A $123,000 grant from Impact 100 Jersey Coast, a women’s philanthropy group, was awarded to the Covenant House Rites of Passage program operated out of Asbury Park.

Rites of Passage program offers a safe place for homeless young people, 18 or older, who have “aged” out of the system.

Impact 100 Jersey Coast is a women’s giving community in which each woman donates $1,000. Then, non-profits are invited to submit grant proposals annually. Each of the members casts one vote in the determination of which non-profit will receive the award.

Currently, Impact 100 Jersey Coast group represents 246 members and expects this number to increase in 2018. A total of 52 local non-profits applied for the 2017 Impact 100 grant.

Impact 100 Jersey Coast was founded by Deirdre O’Brien Spiropoulos and Heather Burke, and nine others back in 2016.

In 2016, 180 Turning Lives was awarded a grant of $145,000 for the Family Justice Center in Freehold to support victims of domestic abuse, sexual assault, child abuse and human trafficking.