About Me

Hi there! I am Ishan. I first started the Homelessness Awareness Initiative when I realized that the homelessness rate among New Jersey families was rising dramatically year on year. For me, the AHA moment was for EKAM USA’s initiatives to help local New Jersey communities feeding the homeless during a food drive. As I was prepping meals for our community’s homeless, I started wondering about how people become homeless in the first place. What could I do to house the homeless?  

This led me to visit various homeless shelters in and around my community. I began asking questions about what causes homelessness and interviewing local homeless shelter administrators, city council members, and community business leaders to understand what was being done. Realizing that solving the homelessness starts with spreading awareness, I began recording these conversations as a way to share learning with others in our community. These conversations became the Homelessness Awareness Initiative.  

I learned many things about homelessness in my conversations with others. First, I realized that anyone can become homeless. Homelessness is not the end of the world but a very solvable problem. 

I hope you will watch our conversations and discover what you can do to solve the problem, too! I hope you are deeply touched by our project stories and will do everything possible to help New Jersey’s families in their journeys from homelessness to hopefulness.