Bridges Outreach Hosts Annual Streets To Home 5K To Help Homeless

Press release from Bridges Outreach, Inc:

Oct. 13, 2021

Bridges Outreach welcomed over 200 local runners and walkers on Sunday, October 3rd, 2021 for their 3rd annual Streets to Homes 5k Run & Walk to raise awareness and money to support community neighbors in New Jersey who are experiencing homelessness and the imminent risk of homelessness. Proceeds go towards sponsoring outreach Runs to our communities, providing Sustainable and Brown Bag lunches, hygiene kits, and so much more. Over $50,000 was raised to support those in need.

Paul Dorsey won first place overall with a time of 19:05. Top female first place went to Madeleine Chen with a time of 22:39. All results can be found on the My Race Result website. The certified racecourse took participants through the heart of downtown and picturesque residential Summit. Split Second Racing was the race management company used for Streets to Homes 5k.

This event was generously sponsored by Oak Knoll School of the Holy Child, Boston Consulting Group, St. John’s Lutheran Church of Summit, Peapack-Gladstone Bank, PSEG, Wakefern Food Corp, Allied Beverage, Cox Printing, Arnold Contract, Investors Bank, Robert Irvine’s FitCrunch, and fifteen local Summit businesses.

Bridges handles more than 12,000 outreach engagements a year between efforts in Newark, Irvington, and New York City with almost 200 runs a year. They also deliver more than 7,000 complete meals each month as part of its effort to connect with people on the streets of our communities - and to connect them with benefits and services. None of this would be possible without volunteer, donor, and financial support from the New Jersey and New York communities.

Bridges blends street outreach with systems change efforts in order to produce an objective and sustainable impact which prioritizes unsheltered people experiencing homelessness in New Jersey.
Bridges has evolved over the last three decades to provide more services and items urgently needed by people living on the streets we frequent. They’ve added toiletry kits, feminine hygiene packs, cold weather packs, and more. Their Project Connect drop-in center, in Newark, brings professional, holistic case management services to those who are experiencing homelessness or are at imminent risk of homelessness in Essex County. These services lead to more than an immediate meal, they can lead to better health, employment, housing, and independence. Every day Bridges demands change to the systems which too infrequently help to end a person’s homelessness and push for the day when chronic homelessness is a thing of the past.

Our Mission: Bridges ends homelessness through volunteer-driven outreach and individual case management focusing on health, housing, and independence. We form relationships with those experiencing homelessness while meeting their most urgent needs. #WeCanENDHomelessness

This press release was produced by Bridges Outreach, Inc. The views expressed here are the author's own.