POWER Changes Lives Brings Mobile Showers and Pop-Up Care Villages to Morris Plains, NJ
March 20, 2022
POWER Changes Lives brings essential hygiene and care services to Morris Plains, NJ with LavaLove®
Backstory
Penelope Lopez founded POWER Changes Lives in 2010 to provide low-income families and individuals with education, technology, food, and other resources. The organization also organized grooming events, hygiene kit distribution, housing aid, tenant aid, and more for people experiencing homelessness. Wanting to do more for her community, Penelope reached out to LavaMaeˣ for support on her new project LavaLove® to bring mobile showers, grooming, and medical services to the street.
How LavaMaeˣ Helped
Penelope joined our 1:1 Mentorship program in July 2021 and worked with our team to make her dream a reality. We hosted the LavaLove team in San Francisco and provided in-person and virtual training at our shower services and Pop-Up Care Villages, as well as utilizing our Mobile Hygiene and Pop-Up Care Village Toolkits. Penelope and her team also attended various events on our Connect platform. While the trailer was being built, POWER Changes Lives hosted a holiday Pop-Up Care Village in December 2021 that served 250 people alongside 25 volunteers and 18 service partners. And in March 2022, LavaLove provided its first showers to the Morris Plains community.
LavaLove Service Model
LavaLove provides showers every Thursday with its three-stall mobile shower trailer (two showers, one exam room)
LavaLove provides food, haircuts, clothing, medical, housing aid, and other services at every service.
LavaLove hosts Pop-Up Care Vilallages every month alongside its shower trailer.
Signature Story
“At our Pop-Up Care Village, we invited a cosmetology student to come and provide hair services. We set her up at a booth where she was able to provide haircuts and hairstyling. This was one of the most popular partnerships we had at the event. People waited all day to receive haircuts and hairstyles. A gentleman who lives in “tent city” in Morristown NJ, waited almost three hours and refused to leave until he got a haircut. Once he received his haircut, he was so happy and grateful.”
Penelope Lopez, POWER Changes Lives Founder
