In January 2006, Jim Scordo and Roger Ambrose served on the Program Committee for the NYS Association of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Providers annual conference held in New York City .  In addition, Mr. Scordo served as the co-chair of this year’s event.  This is the largest event of the year for the chemical dependency field with approximately 2,000 individuals from programs throughout New York State .  It was an honor to be a part of this year’s planning committee.  

  Credo Community Center has accomplished the following in the past year:  

Credo Community Center wrote a successful grant application to the NYS Office of Alcoholism & Substance Abuse Services to address workforce issues.  There was the opportunity for additional dollars for residential staff only to assist in offsetting the increased costs in health insurance as well as recognition of staff for their efforts in pursuing their credential Alcohol/Substance Abuse Counselor (CASAC).  

In April 2006, Credo Community Center Foundation purchased the garage directly behind our building at 595 West Main Street .  This will help significantly in resolving the parking problem that we have faced for years.  We are now able to park thirteen employees’ vehicles in there which has freed up the parking lot for clients and visitors.   

As we reflect on this past year much of our success can be attributed to the key staff that we have in management roles within the organization.  There are ten managers with over 100 years of experience working at the Credo Community Center .  In addition, we have manager that come from other fields with numerous years of experience and knowledge they have brought to the Credo Community Center to further strengthen our organization.  Our management staff are involved in numerous committees throughout the county: the Jefferson County Community Services Board, the Alcohol Substance Abuse Subcommittee, North Country Behavioral Healthcare Network, Big Brothers/Big Sisters,  Samaritan Advisory Board, Council of Social Agencies, Drug Court , Alternatives to Incarceration Committee, Northern Tier Providers and Central New York Alcohol Drug Providers Coalition, Red Cross and the YMCA.  In addition, we have had a management staff participate in the Jefferson Leadership Institute each of the last five years and we also had one of our managers be one of five individuals in New York State who was selected for a management track training that involved chemical dependency providers from New York State, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.  John Wilson completed that program in September, 2006, and brought some of the experience and knowledge back to his work site.  

Credo Community Center also has been planning for the future anticipating that there will be turnover and trying to prepare our future leaders.  We set out to do a management track training for our staff within our own agency who had an interest in pursuing management in the future.  The requirement was that they needed to be showing an interest in training and had to be a CASAC trainee as a minimum requirement along with a letter of support from their supervisor.  We had twelve individuals who signed up for the program.  They meet monthly and participate an in-service that has been put on by one or more of our management staff.   This has been met with great satisfaction and provided an opportunity for growth within our agency.  

One of our big accomplishments for 2006 was completion of our fourth strategic plan.  We held focus groups with our employees and Board members.  In the joint session we got some great feedback from the groups and then compiled information and utilized material in NYS OASAS five year plan.  We had a draft prepared for the Board by the August meeting and by October, 2006, the final version of the strategic plan was approved.  In addition to the strategic plan, we also took a look at a new Mission Statement and Statement of Guiding Principles.  After six years of a merged organization we created a new mission statement that represents more of what we are about and much shorter.  We also developed some guiding principles which speak on how Credo operates and provides service.  

One of the big parts of the strategic plan was creation of a marketing plan.  This is something that Credo has struggled with in the past not having one person designated to do that so the Board asked for specific marketing plan with action steps and time frames.  That was completed as part of our strategic plan and both will be very helpful tools as we move forward in the future.  

As we concluded 2006, I was honored to accept the Hope Award on behalf of our employees, Board and clients.  The Hope Award is presented by the United Way to a United Way Agency who exemplifies the highest standards for an agency receiving United Way funding.  Credo’s commitments to quality and community involvement are the reasons Credo Community Center has won this award in 1997, 2000 and 2006.  

As we look forward to 2007, Credo Community Center will be focusing on the following:  

·        Implementation and follow through of the new strategic plan as well as marketing plan.  This will be addressed on a monthly basis at our management meeting to track progress and will be reported to the Board on a quarterly basis.

·        It appears that NYS OASAS is ready to convert to the new adolescent model.  We have had numerous meetings with OASAS on this and we have been part of the development of these new regulations.  We should be converting by late summer or early Fall 2007.  This will involve us hiring some additional staff to be in compliance with the new regulations as well as an addition to the building.  We will be utilizing the OASAS Capital Unit to assist us with the renovations and addition to the house and to help bring us into compliance with the new regulations. 

·        We also will be doing a Capital Project on West Main Street where our Outpatient/Administrative Offices are housed.  The recent purchase in 2006 of the garage outback gives us an opportunity to address the parking as well as space where we can do an addition off our existing building.  We will be doing a feasibility study to assess what is the best use of the garage and how we can resolve the parking as well as requirements for additional space.  Again, we will be working closely with OASAS Capital Unit to move forward with these plans.

·        One of our challenges continues to be the funding we loose as a result of our clients becoming employed.  Our Winthrop Street house experiences the biggest shortfall in revenue as a result of that philosophy.  Our Board continues to feel that that is the right thing to do and we have had conversations with Patricia Connolly, Commissioner of Department of Social Services to see if there are other ways that we can work with DSS to avoid the loss of revenues.

·        The other issue that is a challenge in our County is the lack of quality Mental Health Services.  As a result we contract with a private psychiatrist to provide many of our evaluations and medication updates for clients in both our intensive residential models.  Unfortunately, this provider does not accept Medicaid so it is a direct cost to the Credo Community Center program.  We are hopeful that with Samaritan and Carthage Area Hospital both pursuing the Mental Health Outpatient license that the quality of mental health services in the county will improve.

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