Category Archives: Non-Profit

“It’s All Love” at Stockton 51: The A-TEAM Gives Back

Article By Jared Wolf – Photography by Jared Kofsky

Sixteen years ago, a small group of visual artists met with Extra Helpings volunteer, Susan Darley, to discuss the possibility of forming an art cooperative within the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK). Founded in 2001, Extra Helpings was a small art program designed to alleviate the stresses of poverty by encouraging artistic expression.

The small collection of amateur artists came to be known as the A-TEAM, eventually morphing into the Trenton Community A-TEAM (formerly know as TCAT), which recently opened Stockton 51, a neighborhood art center within a previously abandoned two-story carriage house at 51 North Stockton Street in Downtown Trenton. The space was given to the A-TEAM by Isles Inc., a Wood Street nonprofit organization that is working to establish an arts district in the surrounding community.

Today, the Stockton 51 art studio is a popular haven for a number of local painters, sketchers, musicians, and sculptors to unwind from the vices of urban life in America, and simply create.

In its earliest form, TCAT was designed to offer an open facility to those who possessed creative talents or an interest in the arts, but it did not have the necessary resources to pursue its creative endeavors. Darley wished to create a “collegial environment in which they [the artists] could hone their creative abilities.”

The goal: sell artwork and realize the benefits of seeing hard work come to life.

From the beginning, the artists decided how the A-TEAM would operate and which projects it would undertake. In this way, “membership in the group also provided an opportunity for the artists to learn entrepreneurial skills,” said Darley.

Membership expanded, and the walls of TASK quickly became an open display of their work. Over the years, the ‘A-TEAM Artists of Trenton’ have participated in hundreds of shows. From displays in museums and galleries to corporate offices and government agencies, the A-TEAM has seen their pipe dream become reality

Moreover, the A-TEAM artists have given back to the Trenton community in a multitude of ways, by lending work to local businesses and non-profit groups, or by leading monthly art workshops for residents of the Rescue Mission of Trenton and patrons at The Arc Mercer.

The artists have also hosted clients from the Trenton Psychiatric Hospital’s art therapy program in their studio. And just last summer, Stockton 51 hosted a community cookout in which over 2,000 people attended. During the event, which was funded by TASK, the studio gave out over 1,000 hamburgers and hot dogs

This is one of the countless examples of how this facility has given back to its community.

One artist in particular has had a profound impact on the A-TEAM family. Self-taught artist Walter Roberts, Jr. learned how to shade from his sixth grade math teacher. His teacher told him that if he taught him how to shade, he had to start paying attention.Today, Roberts is celebrating over twenty years as a member of the A-Team and considers his ability to shade his greatest strength.

Derrick Branch, another self-taught artist, has been with the A-TEAM for over ten years. A bass guitarist, Branch helped begin a music program within the TCAT crew and hopes to see it expand in the coming years.

Branch, in collaboration with other musicians, has made several hip-hop compositions, in addition to rehearsed renditions of prominent Jazz scores from musicians like Duke Ellington.

From what started as a few friends seeking extra community services at TASK has transformed into a playground for the disenfranchised. Roberts described Stockton 51 as “a sanctuary in the city” from which “anything can be thought.”

For many of the teens who go to the studio to paint, draw, build, jam, sketch, or create, Stockton 51 is a healthy way to stay off of the streets and out of trouble. Well equipped with tools and gadgets, artists can spend endless hours creating and composing.

Roberts recalled several nights where he and other artists worked until 8 in the morning to complete some of their more complex pieces. Roberts’ was happy to share one of his proudest pieces: a portrait of the 20th century academic and activist Angela Davis. Roberts’ worked for five straight days without sleep to compete the piece—his desire for perfection acting as the sole motivation to stay awake.

When asked if he could name a few of the artists who come to Stockton 51, Roberts simply responded, “I can name a billion of ‘em”. The studio has become a symbol of the community, and a representation of the beautiful art that can emerge from the struggles of a childhood in the city. “It’s all love,” he said. “Giving kids a place to openly express themselves distracts them from the jungle.”

Looking forward, TCAT hopes to go three-dimensional: the artists want to pursue projects that don’t just hang on walls. They are looking to create statues, T-shirts, clothing, and jewelry.

With new projects and ideas constantly flooding in, TCAT will continue to change and expand. A gift shop is currently being built at Stockton 51 and the artists are always redefining their image, both as creators, and as contributors to the community.

If you are interested in buying art or would like to reach out to one of the artists/directors, please go to their website at www.trentoncommunityateam.org.


 

Stockton 51

51 North Stockton Street Trenton, NJ

trentoncommunityateam.org

(609) 421-0793

Outreach Program Provides Identification for Mercer Residents

By Alyssa Gautieri

On any given night in 2007, there were 271 families and 840 individuals in Mercer County who were experiencing homelessness; many of whom were chronically homeless.

Through the strategic planning and operational supports provided by the Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness and its community partners, these numbers have decreased dramatically.  According to a recent Point In Time (PIT) survey, homelessness in Mercer County has been reduced by over 70 percent for families, and 48 percent for individuals from 2007 to 2015. Both figures are well above the state and national averages.

While these PIT numbers, which reflect the reduction in homelessness on any given day in our community, are impressive, there are still significant numbers of homeless residents in Mercer County. The Rescue Mission of Trenton alone reported that over 1200 individuals sought their services in the past year.

“Unfortunately, individuals and families will continue to experience homelessness due to various circumstances. Our job is to find ways to end their homelessness quickly, and shorten their stays in shelter by getting them into permanent housing,” said Frank Cirillo, Executive Director of the Mercer Alliance.

In the coming year, the Mercer Alliance and its public and private non-profit partners will focus on ending chronic homelessness for individuals. These are people facing numerous health related challenges, and have experienced long-term homelessness, or multiple periods of homelessness over several years.

Cirillo, who joined the Alliance in 2007, recognized that a large number of these individuals did not have proper identification, such as birth certificates, voter registrations, driver’s licenses, or county identification cards.

Without this critical information, homeless individuals have great difficulty in accessing benefits and services like food stamps, Medicaid, or General Assistance. It also affects their ability to obtain employment, a bank account or establish residency.

“It is not uncommon for homeless individuals to lose documents or have them stolen. These items of identification are important to all of us, but to the homeless they can mean the difference between permanent housing and stability or living on the streets,” said Cirillo.

While obtaining these forms of identification seems like a simple solution, it can be a daunting task for individuals trying to navigate complex bureaucracies. It can also be very costly. For this reason, in July of 2015, the Mercer Alliance began the Homeless ID Project. This project mirrored an earlier Alliance endeavor in 2010 that was initiated by former Alliance employees Scott Fairman and Tarry

Truitt. That project was very successful, but was challenged by a lack of funding and the untimely death of Mr. Fairman.

The current project, which receives assistance from the City of Trenton, utilizes the contributions of CEAS Center and the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen to satisfy individuals’ identification needs. Their efforts are greatly enhanced by the hiring of formerly homeless individuals to be the “guides” in this process. “These individuals are among the 600 that Mercer Alliance has assisted on their road to permanent housing. They provide the practical help in obtaining IDs and serve as proof that the currently homeless can move from the street to a home of their own,” said Cirillo.

The Alliance’s Housing First and Rapid Rehousing strategies have indeed proven successful and have become national models, due to the contributions of funders and service providers that make up the Alliance. Many early skeptics have become important allies in building a system to combat homelessness; proving, once again, that we are stronger together.

“The ID Project is an important part of that work, but we still have much more work to do,” said Cirillo. “There are still many people in our community who experience homelessness each year. We continue to believe that creative policies and programming can change lives.”

Mercer County 2016 Point-In-Time Count Summary

By Engy Shaaban

Every year, New Jersey conducts a Point-in-Time (PIT) Count of its homeless population. This provides us with statewide estimates of the number of homeless households in our communities and information about where these individuals find shelter, the different factors that contribute to their homelessness, and their current needs. All NJ counties also conduct a similar count within each municipality. The following is a comprehensive summary of the 2016 Mercer County PIT Count, conducted on the night of January 26th, 2016.

Homeless Families and Individuals
On the night of January 26th, a total of 380 households, including 465 individuals, were experiencing homelessness in Mercer County. This is a decrease of 113 households (22.9 percent) and 135 individuals (22.5 percent) from 2015. On the night of the count, families composed of 131 individuals were living in emergency shelters, 37 families were in transitional housing, and ten were in transitional housing programs. There were no unsheltered families identified on the night of the count. These numbers illustrate a 17.5 percent decrease in homelessness among families compared to 2015.

Demographics
There were 38 (8.2 percent) homeless adults between the ages of 18 and 24, 344 (74 percent) adults were over the age of 24, and 17.8 percent of those found to be experiencing homelessness were under the age of 18.

Individuals With Disabilities, Victims of Domestic Violence and Veterans
Of the total number of homeless individuals, 48 percent reported having some type of disability. 56.5 percent of adults reported some type of disability compared to 7.2 percent of children. Among disabled adults, 53.2 percent reported a substance abuse disorder, making this the most prevalent disability (30.1 percent of all homeless adults). Half of disabled homeless children reported a developmental disability. On the night of the count, 34 homeless households identified as victims of domestic violence. The report concludes that a total of 47 homeless individuals, who were members of these households, were impacted. A total of 15 homeless veterans were counted on the night of the count, 51.6 percent less than in 2015. This dramatic decrease reflects the efforts of a state and countywide initiative to decrease homelessness among veterans.

Income and Benefits
Of all the homeless households reported on the night of the count, 53.9 percent had no source of income. The majority of respondents reported receiving non-cash benefits on the night of the count, food stamps being the most widely received benefit (received by 30.8 percent of households). In regards to health care coverage, 48.9 percent of households were receiving Medicaid, and 7.1 percent were receiving Medicare.

Length of Homelessness
When asked about the period of time that they have been homeless, 145 of respondents reported that their most recent, continuous episode of homelessness had lasted from one day to one week, 107 reported homelessness between eight days and one month, and 33 had been homeless between 31 days and three months. In total, this means that 285 households reported they had been homeless for less than 3 months. 35 households reported they had been homeless for more than one year. This is a 47.8 percent decrease from 2015.

Cause of Homelessness
When asked about what may have contributed to, or caused, their homelessness, the most common factor that households attributed it to was being asked to leave a shared residence (25.5 percent), followed by eviction (14.5 percent).

Chronic Homelessness
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) defines a “chronically homeless individual” as “someone with a long-term disabling condition, who has been continually homeless for a year or more, or at least four times in the past three years” and/or a family with one adult that meets this definition. According to the count, 20 households, made up of 20 individuals, were chronically homeless in Mercer County. This is a 73.3 percent decrease from 2015. Over the past five years, while the numbers have fluctuated, the total number of chronically homeless individuals has decreased overall by 67.7 percent. Between 2015 and 2016, the number of unsheltered chronically homeless individuals decreased from 64 to 18; the sheltered chronically homeless population decreased from 11 to two.

Unsheltered Homelessness

HUD defines an “unsheltered homeless individual” as any individual or family “with a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings, including a car, park, abandoned building, bus or train station, or camping ground.”

According to the count, 44 individuals were living unsheltered in Mercer County. These numbers represent a decrease 61 households and individuals from the 2015 statistics.

In regards to the length of homelessness, more unsheltered individuals reported that their households’ most recent continuous episode of homelessness had lasted for over a year than any other length of time (52.3 percent). In total, 70.5 percent of unsheltered households had been homeless for more than six months.

It is important to note that the report focuses primarily on individuals who meet HUD’s definition of ‘homelessness’. It does not however include information about those who may be at risk of homelessness or considered homeless under other federal statutes. It is also important to consider the count’s design. The statistics above only represent the gravity of the issue on a single night. Under counting has been and continues to be a concern of the HUD which recognizes that during cold weather, like that of late January, additional services and sheltering are provided, making numbers like those for “unsheltered homelessness” significantly lower.

The issue of homelessness is far more complex than the statistics that we have included. We share these numbers as a snapshot and we hope that the information included in this summary acts as an incentive to approach the problem with continued persistence in community like Trenton and others across the state and the nation.

The official Mercer County PIT count report can be found at http://monarchhousing.org.

Local Residents Honored at The White House

obama1

By Jared Kofsky

On Thursday, President Barack Obama honored the recipients of the National Medal of Arts and the National Humanities Medal in the East Room of The White House in Washington, DC.

Elaine Pagels, of Princeton, was one of the honorees. It was announced at the event that “through her study of ancient manuscripts and other scholarly work, she has generated new interest and dialogue about our contemporary search for knowledge and meaning”. Pagels is a professor at Princeton University. James McBride, an author from Lambertville, received the National Humanities Award “for humanizing the complexities of discussing race in America”.

Other honorees included the Prison University Project, which allows incarcerated people in California to take college courses, Terry Gross, the host of Fresh Air on WHYY 91 FM, Mel Brooks, and Berry Gordy.

Click here to see photos from the event.

 

Rescue Mission Tackles Technology On The Job

By Miranda Chrone

Hungry, cold, alone, afraid, and sick; these are just a few words that come to our minds when we hear the term homelessness. And yet, homelessness is more than just this stereotypical image; and its impact is much more complex and widespread. In addition to food and financial insecurity, homelessness also affects one’s accessibility to technology and its advances. The digital divide is the “socioeconomic and other disparities between those people who have opportunities and skills enabling them to benefit from digital resources, especially the Internet, and those who do not have these opportunities or skills.” Not having accessibility to the Internet or social media leaves these individuals at a disadvantage in a technologydriven world. In response to this issue, the Rescue Mission of Trenton has created the TEACH program, which provides tutoring, GED preparation and most importantly, computer skills. Sheila Scott, a former coordinator of TEACH, explained that the program thrives on the great quality of their volunteers. “The program would not be viable without our volunteers, they are a major part of the program,” said Scott. “The results of the program are fantastic and I only see more success stories to come.” Technology has been consuming our lives for years now and it is becoming nearly impossible to live without. Everyday things such as checking email, surfing the internet or even applying for a job, all rely heavily on access to technology and being able to use it. Without the help of organizations in cities that experience the most homelessness, the digital divide would keep growing further and further apart. The TEACH program is great because it does not just focus on one thing; whatever the individual in need is interested in, they have volunteers waiting to help. The program also provides individuals with access to a number of other valuable life skills. It has even recruited volunteers who work with patrons on job placement and interview preparation. This sort of training prepares them for real life experiences that involve the use of technology. Zane Gaines, a resident at Rescue Mission stated, “The program’s mock interview prepared me extremely well for my successful interview with Dick’s Sporting Goods. The practice questions were just like the ones I was asked in my interview.” Since there is a such an interest in learning how to use the different types of technology, Ida Malloy, the life skills counselor at Rescue Mission, explained that they need volunteers with computer expertise, in particular. Our lives center around computers, iPhones and tablets more and more everyday. And while many of us have access to this technology and can easily put it to use, others need our help and support to overcome the technological barriers of the digital divide.

Rescue Mission of Trenton 98 Carroll Street Trenton, NJ 08609 Phone: (609) 695-1436 www.rescuemissionoftrenton.org