Across the world, governments are confronting a difficult reality: responding to homelessness after families have lost stable housing is often far more expensive and far less effective than preventing the crisis in the first place. That realization is reshaping public policy, with growing attention being given to early intervention, affordable housing, and community-based support systems that keep vulnerable people from reaching breaking point.
In Camden County, New Jersey, that shift is no longer just an idea but it is increasingly reflected in public policy, research, and community programmes. Among the professionals helping to influence that transition is a Nigerian researcher whose work has become part of a significant effort to rethink how communities respond to vulnerability.
Olorunfunmi (Funmi) Adebajo has spent the past three years working where research, public policy, and community practice meet, contributing to initiatives focused on housing instability, behavioral health, and homelessness prevention. Her work has explored a fundamental question with implications far beyond one American county: how can governments intervene before families find themselves without a home?
Rather than viewing homelessness solely as an emergency to be managed, Adebajo's research has centred on preventing it altogether.
While pursuing a Master of Public Administration at Rutgers University, Camden, she joined Camden County's Division of Community Development and Office of Homelessness, where she examined practical policy options capable of strengthening housing stability for vulnerable residents.
Her capstone study, Shared Housing as a Preventative Strategy for Intergenerational Homelessness in Camden County, explored how shared housing models could increase affordable housing opportunities, reduce social isolation, and prevent vulnerable individuals and families from entering emergency shelters. The findings contributed to Camden County's growing emphasis on prevention-focused housing policy through provider training, landlord engagement, and implementation planning undertaken in partnership with the nationally recognised Shared Housing Institute.
Her contributions extended beyond housing policy. Working with the Center for Family Services, Adebajo provided research and policy analysis that supported the development of Camden's Community Crisis Response Team (CCRT). The initiative forms part of New Jersey's investment in community-based behavioral health crisis response, expanding access to non-law-enforcement responses for people experiencing nonviolent behavioral health crises.
The impact of her work has also reached audiences across the public policy community. Her research has been published in PA TIMES, the flagship publication of the American Society for Public Administration, and Shelterforce, one of America's leading housing policy journals. Together, those publications have helped bring national attention to Camden County's prevention-focused, community-driven approach to housing stability and revitalisation.
For Adebajo, however, prevention is more than a research concept as it is a philosophy shaped long before she entered American public administration. Years before she began studying homelessness prevention in New Jersey, she was working with underserved communities in Nigeria, where she witnessed how limited access to education, economic opportunity, and social support often left vulnerable families with few pathways out of poverty.
That experience inspired her to establish the Kindle Africa Empowerment Initiative in 2016, a nonprofit organisation dedicated to expanding educational opportunities for women and children living in underserved communities. The same year, she was selected by the United States Government as a Mandela Washington Fellow under the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI).
Through Kindle Africa, she led programmes that delivered education, vocational training, digital literacy, and economic empowerment for thousands of women, girls, and young people. Her work established adult literacy and vocational centres in Makoko, one of Africa's largest informal waterfront settlements, awarded scholarships to children from low-income families, advocated against rape, supported survivors of gender-based violence, promoted girls' education, and created pathways to economic independence for vulnerable women. Over the years, these education, skills development, and community-based poverty reduction initiatives reached thousands of beneficiaries.
Although separated by thousands of kilometres, her work in Nigeria and the United States is connected by the same principle: sustainable progress begins long before crisis arrives.
That philosophy has not gone unnoticed and in recognition of her contributions to homelessness prevention, behavioral health policy, and community development in Camden County, Adebajo has been named the recipient of the 2026 Public Service Early Career Award by the New Jersey Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration (NJ ASPA).
The award recognises emerging public servants whose work has demonstrated exceptional impact on public policy, public administration, and community outcomes. Established in 2025, Adebajo is only the second recipient since its creation.
In announcing the honour, NJ ASPA stated:
"Within three years of arriving in New Jersey, Olorunfunmi Adebajo has advanced equity for vulnerable Camden residents through initiatives addressing homelessness prevention, behavioral health crisis response, and local economic opportunity. Her capstone research on shared housing as a solution to intergenerational homelessness directly influenced the implementation of Camden County policy. Her publications in national and international outlets have helped reshape the narrative around Camden's coordinated, community-driven revitalization."
The organisation presenting the award, the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA), is one of the world's leading professional associations for public service and public administration, bringing together government executives, academics, nonprofit leaders, and public service professionals from across the United States and around the world.
The latest recognition adds to an already distinguished record of public service and academic achievement. Before receiving the NJ ASPA Public Service Early Career Award, Adebajo was honoured with the Rutgers University Camden Chancellor's Award for Student Civic Engagement, selected as a Community First Fellow at Rutgers University's Center for Urban Research and Education (CURE), and inducted into Pi Alpha Alpha, the international honour society for public affairs and administration.
Adebajo's story is ultimately about more than one award or one research project as it reflects the growing influence of Nigerian professionals whose ideas are contributing to solutions for global challenges. Whether establishing literacy centres in Makoko or helping shape prevention-focused public policy in New Jersey, her journey demonstrates that innovation in public service is not defined by geography but by the ability to improve lives. As Nigerian expertise continues to leave its mark across the world, stories like hers underscore the country's expanding contribution to research, policy, and community development on the global stage.
