Meet Our 2025-27 Empowerment Grant Partners
Education
Community Colleges
Tools of the Trade is an initiative designed to provide assistance to students facing financial barriers in obtaining specialized equipment and supplies required for their program of study that are not included in tuition or covered by financial aid.
Vocational Programs
Servant's Heart Ministry | Workmanship Trades Training & Mentoring Program ($15,000/year)
The Workmanship Trades Training & Mentoring Program provides underserved young adults, ages 18-24, with free training in construction and related trades, preparing them for sustainable employment and long-term economic stability.
Special Education Services
This initiative will recruit and train volunteers who will assist parents in understanding the IEP (Individualized Education Program) process, ensuring that those who do not have the financial resources to hire professionals to navigate the IEP process are equipped with the tools and knowledge to advocate for their children’s educational needs.
Human Services
Housing Assistance
Center for Hope and Safety | Safe House Emergency Shelter for Victims of Domestic Violence ($15,000/year)
Center for Hope and Safety's Safe House emergency facility provides shelter for approximately 250 adults and children each year who are fleeing violence in their homes, offering support and case management services to help victims reclaim and establish their independence and thrive in violence-free lives.
Through its two main programs, shelter and prevention, FPLV helps individuals achieve sustainable independence via emergency sheltering, meal provision, case management, financial literacy, prevention services, and post-program care to help families who need to find or maintain permanent housing.
Coupled with a comprehensive system of support, the Anchors to Stay Program provides financial assistance to cover essential housing costs such as rent, mortgage payments, and security deposits—helping families and individuals remain in their homes during challenging times and build a sustainable future.
Forever Home uses a comprehensive, case-management approach that begins with street outreach to Hudson County’s most critically poor and chronically homeless individuals with the goal of finding and securing appropriate, permanent homes, maximizing their changes of maintaining long-term housing and a higher quality of life.
HABcore | Independence Pathways Program ($15,000/year)
HABcore’s Independence Pathways Program combines affordable housing with intensive, coordinated services to help very low-income individuals and families struggling with disabilities maintain stable housing and receive appropriate support and employment services.
Ripple Community Inc. | RCI Village Housing Program ($10,000/year)
The RCI Village Housing Program was created to meet the urgent need for deeply affordable, safe, and healthy housing in Allentown, PA, by leveraging agreements with landlords to supplement market-rate rents, and in turn making these units available to homeless or housing unstable individuals and families at deeply affordable rates.
Roots & Wings | RISE Program ($10,000/year)
The RISE Program supports aged-out foster youth with navigating early adulthood by offering free and safe housing so that they may focus on academics and career readiness, financial skills training, mental health counseling, and more.
TSA provides housing stability services to asset-limited women and their families in the Lehigh Valley, helping to ensure that clients progress toward a steady source of income, that their children meet school attendance requirements, and that they follow treatment plans for mental, behavioral and/or physical health.
Women Aware | Emergency Shelter for Victims of Domestic Violence ($15,000/year)
Women Aware's emergency shelter offers free and confidential services for women and children fleeing violence in their homes, working in tandem with clients to locate and access safe and affordable housing when clients are ready to exit shelter.
Food Security
America's Grow-a-Row | Fresh Produce Initiative ($20,000/year)
AGAR operates a comprehensive hunger relief and nutrition education program that grows, harvests, and distributes 15.6 million servings (3.9 million pounds) of farm-fresh produce to approximately 158,000 individuals annually, prioritizing communities experiencing food insecurity throughout New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania, and beyond.
Arm In Arm | Hunger Prevention Program ($12,500/year)
Arm In Arm’s Hunger Prevention Program impacts a range of populations, equitably addressing food insecurity across Mercer County with two brick and mortar pantries, growing Mobile Pantry services, bulk food drops, and delivery to clients’ front doors.
Flemington Area Food Pantry's clients select items from a daily shopping list guided by USDA MyPlate recommendations and receive wraparound services that provide support for the challenges of housing instability, utility costs, medical expenses, and counseling needs.
Mercy Center | Community Fresh Food Project ($17,500/year)
The Community Fresh Food Project works to offer fresh produce and customized food selections to respect the cultural and religious dietary needs of the diverse community to prevent diet-related illnesses and create a healthier and more stable community.
nourish.NJ | Food Security Initiative ($17,500/year)
The nourish.NJ Food Security Initiative is a comprehensive, two-year effort to eliminate barriers to nutritious food access in Morris County by providing essential nutrition while connecting vulnerable populations to broader supports such as healthcare, housing, and financial stability services.
Rise | Nourish with Dignity: Rise’s Client-Driven Pantry Transformation ($12,500/year)
The Rise Pantry is a community-based initiative that addresses food insecurity in Eastern Mercer County by providing fresh, nutritious, and culturally appropriate groceries and wraparound support to individuals and families in need.
Rolling Harvest's mission is to increase access to donated fresh produce and other healthy foods to area hunger-relief agencies that serve the at-risk, food-insecure population by providing a network of 35 local farmers and food producers with free delivery and distribution of their surplus food.
Table to Table | Activating Community to Bridge the Gap Between Food Waste and Food Insecurity ($20,000/year)
At the core of Table to Table’s mission is bridging the gap between food waste and food insecurity: the I-Rescue App harnesses the power of community volunteers to recover millions of pounds of surplus perishable food and deliver to local agencies serving neighbors facing food insecurity.
The Backpack Program ensures that children (3+) from food-insecure households in Somerset County have reliable access to nutritious meals over the weekend and throughout the summer when school meal programs are not available.
Services of the UCC Food Distribution Program include pantry distribution, food distribution events, a mobile food pantry truck, and the Community Refrigerator Program which includes six 24-hour refrigerator sites to increase food access in neighborhoods across Newark.
Healthcare Access for Un-/Underinsured Individuals
Bergen Volunteer Medical Initiative | Expanding Healthcare Access for Bergen County’s Working Uninsured ($20,000/year)
BVMI provides a broad range of primary, specialty, urgent, chronic, preventive, and mental health care as well as case management services to a growing patient population of working, uninsured people who are not eligible for Medicaid or Federal subsidies but earn too little to afford the out-of-pocket expenses of private healthcare.
Parker Family Health Center | Outreach and Diabetes Management Programs ($20,000/year)
Parker Family Health Center is a free health care clinic located in Red Bank, NJ, serving uninsured and underserved Monmouth County residents without medical insurance or the means to pay for medical care.
St. Joseph's Health Foundation | Centering Pregnancy Program’s Oral Healthcare ($15,000/year)
The Oral Healthcare initiative aims to enhance access to oral health care for all perinatal patients by incorporating oral health screenings and treatment to all pregnant teens and women (ages 15-20) attending the Centering Pregnancy program in the greater Paterson area.
TheraYouth Foundation | Pediatric Outpatient Therapy Program ($5,000/year)
TheraYouth’s Pediatric Outpatient Therapy Program encompasses one-on-one occupational therapy, physical therapy, or speech therapy for children from families with low-to-moderate incomes who are unable to access care due to prohibitive costs, too few providers, or gaps in school services.
Youth Mental Health
Hudson Pride Center | Hudson Pride YouthConnect ($15,000/year)
Hudson Pride YouthConnect is a social safety net program that provides LGBTQ+ youth and young adults ages 13-24 with a comprehensive array of risk-reduction wellness services focused on improving their social and emotional wellness at a pivotal time in their lives when they are learning how best to live as members of a highly marginalized community.
JFS provides comprehensive mental health services for low-income children and adolescents of all backgrounds, ages 3-17, in Passaic County who have faced significant emotional, behavioral, and developmental challenges stemming from exposure to violence, abuse, trauma, or ongoing family instability.
JFSMW supports young people from early childhood through late adolescence by providing comprehensive mental health services that enhance emotional well-being, build resilience, and improve functioning in school, home, and community settings.
Ocean Partnership for Children | Youth Empowerment Program: OPC's Social Support Groups ($10,000/year)
The Youth Empowerment Program provides culturally responsive support groups that address the challenges faced by young people, particularly those from vulnerable populations including adolescent girls, LGBTQ+ youth, middle school-aged boys, and splintered caregiver-child relationships, fostering resilience and emotional well-being.
Workforce Development
Job Training
Hot Bread Kitchen | Creating Pathways to Economic Opportunity Through Careers in the Food Industry ($10,000/year)
Hot Bread Kitchen creates economic opportunity through culinary job skills training and an ecosystem of support for New Yorkers who face barriers to meaningful careers. The organization maintains a network of 300+ employer partners in New York City’s food industry through which participants are placed in quality jobs after graduating from the workforce programs.
RAISE is a comprehensive workforce development and social skills program designed for adults with developmental disabilities, focused on increasing employment opportunities through structured and supportive skills development and helping participants gain greater financial independence and economic self-sufficiency to the greatest extent possible.
The JVS Center for Economic Opportunity provides job skills training programs that result in industry-recognized credentials. Specifically, this initiative will fund training programs for the positions of Certified Pharmacy Technician and Certified Home Health Aide and a newly launched Certified Nursing Assistant training.
Propel America | Expanding Healthcare Job Training for Newark Young Adults ($12,500/year)
Propel America provides young adults aged 18-26 in Newark with guided and debt-free pathways into careers in healthcare. Propel empowers young people, particularly those from marginalized communities, to achieve career success and long-term economic security, while simultaneously filling critical healthcare talent gaps.
TFCNJ's Bridges2Success program supports men who have been previously incarcerated or unemployed and assists them with mapping out a career path to achieve a more sustained income to support themselves and their families.
Employment Supports
The objective of the Teen Pathways program is to provide 85 teens (14-18 years old) with summer and/or school year paid internships, college prep math and language arts bootcamps, life skills, and team-building resiliency workshops that will prepare the students for the next critical steps of their career journey.
Laundry Workers Center | Progressive Bloc Leadership Institute ($5,000/year)
The Progressive Bloc Leadership Institute creates sustainable pathways for low-wage immigrant workers in New Jersey’s service industries to become powerful organizers, workplace advocates, and community leaders, combining practical workplace rights education with leadership skills development, addressing systemic barriers in low-wage industries.
NCJW/Essex | Center for Women Career Services ($12,500/year)
The NCJW/Essex Center for Women provides career and support services to women who must enter or re-enter the workforce to provide for themselves and their families, helping them establish financial independence and improve their quality of life. Employment skills are taught and connections with employers are made.
Shore House | Work-Ordered Day and Employment Club ($7,500/year)
The foundation of Shore House's Clubhouse model for adults living with mental illness is the Work-Ordered Day, which models a traditional workday where Members complete essential activities, ensuring that the Clubhouse runs smoothly every day. To further support Members, Shore House started an employment club for Members to return to interact with their peers while they maintain outside employment.
UWCJ’s System of Success is a coordinated system of support that provides families with organized, comprehensive care, comprised of two programs: The Family Financial Opportunity Center located in Perth Amboy and the Middlesex County Alliance for Child and Family Success, a collaboration between community partners, local social service agencies, and organizations to serve as a community resource for families with low incomes who are seeking help with issues such as childcare, housing, health care, benefits, food insecurity, and immigration.
Reentry Programs
Urban League of Union County | Workforce Development and Reentry Empowerment Program ($10,000/year)
The Workforce Development and Reentry Empowerment Program responds to the unique needs of formerly incarcerated individuals by offering real solutions for economic independence and reintegration through job readiness training, including resume writing, job application assistance, interview coaching, and placement support for formerly incarcerated individuals.