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Monmouth University Students Produce Documentary on Homeless in Ocean County

A short documentary film made by Monmouth University students on the issue of homelessness in Ocean County, New Jersey,  will be screened on July 29 at 6 p.m. in Bey Hall’s Young Auditorium at Monmouth University. The screening, free and open to the public, will be followed by a question and answer session with the filmmakers.

Monmouth University Master of Social Work (MSW) students Aliyah Williams (Orange, NJ), Candida Wiltshire (Teaneck, NJ), Cheryl Kaplan (Monroe, NJ), and Margaret Reynolds (Toms River, NJ) made the film as a project for the University’s  “Applications of Social Justice and Human Rights” class taught by Social Work faculty member Barbara Arrington.

The documentary, “A Place of Their Own,” investigates the current process of assisting the homeless in Ocean County and includes interviews with former residents of Tent City, the homeless encampment in Lakewood, that closed in July 2014. In addition, key advocates of the homeless are interviewed including Minister Steve Brigham, former Councilman Tom O’Malley, and Mike McNeil, director of Solution To End Poverty Soon (STEPS), an organization that provides housing services to the homeless in Ocean County.