By Anne Levin

People and Stories/Gente y Cuentos has begun 2025 with a pleasant surprise: a four-star rating from Charity Navigator, the nation’s largest evaluator of charities.

“One of our donors mentioned to me that she hadn’t seen us on Charity Navigator,” said Debra Lampert-Rudman, the organization’s executive director. “So I went and filled out the forms. And lo and behold, we were four-star. It’s a milestone for us. I think Charity Navigator is something the public generally looks to.”

Based at spacious new offices in the Wall Street office complex off Route 206 north of downtown Princeton, the 53-year-old organization reaches youth, adults, and seniors in diverse social service agencies through eight-week programs focused on literature and poetry. Participants meet in prisons, homeless shelters, alternative schools, libraries, and senior centers. The goal is to transform lives through literature.

“It works,” said Lampert-Rudman. “It’s really true. We have documentation. People go on to do things they say they never thought they could.”

“Our donors tell us, ‘You do what you do so well, just keep doing it.’ Our vision is to do that, but expand to reach more people in need,” said Lampert-Rudman. “We’re keeping the focus heavily in New Jersey and Mercer County, but we have some new things coming up in places like Bucks County and the Bronx. Our focus remains here, though, which is where our heart is.”

Lampert-Rudman took over as executive director last November, after having served as interim executive director since the previous July. She described a typical, 90-minute session as beginning with an ice-breaker, after which all of the participants are given a copy of a story printed out on sheets of paper.

“So they don’t even know the title,” she said. “Everyone looks it over at the same time. The coordinator goes into a little bit about the author, and then reads the story out loud. A guided discussion follows, referring back to the story. And the lines are numbered, so they can do that. They are always bringing it back to the literature, so that at the end of 90 minutes, people feel energized and are asking more questions. There is always something to think about, something to ponder.”

Programs last eight weeks, “so that people who are generally reading at a fifth grade level or lower will suddenly feel confident and empowered that they’re discussing, maybe, Hemingway, and things they might never have had a clue about,” Lampert-Rudman said.

Each participant earns a certificate at the conclusion of the program. “When we have funding, we like to give them a book of short stories or poems,” she said. “For some, it’s the first book they’ve ever been given. The certificate, for some, is a ticket to the next level in their organization — some privilege or opportunity. In one of the homeless facilities, they were putting them on their doors.”

People and Stories/Gente y Cuentos plans to involve more youth in future programs. Recent participants have included young girls experiencing homelessness, people in transition from prison, and individuals in treatment for addiction. Last spring, the organization held a program at the Martin Luther King Middle School in Trenton for the first time.

“These were kids who were new immigrants, Spanish-speaking but from different countries,” said Lambert-Rudman. “Several of them were illiterate in their own countries. The teacher told us that this was a great bridge for them, a major boost. A lot of them drew their evaluations instead of writing them.”

A new initiative pairs a corporation or company with an underserved area. The company gets an eight-week session for employees, and pays for another one focused on those in need. Lampert-Rudman said she is hoping corporations can spend $5,000 on such an initiative.

“We’d love to have 10 of them happening,” she said.