Rider University
Service Sites
The Focus of Our Efforts
Arm in Arm
Arm In Arm connects people in need of food, housing, and job support with people who want to help. Bonners serve at two Arm In Arm locations in Trenton, to support the efforts of the food pantries to combat local hunger by maintaining the pantry on a daily basis.
Family Preservation Center
FPC is a shelter for homeless families. In addition to meeting the immediate housing needs of the families, FPC also provides job training and parenting classes for adults. While FPC started as a shelter for women and children they have expanded their services to support single dads and families. Bonners support the children living at the shelter by planning and carrying out activities such as cooking, arts and crafts, and team building while the parents attend evening classes. Through these activities, Bonners build strong relationships to help the children develop social and interpersonal skills. Services provided for the children are split into two groups: babies to preschoolers and school-age youth.
Joys, Hopes, & Dreams
The Joys, Hopes, and Dreams Program (JHD) is one of the many afterschool programs that Homefront runs. The students range from kindergarten to high school. Bonners serve as tutors and mentors for the JHD program working with specific children consistently throughout the week and over the course of the year. In addition to tutoring, this Bonner team supports the children at community events by accompanying them to swim nights, basketball clinics, etcetera, and by planning and hosting their own special events.
The English School
The English School is a warm community of students, teachers, and volunteers working together to improve lives through English language learning. Bonners serve in a variety of ways: preparing and leading language enrichment activities for the children of the adult students (KITES- Kids In the English School), facilitating “Conversation Nights” for adult students, and providing one on one tutoring. Bonners can also become teaching assistants for classes if interested.
KING Middle School
Bonners assist in a mentorship program to encourage middle school students who suffer from chronic absenteeism to attend school. Providing guidance and stability to the student, Bonners create activities and allow them to express themselves through their own interests. Bonners are also available to help the students with their homework, encouraging them to passionately pursue their education.
Homeworks
Homeworks is an after-school boarding program that provides academic, social, and emotional enrichment activities for marginalized high school girls. Bonners tutor and mentor the young women who reside in the Home Works house from Sunday to Thursday. Working with the Home Works staff Bonners also develop additional enrichment and empowerment programs to support their “Actualizing Queens and Women Warriors” initiative.
Note: This site is for females only.
The YMCA
Most of our efforts pertaining to this program involve studying new approaches and developing innovative ways to implement them. We evaluate our success in this field by gathering qualitative and quantitative data, and using that information to measure shifts and changes from our baseline measurements.
