Angela Hall was a fixture at Harmony House, New Community’s transitional housing facility for homeless families. She worked for New Community for more than 34 years before her passing on March 27 after a battle with colon cancer.
Her sister Lisa M. Hall-Brown said Hall loved working at Harmony House, particularly with the children there. She would help children with their homework if they were having trouble and led them toward a successful path.
“She wanted every young child to look toward college and to further their education, and become good people,” Hall-Brown said. “She loved those children.”
Hall-Brown said there were many success stories attributed to her sister, including a young man who she referred to Job Corps who now owns a construction company, a woman in recovery for drug addiction who Hall helped find employment and a client who she accompanied to a bank to help open an account.
While Hall didn’t have children of her own, Hall-Brown said she was fantastic when working with young people.
“She treated everybody’s kids like they were her own. She was sweet, she was stern and they respected her,” Hall-Brown said. “I know she touched so many children. The kids used to come back just to see her.”
Harmony House Case Manager Linda Washington worked with Hall for more than 17 years and described her as very knowledgeable and always willing to help in whatever way she could. Washington said Hall’s work with the youth at Harmony House made a huge difference and when she switched to case management for the adults, she did just as well. Washington said Hall’s loss has already been felt and she will be greatly missed.
“Her clients loved her,” Washington said. “She was a great person.”
Hall was raised in Newark, just blocks away from Harmony House. She worked as a youth counselor in her teenage years, for a time as a nursing aid and later served as a resident counselor at a home for boys. A coworker told her about the employment opportunity at New Community so she applied and was accepted. Hall-Brown said Hall loved working at New Community and made her career there.
Hall also had many skills that her coworkers may not have known about. Hall-Brown said she was an amateur mechanic and also knew how to drive a tractor trailer. She said Hall knew how to do some plumbing and fix almost anything like their father.
Hall-Brown said Hall had a good sense of humor, was loving and was very charitable.
“I’m going to miss her but she had a good run,” Hall-Brown said. “She helped people. She wasn’t just there.”
