CHRISTIAN CARING CENTER PEMBERTON INC

SUMMARY & GOALS:
Thank you for the opportunity to apply for funding through the Whole Foods Foundation. The Foundations mission and priorities mirrors the Christian Caring Center. We are applying to the foundation to partner with our Emergency Food Pantry, Community Lunch and Street Outreach Programs and Sheltering programs for general support. During the COVID 19 Pandemic of 2020 the Christian Caring Center operated all of our 12 programs with unprecedented numbers of people coming for help through our drive through Food Pantry , Community Lunch & Street/Motel Outreach Programs (operating Wed.-Fri. every week) , while supplying homeless individuals and families emergency shelter, which tripled. Last year in 2022 we helped:
• Emergency food pantry- 107,091 meals to 8,095 individuals
• Community Lunch & Street/Motel Outreach- 8,478 meals to homeless
• Holiday Basket Program-874 Households were blessed.
• Emergency Shelter/Motel- 129 Individuals with 275 nights of temporary emergency shelter.
• Homeless Prevention Program- 72 Households with 133 individuals that did not become homeless.
• Rapid Rehousing program- 65 households with 163 rehoused from homelessness.
As the world is reopening, we are still seeing the needs in all these programs along with numerous requests for rental assistance in our Homeless Prevention program.
In 2020-2022 we focused on meeting the tremendous needs while our donations went down, especially in Corp. Foundations and we could not hold any fundraising events. That is why we are excited to be able to apply to your Foundation to empower us to continue to meet the needs our neighbors.
This is the 1st time that we are requesting support from the Whole Foods Foundation.

Narrative
If living in the woods, under our storage trailer if seniors or children going hungry were acceptable then the Christian Caring Center would have never existed. The Center serves as a refuge to all homeless and low-income people in need for 40 years. Clients can access our Outreach Center for a place to shower and to receive food, clothing, breakfast, and hot cooked lunch in addition to case management services to fulfill many of our clients' life-essential needs. They also have access to computers to look for jobs, sign up for programs like Medicaid, SNAP, etc. We seek to empower our clients and to build their children’s future both here on earth and heaven, we seek to encourage, give them sustainability, confidence and allow them to give back and help others. We were all adjusting to the inflation as it hits us all hard, especially with food & housing. This has been very challenging to seniors on a fixed income. One 92-year-old woman told me she outlived her IRA and only has social security and the Christian Caring Center to help with food. Our homeless are struggling to find food and affordable housing. The rentals have gone up 35% -45%. Apartment complexes require 3 times the rent in income (with an average rental of $1200-$1400 per month for a 1 bedroom) and if they are homeless, they probably have a barrier of eviction and a bad credit score. The Christian Caring Center is seeing the needs in all these programs growing again, along with numerous requests for rental assistance in our Homeless Prevention program.
In 2022, we focused on meeting the tremendous needs in our food programs had a 55% increase just since Jan.2022. Our center responds to the emergency of homelessness when a household comes in to access the Center’s We work with households in emergencies by:
• Going out on Street Outreach every Wednesday and Friday at 12:30pm in Browns Mills with hot cooked lunches, hygiene, socks, etc. Sometimes we take other outreach workers from PATH-Case managers for homeless mentally challenged & Soldier On-Veterans services. Sometimes B.C. Health Department comes with flu & COVID shots.
• Delivering microwave able food packages to people who are street/motel homeless every Wed. & Fri.; we also conduct short case management assessments.
• We have prepared a 4-6-day box of food for families & individuals who are experiencing a real time food crisis, as well as for the homeless or those at risk of becoming homeless.
• We make appropriate referrals to the B.C. Coordinated Assessment List & affordable housing apartment opening and/or waiting lists.
• We make appropriate referrals to SNAP, LHEAP, Health navigators for health insurance, drug rehab/detox, mental health & physical health referrals, etc.
• When a family is facing financial difficulties, food is the constant 1st door to services and prevention of a potential housing crisis.
2 MEN’S SHELTERS & 1 FAMILY SHELTER
• The Christian Caring Center will be operating 1 family shelter, 3 bedroom (183 Norcross La., Pemberton and operates 2 Men’s four-bed homeless shelters (84 Delap Ct. & 181 Norcross La., Pemberton) with a live-in resident managers. All 8 men will be Rapid Rehousing ready, which means employable, employed, or have sustainable fixed income such as SSD, permanent Workers Comp., Soc.Sec., retirement, etc. They cannot be eligible for General Assistance from the BCBSS. These men can stay in the shelter for 90 days. We offer case management assistance of; housing search & placement, financial assistance for security deposits, rental assistance, utility assistance, credit review, repair, budget development & referrals to counseling, wrap around services through the existing Christian Caring Center programs. • Each household will develop monthly housing searches, develop a self - sufficiency plan including working budget & for additional employment or better employment, and adherence to a mental health social service plan, if necessary. • Case manager will meet with them weekly while seeking housing. After housing is found, monthly case management meetings are held to maintain housing and a self-sufficiency plan. • This service-enriched housing program provides individual and family case management, crisis intervention; education in areas of budgeting, money management, housing, and landlord tenant law; consumer information; referrals to other agencies and programs, and fundamental life skills.
Homeless Prevention- For homeless prevention by payments of one month before eviction happens, or when it is issued, and the household has the ability to maintain the current rent/mortgage payments. This is much wiser, is cost efficient and causes much less emotional trauma to be incurred by the household when not becoming homeless. * Homeless Prevention Households will have case management appointments and budget monitoring completed by a follow up with a case manager and offered wrap around services. The Christian Caring Center will help eligible Burlington County households from the Coordinated Assessment in HMIS or through walk ins or referrals from other agencies.
Rapid Re-housing- The Center is a rapid rehousing agency and provides the 1st month rent and {and/or] security deposit, which is critical in getting over the large financial burden of securing a new apartment. The Christian Caring Center will help eligible Burlington County households from the Coordinated Assessment in HMIS or through walk ins and community referrals. The Christian Caring Center will provide a 1-month payment for households with one month rent/mortgage payment averaging $1400. The Center also provides security deposits payments on average of $2,500 to secure housing. The CCC will also provide case management services for assessment, coordination with other agencies & landlords, courts/lawyers, and mortgage companies plus case planning for future payments.
Case Management
We will promote and simplify access to area programs that can support and strengthen families and individuals in all their characteristics and circumstances by developing a comprehensive resource Trauma Informed-Person Center Model of case management. This approach is an outcome of training and our 40 years of experience. The Christian Caring Center participates in the goal of Burlington County’s focus of Rapid Re-housing model. We offer at our case management meetings & the assessment, prevention and remediation of rental/mortgage issues, food & utility assistance. This approach enables our organization to:
• Assess client needs and learn what each client needs to become successfully housed.
• Connect families and individuals to critical services
• Encourage and guide families on how to access and use local services to benefit their families
• Serve as a central point of contact to leverage and coordinate a network of social service providers on behalf of Burlington County’s neediest families.
• We will employ the CoC’s tools & agencies: B.C. Housing HUB, Coordinated Assessment List, HIMS data base program, waiting list, Housing Program Inventory, including Permanent Supportive Housing,
These services will be extended to Code Blue homeless guests and homeless individuals and families coming into the Christian Caring Center. Code Blue opens to a total of 14 men & women when the B.B. Health Dept. declares a emergency when the weather is 32 degrees or colder. This past season experienced 70 nights of Code Blue with 77 unduplicated men and women.
3 GREATEST SUCESSES: 1. To be able to develop a Retail Food Rescue Program with the Food Bank of SJ to try and keep up with the needs of clients. Over half of our budget is in-kind donations, $804,500 . 2. We are able to plan 3 fundraisers for 2023. 3. To keep all staff employed, even though church and individual donations are down over the past year and a half, to meet the needs of our clients.
3 GREATEST CHALLENGES 1. To recruit volunteers to before COVID numbers. 2. To supply our clients fresh fruits and vegetables to our clients to keep them healthy. 3. Financial support. The special COVID funding are gone, donations from individuals & churches are down due to inflation, Corporate foundations are just starting to come back and our number of clients seeking support are doubling.
Once again, we are so grateful to be able to apply to your foundation.