Gordon: |
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When did you join
St. Thomas the Apostle Parish
and how has the parish enhanced your faith? |
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Scott:
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I became a parishioner at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in 1992 when
I moved to Jefferson Township NJ from over an hour away in another
County. I came to Jefferson as a result of me working at the
Department for Persons with Disabilities, A Catholic Charities
Agency in the Diocese of Paterson. The DPD is a private, nonprofit,
501 (C) 3 organization that provides residential, vocational,
case-management and spiritual services for adults with intellectual
and developmental disabilities and their families. DPD operates in
three counties and Jefferson Township, Oak Ridge is where the main
offices are for DPD along with several of its programs. Saint Thomas
has always enhanced my faith not only because of the work and
support the Parish gives to the people we serve, but also being a
Parishioner myself with my wife and raising three daughters as well.
The Pastor at St. Thomas, Rev. Matthew Twiggs and Parochial Vicar
Rev. Dawid Zajecki have been more than supportive of our mission.
Past Parochial Vicar Rev, Jhon Madrid is also a member of our Board
of Trustees and Pastor Emeritus Monsignor Fitzpatrick is still
involved in all we do as well. |
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Gordon: |
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When were you appointed Executive
Director of the
Department of Disabilities of
Catholic Charities
in the Diocese of Paterson, NJ and what are your primary
responsibilities? |
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Scott:
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I started at DPD when I was 22 years
old and have been with DPD for 26 years. I was very fortunate to
have two great mentors in Thomas Barrett and Julie Tatti who
encouraged me to get an advanced degree and taught me what it meant
to be a good role model, person and Executive Director over the
years. They took me under their wing and taught me invaluable
lessons of running a large organization. I am fortunate enough to
have a great Associate Executive Director in Joanna Miller who has
been with DPD for 19 years and has grown up in the organization with
me. We often have joked between us that someday the kids were going
to take over the family store and here we seem to be. Even though
retired from DPD, Tom and Julie are always there for us and actively
engage in agency events and continue to lend their support to us and
the organization. Joanna and I are lucky to have GREAT staff and we
always say the staff, especially the direct care staff who are so
caring in what they do, are the backbone of the organization. |
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Gordon: |
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Approximately how many people
with disabilities does your agency assist? |
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Scott:
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DPD operates in three counties, has
an annual budget of $8,000,000 dollars and provides support to 72
adults in our Group homes and Supervised apartments, we care for 58
people Monday through Friday at Gruenert Center in Lake Hopatcong, a
day program offering a wide variety of activities and work during
the day, we provide case-management/Support Coordination services
for over 50 families, we operate Saturday at the Center for 30
families as respite and activity for young adults, have an active
volunteer program of over 100 active volunteers and have a wonderful
Pastoral Care program which provides Bible Study, Lenten activities,
Rice Bowl and visiting those who are now in nursing homes or other
facilities. We are also fully accredited by COA, The Council on
Accreditation since 1986. |
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Gordon: |
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What have been some of your
greatest challenges in meeting special needs of the disabled? |
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Scott:
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Obviously the greatest challenge is
funding and meeting the needs of our community. There are over
8,000 adults in NJ waiting of get into a program like ours. We are
very thankful to our supporters that help us raise funds every
year to provide all the extra things that government funding does
not provide. It allows us to have quality programs and deal with
situations that are sometimes outside the box. |
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Gordon: |
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At a time when many parishes and
agencies may not utilize many social media tools, what has been
your experience in using social media communication resources? |
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Scott:
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DPD has used social media for
several years and find that more and more people use social media to
get their message out. Our Development Director, Christopher
Brancato does an amazing job with tweeting and facebooking and we
have been retweeted by Catholic Charities USA, Temple Grandin, and
the Supreme Knights of Columbus. We have taken classes at NYU on
leveraging social media and have used their advice on a strategy and
our operational plan includes social media goals and objectives. We
have an online auction for our annual Golf Outing event and use
Patrick’s Pals
and use an online funding site
that uses social media to raise funds for Patrick’s Pals.
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Gordon: |
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Based on your experience, how
aware are pastors of that there are people with disabilities in
their parishes? |
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Scott:
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Under the guidance of our Bishop,
Most Reverend Arthur Joseph Serratelli, STD, SSL, DD, and our Vicar
General, Rev. Msgr. James T. Mahoney, PhD, they are very supportive
of Catholic Charities and all we do for our disabled population. We
have quarterly meetings with new pastors to show them all that
Catholic Charities does as a whole and how we can help if they have
a situation in their Parish where people need help. DPD is very
lucky to be able to have ads in our Parish bulletins for both
volunteers and staff and I personally receive about three calls a
week from families who are looking for support who have been
directed by their Pastor to give me a call. |
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Gordon: |
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People with intellectual and
developmental disabilities may need catechesis. How is this need
addressed? |
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Scott:
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DPD was started by Monsignor Jack Wehrlen in 1965 and one of his
early efforts was providing catechesis. That program has now turned
into C.A.R.E – Catholic Adult Religious Education which is provided
at St. Thomas on the second Monday of every month for over 30 adults
with developmental disabilities. This is open to people we serve in
our programs and families living in the community and usually
involves a religious lesson, singing with our CARE choir and always
a snack and reflection. |
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Gordon: |
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What was you response to the new
Sesame Street Muppet with autism? |
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Scott:
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Part of DPD and Catholic Charities
values is Advocacy and Convening. I think it is wonderful that
students these days are more understanding of differences and more
tolerant of each other. It all starts with education and the
children in this world will one day be the adults in this world.
Educating our youth, I believe is an important part of our
responsibility. DPD has a wonderful relationship with our local high
school, Jefferson Township, NJ. Principal Dr. Plotts and I have
worked together to provide and annual
Dunk for Disabilities basketball
game at the school and we have students with special needs
come to DPD on Fridays to work with cooking and life skills
training. DPD also offers a scholarship to two local students
interested in going into the special education field each year.
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Gordon: |
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I hope our readers will consider
making a
donation to help support your critical work. What are your top
three greatest needs? |
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Scott:
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DPD constantly fundraises to support
all of the services we provide. Our top needs and how you can help
is by sponsoring one of our events, where every dollar gets put back
to the services we provide, donating money for something on our wish
list, or becoming one of our volunteers and making a difference in
someone’s life with a disability. |
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Gordon: |
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Thank you for an exceptional
interview and your leadership in addressing the needs of the
disabled. |