Mount Carmel Guild
73 North Clinton Avenue
Trenton, NJ 08609-1097

Organization Description and Mission

The Mount Carmel Guild was founded in 1920 with the mission of curing poverty – “head, heart, and spirit.” Approaching its ninth decade of operation, Mount Carmel Guild continues to work toward its three major program goals:

• To temporarily reduce hunger within Mercer County
• To assist individuals in stabilizing their medical situation
• To assist individuals in accessing other needed community services

In an effort to achieve these goals, the Guild provides programs in Emergency Assistance, Preschool Education, and Home Health Nursing. These services are all offered free of charge:

Emergency Assistance: The primary purpose of the Emergency Assistance (EA) Program is to provide direct and immediate relief to individuals and families in both chronic and temporary crisis situations. The array of social services offered to its clients includes assistance with food, prescriptions, medical referrals, nutritional counseling, diabetes and HIV education, blood pressure screenings, homeless prevention services (limited financial assistance for those who are behind on their rent, first month security deposit, or mortgage or who have an overdue utility bill), and other services. The Homeless Prevention Program works, in conjunction with United Way of Greater Mercer County, to help people get into or stay in a home. The EA Program is open daily from 8am to 4pm.

Home Health Nursing Program: Mount Carmel Guild’s Home Health Nursing Program provides comprehensive long-term nursing and personal care to senior citizens who are homebound and in need of medical assistance. This program offers a variety of in-home services that allow seniors suffering from diabetes, lung disorders, heart disease, hypertension, stroke, cancer, arthritis, and other conditions. The program goal is to provide the most cost-effective care to senior citizens in an attempt to prevent premature hospitalizations or long-term institutionalization. The Home Health Nursing Program operates Monday through Friday between the hours of 8am and 4pm.

Nutrition Alliance: Though this program has not yet been fully established, organizations in Trenton are working together to combat obesity and feed people nutritionally. They use state funding to buy nutritional food, offer professional nutritional counseling, and encourage better eating habits with health messages as well as healthy cooking recipes in each food bag distributed.

Community and Population Served by the Organization

Mount Carmel Guild extends its services to children, ailing seniors, and members of the Greater Mercer County community who need help. Annually, the Emergency Assistance Program serves approximately 17,000 household members and staff from their Home Health Nursing program annual over 4,000 in home visits. All of Mount Carmel Guild’s programs are served by a staff of 21, in addition to volunteers from the community.

Research Questions

• Mount Carmel Guild would like to understand the demographics of who needs their help and used their Emergency Assistance program. A student could look at every month for the past 3 years (or for the same month for the past 10 years) and compare the different needs, analyzing statistical data, which can be broken down into specific groups of information.
  
  
• One of the goals of Mount Carmel Guild is to prevent and end food insecurity. What combination of social services is most effective for families or individuals at risk for food insecurity? Is having a food pantry enough? Does providing financial aid to families make a difference? What are the best practices for food pantries?
  
  
• Who is at risk for becoming food insecure? How are these families or individuals characteristically different from poor families or individuals that do not become food insecure? What are the characteristics of the chronically food insecure? How is this population different from the sporadically or one-time food insecure population? Specifically, how do family size, education, and the housing market correlate with food insecurity? How can these qualities help Mt. Carmel Guild to identify the at-risk population?
  
  
• What are the current models, programs, and policies considered most effective in food insecurity prevention? How could Mount Carmel Guild integrate these strategies into its current hunger alleviation programs?
  
  
• How do families/individuals with chronic food insecurity access the healthcare system? Do they underutilize or lack access to basic healthcare? How are their health problems different from those who have access to nutritional food? Can this difference be alleviated by better access to basic care, or are there deeper underlying problems?
  
  
• What federal, state, or local policies and budget options have had a negative impact on those struggling with food insecurity? Geographically, who has been most affected by these bureaucratic choices?
  
  
• It is estimated that roughly 40 million Americans do not have health insurance. What percentage of those individuals can afford but choose not to pay for coverage, what percentage are without insurance because of the transitioning between jobs and what percentage of individuals are chronically without insurance?
  
  
• Mount Carmel Guild would like students to provide a detailed look at health insurance coverage, which would involve a statistical analysis. There is dispute about the number of people without health insurance. Some young adults after graduating college are choosing to not have health insurance, which skews the statistic of the uninsured. Mount Carmel Guild would like to know the specifics. Who has health insurance? Who is temporarily without health insurance (like those who have not have a job at the moment) and for what reasons? In the state of NJ, how many people truly do not have health insurance because they cannot afford it, employers do not offer it, or other factors? What are these factors?
  
  
• What are the risk factors for being without insurance on a long term basis? Would universal health coverage help alleviate their situation? What impact would it have on a healthcare system that is currently market-driven? While it would certainly increase the service level for those without insurance, would universal coverage reduce the service level for those who currently afford it in the market-based system?
  
  
• How is standard of living affected by compliance with state low income housing mandates? What impact do local tax rates have on low income housing?
  
  
• As a part of their homeless prevention program, Mount Carmel Guild will write a check for a family or individual that needs help with rent for a month, or has just applied for welfare or unemployment checks but is not yet in the system. It is designed as a mechanism to help tide them over until they receive the benefit. The organization would like to know if this is an effective way to make a difference. Does writing them a check for one month’s rent really help? One way to approach this question would be to investigate the underlying reasons for the need. Is it because they were laid off; did they have to repair their car that month; were their medical bills higher than normal, etc.? How much of the need is from unexpected costs and how much is chronic inability to afford housing?
  

• Mount Carmel Guild is located in the Coalport section of Trenton. This area is home to many nonprofit organizations. What has the neighborhood been like in the past? Students could write a history of this area.

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