Winter is coming and, on any given night, New Jersey’s shelters are keeping over 7,500 homeless men, women, and children alive.

Are you looking for a project where your contributions will bring direct and immediate benefit to a large and growing population of homeless individuals and families in New Jersey? Where your insights and leadership will resonate and inform advocates for the unsheltered across the country? 

As the Sustainability Squad Fellow for the New Jersey Coalition to End Homelessness, you will work with high-level decision makers across the state to ensure that our homeless shelters, places of life-saving refuge for thousands of men, women and children each day, are, in fact, sustainable. This unique and multi-faceted fellowship will offer you the opportunity to work in a variety of ways with seasoned professionals from the governor’s office, municipalities across the state, and even local shelters. Our goal is to change government policy in New Jersey to better meet the actual needs of New Jersey’s shelter system.

Some of the key tasks:

• Analyze the current funding models for NJ shelters

• Master New Jersey’s intricate governmental budget system

• Analyze and compare data on shelter funding in other states

• Identify untapped federal funds for which shelters might qualify

• Create and collaborate on policy: Is there data to support the claim that ‘affordable housing is healthcare’? 

• Build data driven arguments: How shelter support services have led to better outcomes for those placed in permanent housing.

• Coordinate a campaign to rebrand shelters: Shelters and their services are important, holistic and change lives.

• Organize both large group meetings and small task forces.