Jon Bon Jovi’s Soul Homes Turns 5-Years-Old, Helping Families In Need Rebuild Their Lives

Jon Bon Jovi’s philanthropic project Soul Homes just turned 5-years-old and continues to help families in need get back on their feet with affordable housing for low-income individuals, the formerly homeless, and teens aging out of foster care.

New Jersey 101.5 reported that the singer’s Soul Foundation, which he runs alongside wife Dorothea, has opened facilities in Newark, Camden, and Monmouth County in New Jersey as well as homes across the country, including Detroit, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, and Los Angeles.

Soul Homes partnered with an effort title Project Hope, run by Sister Mary Scullion, who co-founded the philanthropic effort in 1989. Scullion has worked with the Bon Jovi family in furthering the efforts of the organization. They partnered in 2014 to give hundreds of people a permanent home with supportive services, stated the JBJ Soul Homes official website.

JBJ Soul Homes’ residents have access to basic medical care, fitness classes, employment training, education access, and computer use.

“The opening of the JBJ Soul Homes is another example of what I like to call, The Power of WE,” stated Jon Bon Jovi when the facility opened in 2014. “It is a natural continuation of the work that we do, which started with the youth at Covenant House several years ago.”

The Foundation also runs JBJ Soul Kitchen in Red Bank, a place where restaurant-goers can come in for a meal and if they cannot pay, trade in their bill for service hours toward helping the restaurant serve others. If a patron can pay, they are encouraged to pay the set price of a meal which is $20 and add additional funds if they are able to help diffuse the cost of someone else’s meal. There are no prices on the menu.

In a Spring 2019 newsletter, Dorothea Bongiovi noted that the organization will continue its promise to pay it forward with additional work in communities where their services are most needed.

She also explained that The Red Bank New Jersey location of the JBJ Soul Kitchen partnered in opening a Hope and Comfort Warming Center with Pilgrim Baptist Church during the winter months.

Bongiovi explained that when the organization received an alert that the temperatures in the area had reached below 32 degrees, the Soul Kitchen opened as a warming station and a place to get a hot beverage in the mornings. In the evenings, a hot meal was served and noting the need for such a place in the area, she revealed that almost every seat was filled during the cold winter months.

The Soul Kitchen would then transport those most in need of a place to stay to a warming center where they would find cots, hot showers, and a washer-dryer to clean and dry clothes.

Jon Bon Jovi and his band Bon Jovi are currently working on new music for an album that is forthcoming in Nashville, Tennessee.