A New Year wouldn’t be complete without reflection on the year past. 2022 was a year to remember here at Covenant House New Jersey as we united around our youth finding ways to provide better care to more kids.
Thanks to the generosity of so many in our community, we were able to rise to the occasion when asked to do more. Our supporters had a profound impact on the lives of the youth that arrived at our doors for sanctuary, making 2022 an incredibly memorable year.
Here are some of the moments that made us proud this year, and hopefully you, too!
We advanced our work in providing services to victims of Human Trafficking. Since Fall 2020, the State of New Jersey has designated CHNJ to be the lead organization to coordinate care for trafficking victims of all ages. Since then we have provided services to over 300 survivors of human trafficking. Through CHART (Covenant House Action Research Tank) we are improving the quality of care for survivors not only here in NJ, but throughout North America. Learn more about the Impact here.
We saw their lives flourishing. CHNJ Alum returned to speak at many of our events sharing their courageous journeys. We celebrated
- Jatiana’s graduation from Essex County College,
- Ja’pree achieving independence, and
- Bendalie’s straight A’s and earning her Nursing Degree from College of Mount Saint Vincent, only to name a few!
We reopened our doors to Volunteers. After a long wait due to COVID, we were thrilled to welcome back our volunteers to all of our sites. Our youth, staff and volunteers alike were so happy to be reunited and working together again statewide and in the Dove Learning Center. We even opened a new DLC at Raphael’s Life House, our Moms and Babies Program! Interested in joining them?
We Learned from our Partners. Audible gave our youth opportunities for customer service and meaningful employment through their Cornerstone Program. During the program, trainees are paid a living wage plus a stipend to help with medical insurance premiums. Upon graduation, graduates are encouraged to apply for Customer Service Associate roles at Audible, or they’ll receive help applying for employment elsewhere. In their most recent cohort, 5 of 11 of our young people were able to obtain employment with Audible. Our friends at 1Huddle also helped us train smarter. They gamifyied our job and life skills in the DLC, not to mention their incredible fundraising efforts too!
We continued to build our community. We received significant support through Sleep Outs and other events like Night of Broadway Stars. NY Giant star running back Saquon Barkley, was nominated as the Giants Man of the Year through his work with us. He returned as our Sleep Out Chairman and led us to raising $1.5 Million at the Sleep Out! Countless churches, groups and organizations stepped up to participate in serving meals, rallying support for our events and wrapping around our youth in all the ways they need us to.
So as much as 2022 was a year to remember, these moments not only make us proud, but inspire us to see what more we can do. With your help, we look forward to helping more youth facing homelessness in 2023!
