Program Launches at Special Veteran’s Day Event Commemorating Hope for Veterans Second Anniversary

After struggling with homelessness and substance abuse, Darren Evans has a lot to celebrate this Veterans Day. A seventeen-month resident of the Hope for Veterans Program, a 75-bed program for homeless veterans operated by the nonprofit organization Community Hope, Darren has been “clean” for two years, is working two jobs and enrolled at Rutgers University.

“This program gave me hope to move on and advance in my life,” said Evans.

Affinity Federal Credit Union, NJ’s largest non-profit credit union, will commemorate Veterans Day by launching the Veterans Learning Institute, a new training program to help veterans like Darren to successfully manage their money. The Institute will augment Community Hope’s training and computer program.

A launch party and celebration will be held at the Community Hope facility, located at the Lyons Veterans Affairs campus in Bernards Township, on Friday, November 10th at 5 PM.

Affinity’s Learning Institute will provide the formerly homeless veterans with financial education and credit counseling workshops. Both veterans and the Hope for Veterans staff will also have access to the Credit Union’s library and Affinity’s comprehensive training programs on topics ranging from computer and communications skills to personal growth and education.

Looking to take advantage of the training, Darren says, “Any kind of program that assists us (veterans) in furthering our education is important. These skills give us hope to move on and establish goals in our lives that you can’t have when you’re abusing drugs or alcohol.”

The two-year anniversary of the Hope for Veterans Program this Veterans Day is a significant milestone for residents like Darren as they prepare to graduate from New Jersey’s largest transitional housing facility for homeless veterans and test the skills they have gained. The earliest residents of this national award-winning program, opened in 2004 by Community Hope, are reaching their mandatory tenure in the program. While in the program, the formerly homeless veterans have secured employment, established a savings account and participated in recovery programs for post-traumatic stress, depression and substance abuse.

“Affinity Federal Credit Union has been one of the earliest supporters of the Hope for Veterans Program,” said Carmela Lunt, President and Founder of Community Hope. “They have been a partner in the truest sense of the word, working with us to identify the skills that will help our veterans break the cycle of homelessness and despair. This partnership empowers our veterans to compete in the workforce and to budget their monies for necessities such as housing and transportation so they can be self-sufficient upon graduating from the program.”

Beth Degnan, Affinity Federal’s Community Outreach Chair, said the Credit Union envisioned this training program for the veterans while the facility was still under construction.

“We applauded Community Hope’s efforts to serve the neediest of our veterans and wanted to work with them to make sustainable changes in the lives of these men and women who had served our country,” said Degnan. “Our educational and training resources were an ideal compliment to their on-site computer lab and job placement services. We are proud to offer veterans the opportunity to be better prepared to compete and succeed when they leave the program.”

With an estimated 8,000 homeless veterans in New Jersey, Community Hope opened the Hope for Veterans Transitional Housing Program in Fall 2004 to serve veterans homeless as a result of substance abuse and post-traumatic stress, depression or other forms of chronic psychiatric illness. To develop the 75-bed program, Community Hope secured more than $450,000 in capital funding and renovated two floors in a vacant building located on the Lyons VA Medical Center Campus in Bernards Township. Construction is underway to develop an additional 20 beds to accommodate the waiting list for the program.

As the largest and most comprehensive program of its kind in the Tri-State area, the Program received the 2005 National Community Partnership Award from the Mutual of America Foundation and the Governor’s Excellence in Housing Award at the 2005 Governor’s Housing and Community Development Conference.

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