this holiday week families gather for a

shared feast cat with a helping of

gratitude and some families without

homes are finding a hearth and more at

an old military building retrofitted for

families still chasing the dream Raven

Santana was there as if being homeless

isn't already hard enough imagine trying

to find shelter for an entire family

that's the reality for thousands of

people in Mercer County that depend on

home fronts family campus an emergency

shelter and service agency for homeless

families and the working poor it's so

important to keep a family together

because a lot of the ways people deal

with homelessness is doubling up in

someone else's house a friend's house

and aunts house and you know there's not

enough room and so we don't we know that

having your parents with you is the best

way for the child to thrive

Sukie Wasserman is the community

engagement coordinator for Homefront's

family campus the three floor building

that was once a decommissioned military

base in Ewing is now a safe haven for

families in need when you come here

you're not only given a place to stay

for a short period of time we have

daycare we have a program so you can

finish your high school diploma here

your GED and then we have connections

with local companies where people can

feed into jobs that are above minimum

wage jobs because you have to work three

point three minimum wage jobs in Mercer

County to be able to afford a

two-bedroom apartment the campus that

was founded in 2015 is primarily funded

and supported by donations from the

community and private and public grants

a lot of times we're doing homelessness

prevention where we are covering a first

a month of rent so that you can deal

with your other expenses and get back on

your feet

sometimes we're setting people up with

permanent housing so they have a place

to live so we're helping them identify

it in the community homefront also gives

clients the opportunity to grow in other

ways like learning how to cook or paint

when you enter Homefront's family campus

it's hard to miss the Art Gallery in

many cases

the room is beautiful many of our

clients don't even think they can come

in the room I see them walking by and I

open the door and say hey have you been

in here and you know welcome am in it's

their room of someone being homeless

they're not value so when we value is

something that they created that can be

a life changing the space displays

collections of art that raise awareness

about homelessness

by revealing the emotions and challenges

faced by clients here at home front

within the beautiful artwork we've put

statistics of national local what's

what's happening here in Trenton the

poverty facts I came here as a client I

think it was the end of February and my

RN license in another state had I let it

expire because I wasn't working and I

was having the health issues and once I

got here they helped me kind of you know

get some confidence back and say you

know you're a nurse go do what you need

to do I'm not a client here anymore but

I'm coming back because the painting is

really good for me and I think it's

important that we have something in our

lives that you know makes us feel good

and I'm happy to contribute back O'Neal

did get her RN license reactivated and

transferred to New Jersey and has since

sold many paintings and credits

homefront for changing her life for the

better in Ewing Raven Santana and J TV

news

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