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AfterShare volunteers at Chesapeake's
Homeless Prevention Center in Woodbridge, Virginia.
Giving Something Back
Marnita
Johnson was once a homeless resident of the Homeless Prevention Center,
a 30-bed shelter in Woodbridge, Virginia. Now she is the coordinator of
an innovative program called AfterShare which enlists former residents
as volunteers at the Center.
 Johnson
became homeless at age 36 after the death of her 12-year-old daughter
Nikita, one of three children. "My whole world crashed," she
says. "I just could not function anymore." After a stay at the
Center, Johnson and her family got back on their feet and are living in
an apartment nearby. Now as AfterShare Coordinator, she helps other families
through the ordeal of homelessness. "I want to help the homeless
anyway I can. The Center helped me through a major personal crisis and
I need to give something back."
And give something back, she has. In 1998, Johnson began outreach to the
unsheltered homeless. As part of the county's Continuum of Care Committee,
she was instrumental in searching out and taking accurate counts of the
homeless without shelters. She has trained AfterShare volunteers and community
members in outreach techniques and in the needs and concerns of these
most vulnerable of the homeless.
When a new center was built adjacent to the old site, Johnson identified
a room for a computer lab for homeless adults and children to learn computer
skills. Now she directs efforts to renovate donated computers for families
to use at the Center and take with them when they find a new home. She
also solicits the donation of brand new computers, software, and printers,
creating one of the most resourceful computer labs anywhere. Former homeless
residents who were her computer lab students come by to volunteer and
assist Johnson in teaching.
In 1999, Marnita Johnson organized the AfterShare 2000 Rent Fund, because
often only a few hundred dollars toward a rental deposit means the difference
between getting into an apartment and continued homelessness. One hundred
percent of all donations go directly to landlords. In December of that
year, the first four families were assisted into permanent housing.
Marnita Johnson was recently recognized by the Points of Light Foundation.
She is a leader by her example and continues to give between 150 to 300
hours of service per month to the AfterShare program.
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