HomeWorks Trenton

Being a part of the MIT Elevate community will allow me to gain concrete leadership, operational skills and visibility to scale our grassroots, community-based non-profit with an effective, business-like mindset. The provided funding will allow us to triple the beneficiaries in our program, proving our models’ sustainability and scalability. Additionally, the two-year support program will help me gain essential skills in marketing, operations, and development. As someone who trained as a teacher, I did not realize the power of media and marketing in the nonprofit sector. This year, our team has revamped our website, completed a social media audit in conjunction with Claremont McKenna Kravis Lab, and expanded our social media efforts by posting about social issues and creating video campaigns. While our following base has increased by 17% since November 2020, our visibility is still small. Through MIT Elevate, we hope to gain more visibility in order to effectively share HomeWorks’ mission and purpose with the world. Lastly, being a part of the MIT Elevate community would allow me to learn from and collaborate with diverse and passionate leaders who undergo similar challenges in the social innovation space.

My passion for community work was instilled by my two grandpas: My 公公, a brave and kind man who escaped the civil war in China without his family from extreme poverty, trauma and pain, and my 爺爺, a man with fierce determination to uplift his country, because he grew up seeing signs that said “No Dogs and Chinese people allowed”. 

Born and raised in Hong Kong, I grew up learning in a system defined by numbers and repeated third 3rd grade. At 14, I came to love learning when I had the opportunity to attend a boarding school in the US. More importantly, living with 40 young women pushed me to feel validated and confident in my identity as a Chinese-Korean-American girl. My passion for education and community building led me to teach high school English in Trenton, New Jersey. Here, I saw firsthand how my incredible students were being impacted by our broken education system, housing instability and other systemic injustices. 

As a sophomore in college in 2016, I drew from my experience and partnered with our community to create HomeWorks. Together, we are working to create communities where women come together to create grassroots, people-driven systems change.

Societal racism has evolved from outright slavery and segregation to hidden algorithms with bias built-in to deny Black and Brown people housing, medicine, and education - the basic building blocks for modern American success. In Trenton, New Jersey, 34 percent of families live below the poverty level (ACNJ) and 32 percent of high school students do not graduate from high school (NJDOE). Additionally, Black and Brown girls in America experience a high rate of violence; feel less safe at school; and receive disproportionate punitive punishment (Crenshaw). 

HomeWorks Trenton runs a free, community-based, after-school residential program where Black and Brown girls explore and validate their identities, gain academic and social-emotional tools, and eventually create grassroots systemic change. On weekdays, our scholars live in the HomeWorks house and are transported to and from their public schools. Every afternoon, scholars engage in activities focused on academics, cultural life skills, women empowerment, and civic engagement. They then eat a family-style meal and stay overnight in our dorm with three full-time staff members. While we currently operate in Trenton, we plan to partner with communities around the country and world to build a global network of self-aware and confident young women who disrupt systemic injustice. 

HomeWorks’ evidenced-based, after-school residential model is the first of its kind. Our model elevates public education by replicating the benefits of boarding school (wrap-around services, community support, and an engaging space) without bureaucracy, high costs and scalability issues. Additionally, we reverse the narrative that students need to leave their marginalized communities in order to be successful. 

Three aspects of the HomeWorks’ model combat systemic issues: (1) Stability and structure with daily transportation to and from school and scheduled workshops; (2) Evidenced Based Programming where scholars’ personal experiences are validated and named in workshops on racial equality, women empowerment, and holistic wellness; and (3) A local community that values Black and Brown sisterhood and cultivates grassroots leaders.  

Our programming goes beyond the traditional after-school programming of sports and tutoring and reflects our students’ specific needs with the intention to build community leaders and disrupt systemic injustices. We provide space for scholars to explore their identity and build community through group mental health services; arts programming including dancing and painting; cultural life skills and safe dating workshops; curricula with books authored by Black and Brown authors; and a family style meals where scholars have conversations regarding their racial and gendered experiences.

HomeWorks has run four programs with 36 scholars. 100 percent of HomeWorks scholars attended over 90 percent of school days (compared with only 64 percent of Trenton high schoolers). Partnering with Angela Duckworth’s lab, we measured scholars’ social-emotional growth and academic growth in analysis, focus, and organization. In 2020, our scholars’ fall virtual schooling attendance was 94 percent while the Trenton average was 59 percent. 40 percent of scholars improved their grades from Fs and Ds to As and Bs. 

Over one year, each scholar will improve their academic success, leadership skills, and social emotional life skills. In the long term, HomeWorks will expand to 40 scholars per year in Trenton, impacting over 1,000 family members, teachers, classmates, and friends per year. Each scholar will be economically and academically empowered, improved their sense of identity, and increased community engagement. Scholars will become community leaders who build antiracist spaces; organize community-led mutual aid efforts; write articles about the Trenton community; run for office; and more. Eventually, HomeWorks will open chapters around the world, creating a global network where scholars uplift each other to then lead their communities and disrupt unjust systems.