About Streetlight Mission   (StreetLight Mission Web Site)

StreetLight Mission is a faith based community outreach center located in the inner city of Elizabeth, New Jersey serving men, women and children who struggle with poverty, mental illness, substance abuse and most of all hopelessness. The motto of StreetLight Mission is bringing hope in a time of need. They recognize that at some time in our life we all need some help.

StreetLight’s goal is to help each person choose steps that lead them to wholeness, enabling them to become productive members of their families and the community. They begin by helping people with basic life needs such as food, clothing, and housing. The number of people in need of life’s basic necessities is growing dramatically. They are registering an average of 5 new families a day for groceries, a 40% increase (789 households in 2009 to 1,112 households in 2010.) StreetLight also helps people access drug and alcohol treatment and other medical services. To sustain a new lifestyle, old destructive relationships and habits must be replaced with new supportive friendships. StreetLight hosts weekly church services, Bible studies, Christian recovery meetings and social events such as movie nights, block parties and a Christmas celebration that served 970 in 2010.

When their guests feels safe, it is StreetLight’s hope that they will seek help with more difficult problems they face through Streetlight’s recovery mentoring services: Programs that offer help in areas such as substance abuse, mental illness, abusive situations and joblessness. As the mission grows they plan to include supportive housing reclaiming fallen neighborhoods. The plans include social entrepreneurship programs that will provide mentees with job skills in the construction industry while providing housing for the next group of students.

While StreetLight’s efforts begin with demonstrating the love of God to the person standing in front of them, their impact extends well beyond that. Partnering with churches from around the world they provide short-term missions opportunities to teach others the skills and ignite a passion to help those in need. They also participate in community, regional, and state initiatives to improve care, services and laws relative to those in need. They have helped establish collaborative efforts such as Rescue Alliance of NYC and Bridge to Recovery of Union County.