James M. White
Jim has worked at Covenant House for thirty years, joining the Covenant House family in 1982 as a full-time volunteer and working as counselor at the New York crisis shelter.
In 1985, Jim was asked to be part of the development team of the Covenant House’s new transitional living program Rights of Passage (ROP). As Associate Director of ROP, Jim welcomed the first five young men into this pioneering program in which homeless young people live at Covenant House while going to school and training for jobs.
In 1994, Jim was hired as Executive Director of Covenant House New Jersey (CHNJ). At that time, CHNJ consisted of just two storefront operations in Atlantic City and Newark, a small budget, fourteen staff members, no residential beds and minimal services. During his 12 years at CHNJ, Jim grew the budget to close to $8,000,000, expanded residential services to 120 young people each night and added a comprehensive array of services through Crisis, ROP and Mothers and Babies programs. Jim has also been a successful advocate, leading the charge for Covenant House to change laws in New Jersey that mandate better care of homeless young people.
From 2006 through 2011, Jim served as Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of Development and Marketing at Covenant House International. During this time, Jim worked to align the visions, plans and operations of the organizations twenty-one sites throughout North and Latin America.
In 2011, he served as the force behind Covenant House's first annual CEO Solidarity Sleep Out. During this event, fifty CEO's and business leaders spent the night outside of Covenant House New York to raise awareness and funds for Covenant House.
