Crisis Ministry of Princeton and Trenton

123 East Hanover Street
Trenton, NJ 08608
Telephone: (609) 396-9355
Fax: (609) 396-5692

Nassau Presbyterian Church
61 Nassau Street
Princeton, NJ 08542
Telephone: (609) 921-2135
Fax: (609) 279-0822

Contact: Jarrett Kerbel, Executive Director
E-mail: jarrettk@thecrisisministry.org
Website: www.thecrisisministry.org

The mission of The Crisis Ministry is to help prevent hunger and homelessness by providing food, financial assistance and advocacy to low-income people who live in greater Mercer County. Their focus is on low-income people who fall through the cracks of various social service systems, including the working poor, the unemployed, those on disability, and those on public assistance who are not eligible or who have been denied Emergency Assistance. True to its name, The Crisis Ministry seeks to help those in short-term financial crisis situations. Staff and trained volunteers are able to act caringly and quickly to provide food or financial assistance to people facing immediate emergencies. While The Crisis Ministry is not able to offer long-term assistance, they do their best to offer counseling, referrals and workshops that help clients become better advocates for themselves, providing a vision to seek long-term solutions.

The Crisis Ministry offers assistance in five main areas: a food store for low-income people; back rent for people facing court-ordered evictions; security deposit assistance for people who are homeless; utility assistance for those who have shut-off notices or discontinued service; and prescription medications for those referred to us by medical social workers who have no other method of payment. The other side of The Crisis Ministry's mission is the education of the wider Trenton/Princeton community about the needs of low-income people in Mercer County. This begins with, but is not exclusive to, congregations of the interfaith community. By creating volunteer opportunities, having frequent food drives, publishing a quarterly newsletter, holding annual fundraising events, and having occasional speaking engagements in the area, they try to raise awareness that hunger and homelessness are local problems that require local solutions and participation of local people.  Along with educating the community, they also seek to guide those who wish to be involved.

Programs of The Crisis Ministry include:

Food Assistance: The goal of the food program is to prevent hunger by providing nutritious food for low income people in Mercer County. The food program has been in operation throughout their 25-year history. 

The Crisis Ministry has a client-choice food store pantry with a home-delivery program to those who are disabled or elderly and unable to carry their food from the store.
The mission of the food program is also to create community through people coming together to provide the food for themselves and their hungry neighbors. In the past few years, they have strengthened their ties as a work site for people who are on welfare or on parole from the justice system.

A new program was added in March, 2006:  Nutrition Education Classes.  Through collaboration with the Rutgers Extension Service, there is a weekly class for food customers. Class members receive additional food products to test out classroom lessons and recipes at home.
 
Financial Assistance:  The goal of the Financial Assistance Programs is to create hope by providing immediate, caring assistance for emergencies in the lives of low-income people.  The Crisis Ministry has four financial assistance programs:  Rent, Security Deposit, Utility and Medical Assistance. Trained volunteers and staff provide the direct financial assistance, as well as advice and counsel to help people navigate the social service system and connect them to the resources they need.

Rent and Security Deposit Assistance Programs:  The Rent and Security Deposit Assistance Program assists families and individuals from Mercer County who are either threatened with court-ordered evictions or who are already homeless.  Given the high level of demand for this assistance, their organization gives priority to families with dependent children and disabled or elderly individuals. They assist families on welfare (TANF) if they have been denied emergency assistance through the County Board of Social Services.

The concept behind the rent and security deposit programs is not only to meet the emergency needs of people in crisis, but also to prevent future crises. For this reason they offer several forms of financial assistance. The Crisis Ministry also does outcomes studies for the people that they help with rent and security. Checking to see how the clients are doing after they are helped is useful in determining what kind of effect the agency has on the community and what more could be done to create a lasting effect.  

Utility Assistance:  The Utility Assistance Program assists families and individuals from Mercer County who are threatened with shut-off notices from their energy provider or who have already had their energy source discontinued, thus preventing the loss of utilities for low-income families who are unable to purchase the utilities for themselves.  Given the high level of demand for this assistance, their organization gives priority to families with dependent children and individuals who are disabled or elderly. In 2006 we expect to serve 300-500 family emergencies by restoring utility services to their households.

Medical Assistance:  The Medical Assistance Program provides financial assistance to purchase prescription medications for Mercer County residents who are unable to afford the medication themselves. Collaboratively they arrange for clients to receive the needed prescriptions within a few hours of the request.  Its  main incentive for working directly with the medical social workers is that they can then connect the clients to programs that will provide consistent medication coverage in the future after our one-time, emergency help.

Advocacy:  The Crisis Ministry works with all its constituents to understand poverty’s root causes and what they can do to create long-term solutions.  For clients, there are classes on nutrition, health, and financial literacy, as well as seasonal tax-preparation workshops. For the wider Princeton-Trenton community, the organization sponsors speaking engagements with congregations, schools, and clubs, in addition to community events such as symposia, exhibits, fundraisers, and the new “Who’s Your Neighbor?” advocacy group. Each year more than 700 volunteers—drawn from area schools, an interfaith network of 50 congregations, and former clients—work in the food store and offices.  Everyone is mobilized to petition decision-makers in local, state, and federal government to advocate for just public policies and learn about the effects of extreme poverty in the wealthiest nation in the world.

Community and Population Served by the Organization

CM’s mission to prevent hunger and homelessness by providing food and financial assistance does not end with alleviating the symptoms.  Advocacy efforts are imperative in order to address the long-term solutions that impact low-income people to become successful.  In order to look at the gaps, CM depends upon opportunities to reach out to all members of the Trenton and Princeton community.  Their nutrition classes and financial workshops address nutrition, budgeting, housing initiatives and tax preparation.  These efforts came through think-tank type groups, including the Community Advisory Council.  They depend on gifts and skills of everyone to help address ways that low-income people can better their current situation.

Research Questions

The Crisis Ministry’s research questions cover a wide range of social issues that influence the low-income population of Princeton and Trenton, including questions about welfare reform, health care, housing, employment, and funding.  These research initiatives could change a person’s quality of life.

• In urban areas, nutritionally cheap food is widely available, but fresh, nutritious, and inexpensive food is lacking.  The Crisis Ministry would like a student to inventory and map food availability in Trenton.  What stores are available?  What foods do they offer?  How fresh is the food?  How is the quality of the food?  What are the prices?  How does the overall picture of the food situation in Trenton correlate with obesity issues, especially childhood obesity? 

• The Crisis Ministry would like a student to use its database to analyze where clients are coming from and what their resources are.  A student could pinpoint their household locations on a map of Trenton.  Where should The Crisis Ministry locate its offices to be accessible to all clients?  What invisible safety barriers exist in Trenton?  Is there a line that Latinos and African Americans refuse to cross?  Why are African American still the majority of clients at The Crisis Ministry despite the rapidly increasing Latino population?  Which clients come for which services?
• To orient volunteers and motivate more people to understand poverty, The Crisis Ministry wants a student to create an online poverty simulation like the Sims program.  Students who take on this question must answer the questions: How does one get ahead?  How does one succeed?  What crises do people face?  Students would work closely with The Crisis Ministry to program the details of how poverty works as a cycle into the simulation.   
• Many people lack a written budget, simply hoping that their income will cover all their expenses.  The Crisis Ministry has developed a prototype Excel Spreadsheet to list all sources of their clients’ income, along with their rent, their credit report, and other expenses.  How can clients balance their budgets if they are in deficit?  The Crisis Ministry needs a student to help determine reasonable options for reducing various categories of the budget, such as how to reduce food, housing, and other costs.  Also, how can The Crisis Ministry create a process for landlords and tenants to meet and balance budgets before an eviction crisis?  Has any group fostered such a process before?  Can the government be encouraged to allow NGOs to give benefits to tenants who have followed such a process? 
• Institutional meltdown in Trenton has caused many religious, athletic, and social institutions that normally provide important resources to close down.  What is the lay of the religious land in Trenton?  Do the churches who have stayed behind know about the Crisis Ministry?  What do they know about The Crisis Ministry?  Are there ways they could work together?
• What is the nature of the church economy in Trenton?  Why do some churches become rich while others remain poor?  What informal systems have churches put in place for addressing the needs of the community?  Is there an informal loan economy?  Have these programs been successful?

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