Joe Rojas

Connected They Stand: "Homeless Empowerment" lets shelters network with one another and share resources

When Joe Rojas was 10 years old, he and his mother were evicted from their home in a Dominican enclave of Harlem. He never forgot the experience.

"I was homeless for a year," says Rojas. "And, one thing I remember is that it sucked."

Wanting to give back to the many homeless shelters where he and his mother sought refuge, Rojas, now an adult, launched an organization, as part of a project he took on in a Landmark course, called "Homeless Empowerment" to help shelters in his native New York City network and share resources with each other.

What started as an idea in a Landmark classroom has evolved, under the auspices of Rojas' partner James McNary, into an organization that offers not just shirts and skirts to homeless people, but also HTML computer classes and job training and placement.

"The whole idea was to put this online and allow these shelters to communicate with each other," Rojas says.

While McNary is currently talking to homeless shelters in London about forging a similar network, Rojas is on to his next project: hosting Landmark Education Forums, as often as possible, for Spanish-speaking people.

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