Serving the community since 1984

Purchased through the Grace of God!

THE 5 W’s

(Who, What, When, Where, Why)

WHO

The Safe Harbor and port of refuge serves as a portal of entry and conduit for change.  We provide some of the basic needs (such as food, clothing, personal health items, counseling services, emergency housing placement and much more), as well as a safe and decent housing referral alternative for homeless and near homeless people with severe substance abuse and/or mental health illness and others who need time to adjust to life off the streets and to develop a willingness and trust to accept services in order to transition to permanent housing.

Over the years the client profile has remained basically the same.  The profile includes but is not limited to the poor, working poor, homeless, near homeless, alcohol/substance population, the HIV/AIDS infected and affected community, mentally ill, offenders and former offenders and the abused, neglected and often abandoned in our county region and others that come to us in need of emergency subsistence services.

One particular sub-group primarily consists of single people who have been suspended, sanctioned or deemed ineligible for General Assistance and other non-profit providers services..  Most of this population is deemed highly dysfunctional and unable to comply with General Assistance and other programs regulations for a variety of reasons including substance abuse and mental health issues.

Staff and trained volunteers from the community are providing a broad array of direct services and linking the clients served with the many programs and resources available in and outside the county.  This one stop shopping approach is helping to locate and expose an often sick and difficult population to reach to the array of programs and life saving services available to them.

We can’t expect the sick to act well!  I keep this reminder on the wall in my office because I believe this is the primary reason for all agencies failure to successfully provide services to many of those in need.

I repeat!

We can’t expect the sick to act well!  I keep this reminder on the wall in my office because I believe this is the primary reason for all agencies failure to successfully provide services to many of those in need.

The Safe Harbor and port of refuge clientele are those that are mostly too emotionally, spiritually or physically fragile to successfully negotiate the often non client friendly access systems and comply with the many other programs demands placed upon or required of them.  Others simply lack the financial ability to meet their daily emergency subsistence needs.  Particularly, those in early recovery from alcohol and/or substance abuse addiction.  They are nonetheless in need of the Safe Harbor and Port of Refuge that has resulted in saving their lives, especially in time of severe inclement weather. 

They come to us because others have refused them service or they are on a waiting list, often two weeks to a month or longer in length, for services.  They often are without housing, food, and other emergency subsistence commodities.  They may or may not be working with an agency or an agency may not be able to meet their emergency subsistence needs.  They are none the less in need of potential life saving emergency services.

Other clients are only a paycheck or two away from eviction and homelessness come to us trying to locate available resources in the community to meet their existing emergency subsistence and other needs.

Remember!  They come to us because others have refused them service or they are on a waiting list for services.

Regardless of the legal or politically correct reason for branding client ineligibility – THEIR NEEDS STILL EXISTS!

WHAT

All guests are be treated with Dignity, Acceptance, Kindness and Concern.

What’s God’s love got to do with it?  EVERYTHING! 

We outreach and attempt to locate and maintain contact with persons living outside and not in compliance with their social service, substance abuse treatment program and/or mental health services providers.

Ongoing needs assessment – We go into the community and identify places where persons in need of our services are hiding and surviving and places where persons in identified high risk communities congregate.

We encourage law enforcement agencies and others to bring those in need of our services to us as a replacement to incarceration when applicable.

We build capacity in the community by providing a broad array of direct services and by linking the clients served with the many programs and resources available in and outside the county.  This one stop shopping approach helps locate and expose an often sick and difficult population to reach to the array of programs and life saving services available to those in need in our region.

BASE ON HARM REDUCTION MODEL

The Safe Harbor staff and counselors use program modalities that enable and empower clients to focus on recovery by creating and implementing strategies which work including; traditional and non-traditional problem solving techniques which provide for fragmented or unmet needs of clients referred to us. The Safe Harbor and Port of Refuge provide the advocacy and interventions needed by our clients to access treatment and an array of existing emergency subsistence services, as well as working linkages, some on site, with other service providers thereby eliminating the some of the most common reasons given for relapse.

We have never charge any fees for any service.  Therefore, no client will be refused services based on the ability to pay.

Treatment modalities used to achieve our goals include Rational Recovery and Harm Reduction Model.

The geographic service area includes the Somerset County Region.

WHEN

The Safe Harbor is currently in opened Monday thru and Friday, between the hours of 6:30 am and 5 pm.  On Tuesday and Thursday the hours of operation are from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm.   Our goal it is to expand our programs and resources to enable us to remain opened 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

WHERE

SHIP’s Safe Harbor and Port of Refuge is located at 87 East High Street in Somerville, NJ.

Dan Wolternist & fellow Scouts painted interior of building as his Eagle Scout Project

WHY

No other group or agency is currently addressing the emergency subsistence and survival needs of these identified high risk populations.  The broad array of comprehensive services provided at our Safe Harbor and Port of Refuge is geared to this difficult and often un-reached group of people in need.

SHIP’s - Safe Harbor and Port of Refuge services are designed to meet the immediate need of historically identified yet, undeserved populations.  This diverse population includes members of the following communities:

Ø     People who have been suspended, sanctioned or deemed ineligible for other programs services.

Ø     Those that are too emotionally, spiritually or physically fragile to successfully negotiate the often non client

   friendly access systems.

Ø     The homeless, near homeless, working poor, discarded, tormented and disenfranchised persons in need.

Ø     Alcohol and/or chemical dependent and co-occurring disorder victims and those in recovery.

Ø     Those deemed, sick, highly dysfunctional and unable or reluctant to comply with other programs regulations.

Ø     The needy in body, mind and spirit

Ø     Persons living outside an in need of connection to Mental Health services providers.

Ø     HIV/AIDS infected and affected persons in our communities.

Ø     Those who need time to adjust to life off the streets.

Ø     Clients in need of a real advocate willing to speak and act on behalf of their needs.

They are members of the human race and nonetheless in need of the Safe Harbor and Port of Refuge that has helped saved their lives.

No one is a number waiting on a line to plead for help.

This may sound a bit overdramatic to some however when it comes to burying some of needy, people call SHIP for help.  Morticians have given Tom the small clear plastic bags from the corners office containing the worldly possessions of the homeless individual (9 by9 inches - one half inch thick) and ask him to hold them incase anyone wishes to claim them, sometime in the future.

Please do whatever you can to help us help them!

TO ENGAGE THE ENEMY IN THE BATTLE AGAINST POVERTY, HOMELESSNESS, HUNGER, ABANDONMENT, NEGLECT AND MORE - ENLIST AND JOIN ONE OF OUR CREWS CLICK HERE

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