Safe Harbor & Port of Refuge

Tom O’Leary, Executive Director - Founder

100% FUNDED THROUGH YOUR DONATIONS

The Safe Harbor is open Monday thru Friday, 8:30 am - 2:00 pm

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

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, 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 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 provide a broad array of services and link the clients served with the many programs and resources available in and outside the county. This one stop shopping approach is help locate and expose an often sick and difficult population to reach to the array of programs and lifesaving services available to those in need in our region.

We can’t expect the sick to act well! -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.

They come to us because others have refused them service for one reason or another or they are on a waiting list, often 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 the agency may not be able to meet their emergency subsistence needs.

The 5 W’s

Who?

Over the years the client profile has remained basically the same. SHIP's - Safe Harbor and Port of Refuge services are designed to meet the immediate need of historically identified yet under-served populations. These diverse population mainly includes members of the following communities:

The Poor - Working Poor - Homeless - Substance Abuse Population - HIV/AIDS Infected - Mental Health Sufferers

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 who are deemed not in compliance with their social service, substance abuse treatment program and/or mental health services providers.

We locate and advise minority community members in need of services and make services available to them. We advocate for clients in need at all levels.

Where?

SHIP's Safe Harbor and Port of Refuge is located at 87 East High Street in Somerville, NJ, 08876

When?

The Safe Harbor is currently in opened Monday thru Friday between the hours of 8:30 am and 2 pm. Our goal it is to expand our programs and resources to enable us to remain opened longer.

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.

They are members of the human race and nonetheless in need of a Safe Harbor & Port of Refuge that often helps save their lives.

No one will be swallowed up and lost in the system. No one will be a number waiting on a line to plead for help.

This may sound a bit over-dramatic to some however we have sadly buried some of those who could not make it for a variety of reasons. Morticians have given SHIP the small bags containing the worldly remains of the homeless and ask SHIP to hold them in case anyone wishes to claim them sometime.

Please do whatever you can to help us help them!

Bill's Place - Est. 2001 - We have served over 30,000 visitors!

At SHIP’s new Safe Harbor we have relocated a donated “Coffee Bar” which was given by a caring company doing business in Somerset County.

The donation came about as a result of a story that appeared in the Courier News. In the story, homeless men living in the woods in Somerville told the reporter of their need to panhandle for over an hour in order to raise the funds needed to purchase their first cup of coffee for the day, their “warmer upper or eye opener.”

As a result of this blessing, SHIP now is able to offer coffee along with food items each morning to those in need Monday - Friday, 8:30 am - 10:00 am. These donations are offered in a safe non-threatening environment we choose to call “Bill’s Place” in memory of Bill Hicks.

Emergency Clothes Closet

250,000 items of clothing to over 20,000 people.

Quality new and some gently used clothing items are made available to the many men and women coming to SHIP for assistance in their time of need in the surrounding region and other states.

The items we distribute are secured primarily through donations and additional needed items are purchased using your financial donation and some gift cards.

The items most always in demand are: