of her time in the Creative Changemakers program. “I’ve met so many amazing people. The connections that I’ve made through One Schenectady and also on my own, taking a leap, reaching out to people - the support I’ve received makes me want to break down in tears.”
Caldwell has established a new neighborhood association, the Engine Hill Neighborhood Association, to address concerns and challenges in her community.
She did a meet-and-greet at the local library, focused on helping residents connect with programs to save money on energy costs, and organized a neighborhood cleanup for Earth Day.
She also plans to partner with C.R.E.A.T.E. Community Studios, a Schenectady non-profit that provides low-cost arts programming, to bring “light and color” to the neighborhood through community art.
The name of Caldwell’s project: Blight to Light.
Creative Changemakers Circle helps emerging leaders turn their bright ideas into action. Through hands-on workshops, participants develop an action plan, build leadership skills, connect with other changemakers, and gain resources and support for their ideas.
“When you hear blight, you think of darkness, you think of gloom,” Caldwell said. “But there’s always light at the end of any dark tunnel.” She added, “I want to push people to realize that this is about people power. Once we come together, there’s strength in numbers. All of these little simultaneous goals - we’re tackling them little by little.”