WILLING HEART COMMUNITY CARE CENTER INC

The Willing Heart Community Care Center is a non-profit organization supported by caring volunteers, working to provide a healthy environment to help families who may need assistance to eliminate a physical, mental, or social crisis. Our Mission is to provide a space for transformative change through opportunities for our guests to acquire food, clothing, counseling, and family support. The Willing Heart is the outreach center for the Metropolitan Baptist Church. Metropolitan has been a part of the community for 83 years. The Willing Heart stands on a strong foundation of community outreach, leadership, and impact.
The Willing Heart serves the community of Newark as well as surrounding communities throughout Essex County. Our facility is strategically located in the Central Ward of Newark. The Willing Heart is in the heart of Newark convenient to the Court House; City Hall; 3 Universities and the County College; multiple schools; churches; local businesses; major corporations; multiple bus routes and a mile from Penn Station. The Willing Heart is neighbors to several Newark Public Housing locations and Senior Buildings.
Our guests consist of low-income families, unemployed, veterans, and seniors, as well as those who suffer from significant life disasters such as COVID-19. Our outreach crosses all communities, races, and income levels. We serve a population of Immigrants from Nigeria often overlooked because they don't readily qualify for services and assistance. This population of young mothers and pregnant women needs our support to establish themselves in the community and foreign land.
The Willing Heart's outreach into the community is marked by its hospitality. It is our goal to serve with love, patience, kindness, and a smile. The community we serve is challenged with criticism, harsh words, and negative attitudes. Therefore, the Willing Heart serves our guests by encouraging them and giving them hope for their future.
We serve the community through our Agape Food Pantry, where we serve over 1200 families a month; our Agape Hot Meal program serves over 6000 meals each month, and our Agape Boutique is known for the quality and care we put into our free gently used clothing. Presently during the current COVID-19 pandemic, we have increased our Food Pantry distribution and partnered with World Central Kitchen to provide "To Go Meals" for the community.
Our outreach to the community extends beyond our weekly programs. We provide over 5000 book bags filled with school supplies at our Annual Back to School Celebration and toys to over 500 families during the holidays. During Hurricane Sandy, our center was a distribution hub for meals, supplies, and the FEMA Headquarters for Essex County. The Willing Heart is committed to grow as a vital establishment in the community ministering to those in need, as well as a dedicated partner "in unleashing the greatness of America that lies in every community, every neighborhood and every brick of Newark" .(Senator Corey Booker)
The Willing Heart is presently reaching the community during the pandemic through our Food Pantry and meal program. We expanded our work and increased our services through our partnership with St James Health, a Federally Qualified Health Center that serves residents of Newark, East Orange, and the Greater Newark Area, and opened a COVID-19 testing and vaccination Center. COVID-19 has created a lot of fear and anxiety for many in the community. Our site provides the much-needed resources to fight COVID-19 for Essex County.
The Willing Heart has included in its outreach a strong commitment to working with our community partners. Our community partners have also been instrumental in sharing with the community the work we are doing and the services we offer. Our community partners help "spread the word." They are our most generous supporters, and advertisement, strengthening our outreach and solidifying the work we do and the growth in our outreach. We plan to continue to build our relationships and include our community partners in the work we do and the plans that we have for the future.