Dear Friend of Anchor House,
Recent data shows that youth homelessness accounts for 25% of homelessness in Trenton. One in five runaway and homeless youth are a victim of human trafficking. 69% of homeless youth report mental health challenges.
As Anchor House prepares to celebrate 45 years of serving abused, runaway, homeless and at-risk youth, we have placed thousands of youth in a secure environment and put thousands more on a path to succeed and thrive.
"For me Street Outreach has been my life line. No one would listen to me until I dropped into the outreach office. The staff helped me get set up with resources and my very own apartment in 30 days.”
We recently received devastating news that a grant from the Administration for Children & Families for our Street Outreach Program was not awarded. Anchor House provides the only shelter, transitional living and street outreach programs in Mercer County, and one of two supportive housing programs in the county for older youth so this loss of funding will have a major impact on our community and the youth we serve.
Our Street Outreach Program has been at the forefront of Mercer County’s youth homelessness prevention efforts for more than two decades reaching 150 youth each year.
Last year, street outreach staff held 975 life skills sessions and distributed more than 9,000 survival aids including food, clothes and hygiene products.
Today, we ask for your help. As can been seen from our most recent funding cut, Anchor House is at the hands of a system in constant change with an unpredictable government funding environment. Without private contributions from donors like you, we would not be able to continue our important work.
