Archangel Raphael’s Mission Brings Radical Hospitality® to New Brunswick, New Jersey
November 2, 2021
LavaMaeˣ consults and funds New Brunswick’s first mobile shower program for people experiencing homelessness in New Jersey
The Archangel Raphael’s Mission backstory
Kelsey and John El-Maraghy began working with unhoused people in their college town of New Brunswick, N.J., in 2016 by taking what John calls “a traditional Good Samaritan route.” As students, they made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for people living on the streets and, inspired by the local food truck scene, dreamed of starting a mobile soup kitchen. They called their project Archangel Raphael’s Mission (ARM) after the patron saint of healing.
One year in, the pair realized that a host of other local organizations were already addressing food insecurity, so they shifted to filling gaps in public health and personal hygiene. Kelsey remembered LavaMaeˣ from a video she’d seen on social media. She and John downloaded the organization’s Mobile Hygiene Toolkit and thought, “We can do this,” John recalls. “It seemed like an achievable middle service between food and housing.”
The pair reached out to LavaMaeˣ in June 2020 to ask about protocols and to inquire about funding opportunities through The Right To Shower, a Unilever natural body care brand that donates a portion of its profits to mobile shower providers. LavaMaeˣ immediately connected John and Kelsey with program consultant Joey Freid to help them refine their programming and prepare them to receive funding.
A month later LavaMaeˣ gave the pair a $10,000 grant, which they pooled with the $40,000 they’d raised on their own to purchase ARM’s first truck and shower trailer. Their new equipment—plus Joey’s advice, support and mechanical knowledge—took ARM that last mile to the streets.
Proof of concept: showing city partners a credible plan
John and Kelsey initially planned to provide adjacent services, such as handing out clothing, along with the showers. They are glad they heeded Joey’s advice to focus on learning to do one thing well before taking on additional challenges.
Joey recalls, “I talked them through the steps to develop their own expertise. It was crucial that they understand how hard it is to just do showers, especially when you’re first starting out. You can’t do one thing well if you’re trying to do many at once. It stretches volunteers and your budget. The other piece is that lots of organizations offer clothing and food. Very few provide showers. If you can provide this one rare service really well, you’ll make a big difference.”
Next, LavaMaeˣ helped the team develop a solid proposal and description of services to generate goodwill among local stakeholders like government partners and other NGOs already making a difference in the community. Every municipality has its own rules, regulations and particularities, and navigating these is a challenge for fledgling organizations. While it’s possible to provide a service like mobile showers without a city’s help, gaining access to infrastructure like sewage and water hookups is usually essential, and the ARM team knew they needed to do this right.
LavaMaeˣ’s name recognition and proven, replicable model give trainee programs such as ARM credibility. Joey and the other relationship managers helped all parties collaborate to ensure a swift, safe and impactful deployment of services in an area where the program could make the greatest impact. As John puts it, “You are foolish to try to do this alone.”
Advice on tap: LavaMaeˣ provides a technical lifeline
ARM also relied on Joey’s ongoing technical support. John and Kelsey ran up against challenges they’d never anticipated: For example, they discovered that the water hookup in their trailer was nonstandard. When their hose wouldn’t connect to the city’s water source, John called Joey. After some back-and-forth by phone, Joey jumped on FaceTime, identified the issue and advised John on the connectors he needed. Every time something leaked or broke or stalled, John says, Joey was there to teach them how to fix it.
“I’m not sure this program would have run without LavaMaeˣ,” says John. “Between navigating partnerships and making the right equipment purchases and narrowing our focus and running an efficient operation, ARM would have been very inefficient for a very long time, if it had launched at all.”
Now John is excited about sharing what he’s learned with newer members on the LavaMaeˣ Connect platform, which serves as a hub for community members and trainee programs to ask questions and collaborate to find solutions. “Before learning from Joey, I was limited by a lack of understanding of the services I wanted to provide,” he says. “Now I have the confidence to be a Joey for someone else.”
The big win: A successful launch inspires future expansion
ARM launched its shower program on July 23, 2021, and currently provides service with a two-stall trailer one day per week in New Brunswick.
LavaMaeˣ’s Radical Hospitality® approach—meeting people wherever they are with extraordinary care—resonated strongly with John and Kelsey, and they’ve incorporated it into everything from the spa-like design of their shower stalls to hiring their first employee and training volunteers. “We even give our new volunteers a Radical Hospitality quiz,” John says.
And the ARM team is far from slowing down. The team has high hopes for the future that include expanding throughout the tri-state area, providing more frequent service, and adding laundry, haircuts and other services to their regular offerings. They also want to purchase another truck and an all-season, three-stall trailer with an ADA-accessible shower. Their current trailer is only equipped to handle three-season service, forcing ARM to close its doors during the cold New Jersey winter.
To make this vision a reality, ARM is launching a capital campaign to raise $200,000 and will conduct an audit to identify what needs improvement and what the team wants to carry forward to new locations.
John says that without LavaMaeˣ, his and Kelsey’s dream might still be just that. “Working with LavaMaeˣ is like having a subject matter expert on your team,” he says. “Anyone with an interest can google shower trailers. But the expertise that LavaMaeˣ provides through their consulting is invaluable. They made our dream possible and sustainable.”
Archangel Raphael’s Mission profile
Home base: New Brunswick, N.J.
Team: Two co-directors, one part-time employee, 30 volunteers and a dedicated board
Mobile units: One two-stall shower trailer
Services: Mobile showers
Year-to-date guests served: 102
Startup tips and lessons
Pick one service and learn how to provide it effectively before branching out to other things. Just providing showers is very challenging. As LavaMaeˣ program consultant Joey Freid says, “You can’t do one thing well if you’re trying to do many at once. It stretches volunteers and your budget.”
Find an expert to help guide you through the launch process. ARM co-founder John El-Maraghy says, “Working with LavaMaeˣ is like having a subject matter expert on your team. Anyone with an interest can google shower trailers. But the expertise that LavaMaeˣ provides through their consulting is invaluable. They made our dream possible and sustainable.”