On May 30, 2012 at Bristol Myers Squibb in Princeton, Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness will honor The Trenton Health Team for their work in prioritizing the healthcare of individuals experiencing homelessness. The principals of the Trenton Health Team are Dr. Ruth Perry, Executive Director, and Board officers: Dr. Kemi Alli, Chief Medical Officer, Henry J. Austin Health Center; Mr. James Brownlee, Health Officer, City of Trenton; Dr. Robert Remstein, Vice President of Medical Affairs, Capital Health System; Christy Stephenson, Vice President for Strategic and Clinical Transformation, St. Francis Medical Center. Ms. Stephenson serves as President of the Trenton Health Team.

For the past two years, the Mercer Alliance has been working with the Trenton Health Team to prioritize the care and the housing of these most vulnerable among our neighbors. Already, better outcomes for patients and cost savings of about $1M have been realized.

Dr. Jeffrey Brenner is the featured speaker at this fundraising event for Mercer Alliance. Dr. Brenner founded and has served as the Executive Director of the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers since 2003. Dr. Brenner’s work was profiled by the writer and surgeon Dr. Atul Gawande in an article in The New Yorker entitled “The Hot Spotters” (1/24/11) and in an episode of PBS Frontline (7/27/11). Dr. Brenner will address the links between his work in Camden and the work going on in Trenton to improve the quality, capacity, and accessibility of the healthcare delivery system for people who are currently seeking primary care in the inappropriate setting of hospital emergency rooms.

The event will build upon studies, both here and in the UK, which have shown that long-term homelessness typically cuts 30 years off one’s life. A combination of factors makes this startling statistic possible. The physical rigors of living on the streets, the emotional stresses of being homeless, the unlikelihood of seeking primary care, the inability to store prescribed medications, the ease of taking street drugs and alcohol to medicate distress – all of this is a life-reducing and potential lethal combination. But when these same people have homes, they can seek primary care, so their medical and behavioral health conditions stabilize and their use of expensive hospital care plummets.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012
5:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

5:00 p.m. Reception
6:00 p.m. Speaker
6:30 p.m. Presentation
6:45 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Reception

$100 Minimum Contribution

Bristol-Myers Squibb 3551 Lawrence Road, Lawrenceville, NJ 08648

Communication and Volunteer Management Specialist – Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness

The NJ Bonner VISTA Fellows Program is seeking a Communication and Volunteer Management Specialist to increase the awareness of the Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness and recruit specific skill-based volunteers. This specialist will work directly at the Mercer Alliance in Trenton, NJ. The Mercer Alliance was created in 2003 when more than 100 community leaders representing all sectors of the community -- corporations, businesses, state, county, and local governments, congregations, and non-profit organizations -- came together to put forward a plan to end homelessness in Mercer County, NJ.

Major Responsibilities:

1. Develop and implement social media that will raise awareness of Mercer Alliance and increase donor support;
2. Develop position descriptions for volunteers for the Mercer CASH Campaign to promote the EITC, serve in free tax preparation sites and provide financial coaching and/or benefit screening;
3. Develop position descriptions for volunteers for Project Homeless Connect, a service fair for individuals experiencing homelessness;
4. Develop and implement a marketing campaign designed to target these volunteers;
5. Develop a training curriculum utilizing online tools and classroom settings to educate newly recruited volunteers about the organization;
6. Create an assessment plan and tracking tools to evaluate volunteer satisfaction and the impact of volunteer service on program delivery; and
7. Organize a volunteer appreciation event to celebrate the work of volunteers and improve volunteer retention rates.

Position Qualifications:

• Must be available to serve full-time for one year
• Must be at least 18 years old
• GED or high school graduate
• Experience with community service and/or non-profit organizational work a plus
• Ability to research information and make strong recommendations for best effective practices
• Self-starter who can work independently and on a team
• Excellent attention to detail and follow-through skills
• Ability to effectively manage multiple tasks and projects at the same time
• Ability to work with diverse groups of individuals and constituencies
• Strong oral and written communication skills
• Computer proficiency with emphasis on MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint and willingness to learn and use a variety of online tools, including Wikis, Facebook and other social media tools

About the NJ Bonner VISTA Fellows Program

The New Jersey Bonner VISTA Fellows Program is a post-college national volunteer service program developed in partnership of The Bonner Center for Civic and Community Engagement at The College of New Jersey and the Bonner Foundation. The New Jersey Bonner VISTA Fellows comprise a cohort of 17 members who serve full-time to enhance volunteerism, develop economic opportunities, and address policy issues across central New Jersey. NJ Bonner VISTA Fellows receive a variety of benefits including health coverage, child care, relocation allowance, training, and a choice between an end-of-service $5,550 education award or an addition $1,500 stipend.

*Free or affordable housing options available in Trenton via our networks

Use this link to apply.

Mercer Alliance Receives the 2012 Mercer Regional Chamber of Commerce's Community Impact Award

From Mercer Business, April 2012:

The number of homeless people in Mercer County has been going down in the last few years, noted Herb Levine, Executive Director of the Mercer Alliance to end Homelessness. However, there are still hundreds of more people who remain homeless, and for Levine and his group that’s hundreds too many, so the work continues. For all the good work that they have so far to eradicate homelessness in mercer County, the organization is the 2011 winner of the MRCC Community Impact Awards.

Levine said that most of the downturn in homelessness can be attributed to the group’s efforts to put more permanent housing into the community. In tandem with doing that, they have continued to emphasize support services. “We think that the solution to homelessness is to increase the supply of affordable permanent housing and to get people the support services they need to transition out of homelessness and recover from that trauma.”

Even though the numbers of Mercer County homeless have dropped, the Alliance’s ultimate goal is to end homelessness – something that Levine is hoping the MRCC award will help them to achieve. “The Chamber award will let more people know that they become part of this – that they can find their niche to help us do this [end homelessness].”

Despite their success, the group’s job remains daunting. Homelessness can strike with horrifying swiftness; a health crisis, job loss, divorce – anything that deprives someone of the income necessary to maintain a home can suddenly and without warning plunge them from a comfortable existence into the maelstrom of homelessness. It’s not just people who have chronic mental or physical problems that are affected by homelessness. Levine and the Alliance must be ever vigilant to help whoever need their assistance. “We need to have compassion for everyone who is suffering,” he said.

Click play to view videos

The Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness has facilitated the development and implementation of a plan to end homelessness since its inception. The Alliance report, “A New Direction for Ending Homelessness in Mercer County” (October, 2009) identified five community-wide goals for ending homelessness. These goals are being implemented by the many partner agencies and government entities that constitute the Alliance. The Alliance’s work toward these goals consists of: 1) Research; 2) Collecting & analyzing data; 3) Identifying system gaps; 4) Incubating needed projects; 5) Convening & facilitating various stakeholders; 6) Training professionals and volunteers; 7) Advocating for best practices and financial resources; 8) Promoting awareness of homelessness and solutions for preventing and ending it; and 9) Building community support for ending homelessness.

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• “It really has been a big step for me, a huge step, where I came from, what I’ve been through in my life, and lord knows I’ve been through a lot, and it changed me, it made me a better person, it made me a more respected person, It made me feel that now I can move to the next level, I ‘m comfortable with my surroundings, I am comfortable with my neighbor, I am comfortable that I can go in my backyard and sit down in a chair, just thankful it is good to have that feeling. I go in my yard and sit in a chair and catch a little fresh air and stuff like that and I can feel a little more relaxed and feel comfortable in my yard looking around. Its not like I am in someone else’s yard, I am on someone else’s property. I’m home and that’s a good feeling for me... home means everything.”
• “People that had nothing thought that nobody would ever think of them again. I thought I was going to die on the streets being homeless. That is what I thought.”
• “It’s being able to have your own… the freedom and the peace that you get. This world that we live in, you know, it’s not the greatest and you can go inside your apartment and get that inner peace. Every time I go in that door I just get this peace.”
• “I go to school for 5 days a week and I go to outpatient 3 days a week. I have a job coach down there I am trying to get my resume together. Everything is working out really good.”
• “I am going to school now for my GED. Probably within the year I’ll be ready to take the state exam. Those are my goals, to get my license and my GED. I don’t owe any money and I know how to drive. Getting my license could open doors for me, like jobs.”
• “Things are going kind of fast. I try to set small goals for myself. Last year was try to stay clean and go to group. Doing things and not getting paid for them, not expecting anything. I do stuff out of the kindness of my heart in the soup kitchen. I do two things a year to try to get my life established. These two things (GED and license) are to get my life established. I will be 40 in September.”