HomeFront, Inc.

 My organization, HomeFront, desperately wants to use the Elevate Prize for emergency rent and security-deposits to prevent families decimated by Covid-19 from becoming homeless.  This includes undocumented households who are ineligible for government programs and whose luck has run out during the Pandemic, as well as legal citizens so down and out they do not have basic identity-papers saying they are who they say they are. Our doors are open to everyone.  We do not turn away, for example, the woman with Stage-4 cancer, and no birth certificate who could not wait the six-months it would take to get her papers.

We would also use the Elevate Prize to reward our front-line staff who we ask to do the most important work -- transform lives.  Day-in, day-out, we expect them to react empathetically and effectively to people who have been traumatized by homelessness and poverty. We ask them to create the kind of supportive environment where people battered-by-life can change.  We aspire to take better care of our own and pay a higher, decent living-wage, especially since such a large percentage of our staff have lived-experience of poverty themselves and still struggle to make ends meet.

Thirty-years ago, I visited grim highway motels in Trenton where 100s of families were warehoused and was horrified seeing families with no food, no prospects and no hope. My friend said, "Connie, There are hungry, homeless children in your community.  Fix it."  The way homeless families were treated in our community changed forever that day when I took up the challenge. I began by simply organizing my neighbors to bring meals and clothing to the motels and take children on outings.

Since then, I have served as Founder and CEO of HomeFront with a mission of breaking the cycle of poverty and ending family homelessness in Central New Jersey.  We harness the resources and expertise of the community to give struggling families the tools and opportunities they need to thrive.  From its all-volunteer start, HomeFront has grown into a  cornerstone social-service agency, that now offers a wrap-around, transformative Family Shelter program and service-enriched affordable housing to more than 500 people on any given night, two-thirds of them children. Our homelessness prevention intervention and case-management keep people from becoming homeless in the first-place and prevent traumatic-impact on children.  Our Resource Network feeds, clothes and provides furniture to thousands of people monthly.

Through transformational programs serving vulnerable homeless families, and those living in the ever-present shadow of homelessness, HomeFront is solving problems of intergenerational inequity and deprivation. We provide opportunity for desperate low-income families to claw their way out of poverty. 

HomeFront is in the business of creating the right environment to enable homeless, hopeless households to stay together and work towards becoming proud, independent parents and healthy, happy children.  Our service-model usually begins at our Family Shelter/Campus, serving 38-families with children at-a-time (around 150-families each year).  We offer a haven providing trauma-informed care and chance for parents to heal and start over.  After residing at the Campus, families stay connected through our enrichment, education, training, and Resource Network.

From our earliest days, we learned that to succeed, families need  comprehensive services tailored to specific needs, providing: 

1) Safe housing:  emergency/transitional shelter and 125-units permanent affordable housing with intensive case management; 

2) Tools for self-sufficiency:  remedial education and vocational training, along with job-readiness, life and parenting skills; 

3) Support for children:  year-round academics and recreation, including summer camp, childcare and practical and emotional assistance; 

4) Resources for living:  community-supported network providing essentials such as food, diapers, clothing, furniture. 

HomeFront's work nurturing and empowering homeless families is innovative because:

1) It is holistic.  We provide a continuum-of-care and do whatever it takes long-term to help move families from homeless and in crisis, to self-sufficiency.  We have deliberately incorporated healing programs and support services, including offices for valuable community partners, with on-site access to childcare, healthcare, remedial education toward high school diplomas, job-training, children's enrichment activities and other services.

2) We provide One-Stop Shopping.  At our Family Shelter/Campus we have made available specialists, tools and services families need to heal and overcome the factors leading to homelessness. By consolidating resources in one location, HomeFront has removed many of the obstacles that can block a family's path to success and a child's path to wellness.

3) We have real Buy-in from the general community in the form of volunteer support, and in-kind and financial donations.  Private sector support gives HomeFront the flexibility to respond compassionately and creatively to the greatest needs of our client-families.  Last year, our supporters donated over $5 million in in-kind services and goods!

4) HomeFront's programs are not one-size fits all.  We individualize our services to meet the short and long-term needs of each family. 

HomeFront is having impact on humanity because we offer a model of direct, non-judgmental and intensive case-management that is actually breaking the cycle of poverty.  We are not just handing out fish, we are teaching people how to fish, providing what people need to build hope for a better future and helping thousands of homeless, struggling families to gain stability and economic independence, improving prospects for children.  We are changing lives for the better one-by-one because we address the barriers to decent employment experienced by the disadvantaged people we serve. 

From lack of affordable housing, childcare, good education, work experience, to illiteracy and legal impediments, people raised in and living on minimum wages at the economic margins of society have weak support-systems to help them overcome their problems, large and small. More than half the parents who come to our door grew up in dysfunctional families themselves and spent time in foster care.  We nurture people and let them heal.  Then show them the way.

 HomeFront is proudly taking a state and nationwide leadership role in addressing the problems related to family homelessness.  The impact of our work is changing the public conversation regarding homelessness.