Grant awarded to Roots and Wings (R&W)

The Foundation is again proud to partner with R&W for a 4th year in support of the Rise Program.

R&W was established in 1999 in Morris County, New Jersey. Their mission is to provide young adults who age out of the foster care system in New Jersey with safe housing, educational support, case management, counseling, and life skills in order to empower them toward self-sufficiency. The founders of R&W felt that without adequate education, job training, and basic life skills, aged out foster youth face a much higher risk of homelessness, unemployment and incarceration than their peers.

The Grant will be used to help with expansion costs of their Union County Rise program. Roots & Wings was able to open an additional apartment in May of this year and are currently working on one more apartment to open in September. Roots & Wings is working towards opening a fourth Union County apartment in the fall of 2018, which will be a 3-bedroom unit for females. This will provide safe housing to an additional 3 aged out foster youth for a period of 2 to 4 years while they receive intensive services and work towards complete self-sufficiency.

Clients of R&W range in age from 18 to 24, split 50/50 between women and men. R&W accepts referrals from any county in New Jersey without regard to race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. In order to be eligible for residential services, clients must be in the process of aging out of the New Jersey Foster Care system or must have already aged out. Their mission and the mission of the Foundation are aligned in that R&W provides the appropriate education and skills training needed to break the cycle of poverty and crime. By addressing their client’s serious social, educational, financial, and health issues in a comprehensive manner, R&W provides their clients a real chance to succeed in life.