[gentle instrumental music] - Passaic is really special to me.

It's such a small city, but have so many big problems, and I wanna level it out.

Sometimes it takes one person to stand up, to make other people feel confident.

When I first got here, it was open arms, it was, "Hey, how are you doing?"

The acceptance, the grace, I felt like I grew up here.

It was a strong need for assistance with the homelessness, and the drug addictions going on in this city.

There's a saying that goes, it takes a community to raise a child.

And that was my saying, growing up in my era, community is everything.

It's not how you start, it's how you finish.

There's something I had to do, I couldn't just sit on my hands, and just say, "It is, what it is."

[gentle instrumental music] I was placed in the Division of Youth Family Services, at the age of two weeks.

Being in about six foster homes and seven different orphanages, over the course of those 19 years, it opened up a lot of things that a average child turning into a young man shouldn't have seen.

Things that were missing in a lot of my journey through the foster care system, especially dealing with families, even dealing with a lot of the group homes.

It was value.

[Rashajon faintly speaking] I will take my journey, take my struggles, and be able to identify better with people, and be able to give them the love, and the support that I've lacked in my childhood.

My man.

All right.

Thank you guys.

And hopefully I'll be able to reciprocate it, in the way of giving it back to others who deserve it, and desire it.

It was a lot of hoping, hence Hope Within.

Right at the height of the COVID outbreak, early 2020 being laid off from my job, I was granted unemployment, but in Passaic, New Jersey, lots of my neighbors, people I call family, they weren't given access to unemployment, or maybe they got lost in the system, Hearing their stories, their frustration, how Imma get food, how Imma pay for this, and it broke my heart to watch them, who have children.

Not be able to provide, and I know that hurts as a parent.

I just kept feeling this voice say, "Start it now."

And I was talking against that voice.

I said, "Start what?

The world stopped.

What am I starting?"

And it was just like, "Just do it, just do it."

The name Hope Within, stimulated from my relationship early with my daughter.

And she keeps pushing me, whether she knows it or not.

She is my hope within.

Just keep trying.

Remember the saying?

Try, fail, try, fail.

But you really fail when you what?

- Stop trying.

- There we go.

I didn't wanna be the average non-profit, where it's just like, "Here take this, and take that, and go."

I wanted to be able to say, "Take that, take this, and if you need anything else, reach back out."

Or, "What can I do, to get you where you trying to go?"

We try to do an event every month, where we're giving away.

Whether it's food, whether it's tall trees, whether it's quality clothing, just bringing people together, bringing resources, different non-profits together.

You can have addicts there, you can have homeless people there, you can have families who may just need a meal for that night.

And even with the city of Passaic, "Oh, you have an event?

Here's some donations.

Here, I got this."

It's just like, I'll be all over, like who can I go pick up?

What's going on?

I wish if I could be a superhero, they'll call me teleportation man.

'Cause I just wanna teleport everywhere, and just, "What you need?

How can I do this?

Okay, I gotta go."

Some of the challenges, speaking to a lot of the homeless, and the addict community out there, they wanna feel like they were a circus act.

We make them feel human, 'cause that's what they are.

Everything you see, is for you.

Take what you need.

Take what you want.

Something that I get from Passaic, is just sincere help.

People there don't care about just feeding you, they gonna ask you tomorrow, the next day, "Did you eat as well?"

And that's what makes Passaic so, so special to me, because I have about 10 different ladies I call mama, and they treat me exactly like a son.

Gained most of my weight out here.

'Cause everybody come through and grab a plate, come through and grab a plate.

You got my numbers ladies, I know.

- I got your numbers.

- Once we get all that together, we're gonna get it together.

- [All] All right.

- All right.

Love you ladies.

Thank you.

I will always go any mile, just to make sure people don't have to go through what I went through.

38 Osborne Terrace in north New Jersey, is currently under various change.

That will be Hope Within's first women in transitional home.

The difference between transitional homes and a shelter, shelters are more so just sleeping areas.

I wanted to really have homes in place where you felt like it was your home.

I know most of these programs out here in these different cities are rotating doors.

This isn't just a place you're in, this is not just a place you are at, but this is a place you need to be, and you want to be.

Our key is not to let you slip through the cracks.

When I was released from DYFS at the age of 19, and again had nowhere to pretty much lay my head, I parked outside a little bit down this road from this actual house we in, and my brother happened to walk out that morning and saw me sleeping in my car.

He knocked on the window and said, "What are you doing?"

I said, "I got nowhere to go, bro."

And he said, "Why didn't you call me?"

And I just said, "Pride, hurt."

And he said, "Go get your room together."

And this room here was one of my rooms that I was staying in for a few years to get on my feet.

Here we are now, and pretty much almost done with our women and children, transitional home, and it means a lot to me.

[gentle instrumental music] But when I tell people, when we go through things, don't be afraid to find that light switch.

Don't let people hide it from you.

Activate your light.

And what I do by helping them activate it, is giving them true love, giving them what they missed.

- How are you?

- I am blessed.

- Good, good.

- Can't complain.

- Wow.

- Had to come back home.

I can probably help you locate your light switch, but I need you to turn it on.

Because if I turn it on, who's to say you wouldn't care about it going back out.

The hope is the current, to turn on that light in you.

Sometimes it takes that one person, or a few people, to help change someone.

My goal is to go visit Passaic in the next few years, and visit these homes, and just keep motivating, and keep strengthening the city.

'Cause the people are the city.

Once we start strengthening the people, then the city gets stronger.

[gentle instrumental music]