JULY 2022 FREE
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The Father Center helps area dads By SUe FerrArA
In 2008, Karen Andrade-Mims, then a longtime board member for New Jersey’s oldest nonprofit, was asked to take the helm of the organization. She imagined she had been chosen as the next leader to steer the organization into the future. Instead, she was told by board members that they wanted her to manage an orderly shut down of programs, and ultimately, to dissolve the nonprofit. The organization was called the Union Industrial Home for Destitute Children of New Jersey, and had been in existence since 1859–so by 2008, the organization was almost 150 years old. Andrade-Mims wasn’t ready to let the organization fade away, especially under her leadership. Instead, with some guidance and thought, she led the transformation of the nonprofit by re-focusing its mission on helping fathers—and by extension, their children—to live better lives. And thus, after a rebranding, Trenton is now home to The Father Center. The Father Center currently runs two programs: Operation Fatherhood, which started in 1993; and WorkFirst NJ, a program The Father Center manages on behalf of Mercer and Burlington counties.
The men who land on the doorstep of The Father Center come for one of two reasons, and enter one of those two programs. Operation Fatherhood helps men who are behind in child support payments. Men entering the WorkFirst NJ program receive financial assistance from the state, funding which only lasts five years, so WorkFirst NJ helps them reach financial independence. In both cases, the men need to ultimately find employment. What path they take to reaching that goal depends on the person. Some participants want to earn a high school diploma, AndradeMims said, and The Father Center can help them achieve that goal through a program at Mercer County Community College. Others want to go directly to work, but need skills. Those men can participate in a program called Bridges to Success which is a short-term credentialing program. The Father Center addresses needs with virtual programs which participants access through the center’s computer lab. But two programs–one to train forklift drivers (NJ Forklift) and CDL license training happen off site. The Father Center has an interesting history. In 1859, 18 Presbyterian women came together See FATHERS, Page 6
Signs line Clarksville Road in West Windsor in opposition to a proposed 5.5 million-square-foot warehouse distribution center at the corner of Route 1 and Quakerbridge Road. Clarksville Road runs through the center of the property, and residents fear the impact of truck traffic on area roads. (Staff photo by Bill Sanservino.)
Behemoth industrial park planned for ‘crown jewel’ West Windsor site By BiLL SANserViNO
The West Windsor Planning Board on June 29 was expected to deliberate and potentially vote on a plan for a mammoth 5.5-millionsquare-foot development on the old 653-acre American Cyanamid tract. The meeting was scheduled to take place after the News went to press.
The project, called of the Bridge Point 8 Industrial Park, calls for the construction of seven warehouses on the tract, which is located at the corner of Route 1 and Quakerbridge Road. The site is one of the largest contiguous undeveloped properties on the East Coast and has been called the “crown jewel” of undeveloped tracts in the state.
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The developer, Bridge Point WW LLC, is proposing that the complex be built in two phases. Phase I involves building three warehouse buildings totaling 3.01 million square feet. It also calls for the construction of a new road through the site that would run from the intersection of Quakerbridge Road and Avalon See WAREHOUSES, Page 3
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