Ready, Willing & Able | The Doe Fund

The Chicago native had just completed rehab at South Beach Psychiatric Center, Staten Island, where he spent 28 days overcoming an addiction to cocaine and heroin that rendered him homeless.

As a way for Murphy to get back on his feet, his counselor at South Beach recommended the Doe Fund's "Ready, Willing & Able" program in Jersey City, a non-profit program that provides transitional room, board and employment for sober homeless men dedicated to rebuilding their lives.

Although Murphy was interested in the program, his unfamiliarity with the area made him reluctant to move to New Jersey. "I was more used to living in New York," Murphy said. "I thought, 'New Jersey is a whole other state.'"

The final push came when Wayne Taylor, a friend of his who was already living at and working with RWA-New Jersey, spoke highly of the program. Murphy relented and crossed the river. And he's glad he did.

Murphy joined more than 50 fellow RWA participants yesterday in sitting down to a Thanksgiving lunch at the program's offices at the recently renovated Jersey City YMCA. They were joined by Jersey City Mayor Glenn D. Cunningham, Deputy Mayor Eugene Drayton and Jersey City NAACP president Kabili Tayari.

After being given a tour of the facility, the mayor and city officials took turns offering words of encouragement and support before sitting down with the participants to break bread.

Murphy has much to be thankful for. Sober and expected to graduate from the program in March, he now lives independently and works full-time as a staff member at the Doe Fund's Jersey City-based Computer Learning and Instruction Center. He's been in his apartment since July and has made progress with his goals as a musician.

And although Murphy no longer lives on-site and his job at the Doe Fund doesn't pay as handsomely as he would like, he said he stays within the organization's network because it gives him an incentive to stay clean.

"In general, (Doe Fund employees) do care about people, and that's what people see," Murphy said. "That's what I saw when I came in.

"And to people who want to get their lives back together, this is the place to go. The good way to look at it is that this is an organization that helps people."

The Doe Fund was founded in 1985 by George McDonald, an activist who left a career as a clothing company executive to hand out sandwiches to the homeless at New York's Grand Central Terminal. Named for Mama Doe, an Eastern European woman in her late 60s who froze to death on Christmas morning of that year, the Doe Fund aims to "develop cost-effective, holistic programs that empower homeless and low-income individuals to achieve lives of independence and self-sufficiency."

McDonald, who was also present at yesterday's event, said RWA was something more than just a successful effort to reintroduce homeless people into society through a comprehensive work program. Citing statistics that the average RWA participant is a 33-year-old man with a history of substance abuse and multiple incarcerations, McDonald said RWA solves more problems than just homelessness.

"We help ex-offenders be integrated into the workforce," McDonald said. "We're also a drug-rehab program. The real key to what we do is that we get people used to having cash in their pockets."

RWA-New Jersey pays participants from $5.50 to $6.50 an hour for cleaning services performed on city streets and vacant lots. And it requires that everyone start off doing what is affectionately called "pushing the bucket" before having the option to participate in other on-site job training programs.

Wearing RWA's trademark bright blue uniforms, RWA-New Jersey workers can be seen cleaning up prominent Jersey City landmarks like McGinley Square.

Jersey City program director Donald Pendleton, who has been at RWA-New Jersey since it opened in May 1998, said the only requirement for participating in the program is a willingness to stay clean and sober and to get your life back together.

"You work on yourself while you're in the program," Pendleton said. "We give you the training while you're on the job, and we take care of any legal and medical issues you might have. We try to get you to regain empowerment."

Cunningham also touched upon the idea of empowering people. After thanking participants for helping him achieve his own mayoral objectives through their restoration work, he said their presence in the program indicated that they were now leading productive lives.

"I've heard some of your success stories," Cunningham said. "This city would be much, much worse if you weren't doing the work you're doing."