(upbeat music) - We're honored to be joined by John El-Maraghy, who's founder of Archangel Raphael's Mission, otherwise known as ARM.

And John is a winner of the 2025 Russ Berrie Making a Difference Award, and I was honored to meet him at that event that I was glad, really proud to host.

John, how you doing?

- Good, how are you?

It was good to see you again, Steve.

Thanks for having me on today.

- That was a great event.

You and a whole range of other leaders making a difference.

Tell folks, as we put up the website for your organization, what it is and how it's connected and committed to hygiene access, which people don't talk about a lot but is important.

Go ahead, John.

- Absolutely.

Yeah.

So ARM is a grassroots organization that operates in Central and North Jersey.

We prioritize health, and hospitality, and hygiene as means of connecting to and supporting people experiencing homelessness and other forms of need.

- John, first of all, who are we talking about?

Who are you serving, and how do most folks wind up in a situation where access to hygiene services just doesn't happen?

- Yeah.

Absolutely.

So, you know, I always like to point out that there's about 500,000 shelter beds in the country.

It's about 100,000 feeding programs throughout the country.

And honestly, that's probably not enough, or we know for a pretty good fact that that's not enough.

But by our estimations, there's about less than 20 organizations like ARM.

So mobile hygiene, it's mobile showers and mobile barbershops.

So that is a particular need that we see in almost every community that we go in.

The overwhelming majority of folks that we serve are people that are experiencing homelessness or other kinds of material need, whether they be working class, literally homelessness or temporarily homeless.

- The mobile barbershop, talk about that.

- Yeah, so the mobile barbershop, it's actually my favorite program of the two that we run, for a couple reasons.

The first one is just a lot more inclusive.

So, generally speaking, folks that utilize our mobile shower program tend to be experiencing homelessness, whereas a lot of the folks that we serve with our mobile barbershop are children, working class families, everyday people.

So it's just, you know, it's just a much more inclusive form of service, and it's also the most visually transformative service.

You know, someone sits in a chair, 20, 30 or so minutes later, they look entirely different.

They feel entirely different.

And it's a really special thing to see.

- Hey John, where are these mobile services?

Where can people find them?

- Yeah, so ARM operates primarily in the warm weather months from about May to about October.

The mobile barbershop can deploy beyond that scope though.

And we operate in most or many cities in Central and North Jersey.

So New Brunswick, Newark, Jersey City, Hoboken, and we're actually gonna be expanding into Montclair this year.

- I know, my hometown.

There's been a lot of talk about that.

What is the initiative, Tap into Dignity?

Talk about that.

- Yeah, so one of the things that both as a challenge for us as a grassroots organization and something that we really prioritize, is getting to know people in the communities in which we work.

So when we kind of decided to put together... When we met up with some of the team in Montclair and we were putting together this service profile, we thought it would be fun to have just like a happy hour fundraiser that ended up being attended by about 50 or so people.

Mostly a combination of existing ARM supporters and local residents in Montclair.

And we were able to raise enough money for one deployment.

We're shooting for about four this year in Montclair, and it was at the Montclair Brewery.

It was a really great day.

- Montclair Brewery is a great place in town.

John, I'm curious about this.

How'd you get into this?

- Yeah, so I love talking about this because I feel like, you know, so many people that get into this work are personally affected by this work, and I'm honestly not.

I'm very lucky.

And it's part of that realization of luck.

When I was in college, I was honestly squandering my opportunities.

I wasn't very interested and I kinda came to the realization that the only reason that my decisions didn't have worse consequences was because I had a support system.

I had family and friends that pointed me in the right direction.

And I frankly realized that I was being selfish.

And so I decided to take the first volunteer opportunity that came my way, which my buddy was driving me down the street and he's like, "Hey, later today we're gonna go down to the train station and hand out some sandwiches.

Do you wanna come with me?"

So of course I did, and that ended up being part of the crew that ended up starting ARM.

- What triggered for you when you were handing out those sandwiches?

- I think it was a realization of, at the time I was studying public health and I was working in the restaurant industry, and there seemed to be a little bit of a disconnect between the way that we provide social services and the way that we provide other services in our community.

So you sit down at a restaurant, you know, you're greeted, you have, you know, steps of service.

There are all these things that make you feel special.

It's one of the reasons outside of delicious food and drinks that people go out.

And I didn't see that as much in social services.

And so, one of the things that we wanted to incorporate early on into our work was this sense of dignity and hospitality into the programs that we deploy.

- We're gonna put up the website again right now.

If people want to be helpful, they go on the website.

How can they do it?

- Yeah.

So you can visit www.Arm.Gives, no .com or .org after that, you know, can be a little messy with some people.

But there's a donate button and there's also a volunteer button.

If you live in one of these areas where we're gonna be operating this summer, I encourage you to check it out and volunteer.

If you're not in the area but you wanna support our work, the donation is always welcome.

- John, last question.

Many of the people you help struggle with housing issues, some of them are homeless, right?

United States Supreme Court made a decision that's allowing certain communities to vote through their municipal government to criminalize homelessness.

What's the impact of that for the people you serve?

- There's a massive impact, particularly from the hygiene lens.

I always like to point out when, you know, we all have... These are basic human needs.

So if you have to relieve yourself and you can't find a restroom, or if you need to wash up and you can't find a shower, you have to resort to other methods like relieving yourself outdoors or locking yourself into a bathroom.

And that has, you know, cascading issues in terms of legal involvement, and what that means for your self-sustainability.

- John El-Maraghy, founder of a terrific organization, Archangel Raphael's Mission, otherwise known as ARM.

To you, John, and to all the folks that I was honored to meet, 29th anniversary of the Russ Berrie Making a Difference Award, they've been honored for 29 years, to emcee that event and to work with so many great people at the Russell Berrie Foundation and to meet leaders like yourself who choose to make a difference, you know, as the late Russ Berrie said, these are unsung heroes, people who don't seek out attention, but they make a big difference, well done, John.

Thank you for your service.

- Thank you, Steve.

Thanks for bringing us on today.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we’ll be right back.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by The Russell Berrie Foundation.

RWJBarnabas Health.

Learn More at RWJBH.org.

The Fund for New Jersey.

The Burke Foundation The New Jersey Education Association.

Rowan University.

South Jersey Industries.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

And by The Center for Autism Promotional support provided by New Jersey Globe.

And by Meadowlands Media.

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