Inside this issue:

Teamwork in Albany 2

Mandatory Fire Drills Save the Day

2

New Year Will Bring a New CRJ Website

3

Shout Outs 3

Customer Delight Stories 4

Who We Are: Hampshire House

5

New Employee Welcome 5

CRJ Employee Newsletter JUN/JUL 2011 DREAMS DO COME TRUE

By: Fabiola Hyppolite & Trizah Kimani

Daniel is an indi-vidual who has lived at the Abington pro-gram since 2001 a f t er h a v i n g moved from Spo-

kane Washington. His family and foster parents all reside in Spokane and his goal has always been to go back and visit. Despite many failed at-tempts due to unavoidable circumstances to ac-complish this goal, Daniel never lost hope. After 10 years, his long awaited dream came true on March 25 when he traveled to a place he once felt that was out of his reach.

During preparation for his trip, he was involved in every step; his staff worked as a team and the program manager ensured that everything was in order. He excitedly made remarks like “When I go, I will come back a changed man.” To anybody who knows him, a statement like that would bring laughter because Daniel has a sense of hu-mor. The joy, anticipation and desire to give his all as each day went by was felt by everyone around him.

On Dan’s departure day, he was up early and did-n’t need any prompt to get ready. He slept through the ride to Logan airport and had to be woken up in order to go check in. His flight went well and he stayed awake throughout the 8 hours of travel as he stated with great confidence “I don’t want to miss anything”. When he arrived in Spokane and got out of the plane, he told the staff member who was accompanying him to his vaca-tion, “Max, for the first time in my life I feel alive.” Max was speechless and felt emotionally moved by those words.

Prior to his visit, staff had come up with an itin-erary for his trip due to him having so many peo-ple that he wanted to go visit that he hadn’t seen in 10 years. His family was very helpful in provid-ing the location of each one of them. The staff rented a car and they drove from one family mem-ber to the other, some had to spend a night at different hotels due to the travel distance, they even drove to Idaho to visit his aunt and had a family get-together. This trip meant a lot to his family. He saw his baby pictures, visited the high school he attended and his grandfather’s grave. His family was very pleased to have him and com-plimented him on his appearance as they hugged him every second with disbelief. They also thanked staff for doing a wonderful job. Despite 7 days not being enough, staff did a great job ensur-ing that he got the best out of his visit. He was grateful. “As soon as I get back, I will start plan-ning my next visit” he said with a smile.

We would like to acknowledge Maxime Laguerre a residential counselor at the Abington Residence for bringing Daniel to his long awaited vacation and his dedication and determination to ensure the success of this trip. We also acknowl-edge Angelo Maroun the Assistant Program Di-rector for all his support and guidance as we pre-pared for this trip. He prepared us on how to expect anything and was ready to offer his sup-port at anytime. Heather Keegan also made im-portant contributions to making Dan’s dream come true.

We were overwhelmed with everyone’s kindness and generosity especially Sandy Tarlow, Daniel’s clinician for giving him a travel discount code which assisted greatly in travel arrangements along with her expertise.

We can take pride in doing it for Daniel, and con-tinue to do so for everyone else we support one step at a time.

The Rodman Ride for Kids is coming up on Saturday September 24th, 2011.

Go to: http://crjustice.kintera.org/rodmanride to check out the CRJ page on the Ride website (courtesy of Eula

Kozma, Advancement) and spread the word!

“When he arrived in Spokane and got out of the plane, he told the staff member who was accompanying him to his vacation, ‘Max, for the first time in my life I feel alive.’ Max was speechless and felt emotionally moved by those words.”

Page 2 CRJ Employee Newsletter

Contributors:

Bill Coughlin Liz Curtin Fabiola Hyppolite Trizah Kimani Kim Sanel Janet Szlyk

Renovations be-gan this month to get the newest SJS program in Albany ready to open this September. Under contract with the

Federal Bureau of Prisons, the “Horizon Center”, as the program will be called, will house up to 28 men and 4 women. While the renovations are being han-dled by a contractor, several CRJ units are already actively involved. Last month, Liz Curtin, John Rogers, Sergio

Reyes, and Jimmy Wang were all at the program on a very hot day scurrying back and forth between the two build-ings of the program: John meeting with the contractors to finalize plans for their work; Sergio and Jimmy checking the various systems for cameras, tele-phones, and computer use, while also securing a delicate system of compo-nents for the camera system which would have been in the way of the con-tractors; and Liz mapping out the placement for office and program func-tions. Meanwhile, EJ Brady has adver-tised the staff openings and is working with Liz to screen applicants and set up interviews during July. SQA will be out to the program as soon as the reno-vations are completed. Thanks to all for this typical display of CRJ team-work.

On March 27, 2011, Becky Ranks a Resident Counselor in the Brookfield Residence, heard some noises coming from the basement during the early morning hours. She went down to in-vestigate where the sounds were com-ing from and when she opened the sup-ply room door saw a lot of smoke. She immediately shut the door and woke both individuals up who were sleeping in their basement bedrooms. Once she had both individuals safely removed from the basement, she went to the main floor and woke up the next two individuals. She remained calm and in-structed the four women to wait for her while she went to the next level and woke the fifth individual. She es-corted all five consumers out to the parking lot and called 911 to report the fire. She opened her car and supplied the five women with warm shelter as

they were all in their night attire and it was cold out. Once everyone was safe and in warm shelter she called her su-pervisor on duty. She remained calm and told her supervisor what had hap-pened and that the fire department was on scene. Her next comment was “I’m so thankful for our mandatory fire drills. Without this training for me and the ladies we would have been in a panic. Everything went so smooth and we all knew exactly what to do”. The fire fighter had great news for Becky and the women. He said “your furnace is broken and what you saw was steam not smoke. He then said however, “If left unattended that would have caused a fire”! He told Becky and the consumers that they did a great job and it was safe to return in-side.

Team Work in Albany

Mandatory Fire Drills Save the Day

Pictured in Albany, NY: Left: Jimmy Wang Network Administrator Right: Liz Curtin SJS Department Director “Thanks to all

for this typical display of CRJ teamwork.”

By Janet Szlyk

Page 3 CRJ Employee Newsletter

New Year Will Bring a New CRJ Website

To John Larivee, CEO, for cele-brating his 37 anniversary with CRJ in July; to Geoffrey Njaaga and Terry Burch of Community Strate-gies for celebrating their 10th anni-versaries in July; to Janice Harrison of McGrath House for celebrating her 14th anniversary in June and to Solomon Asare of the Northboro Residence for celebrating his 13th anniversary in June!

To John Sullivan, Ernie Goodno and the Hampshire House Team for getting a strong Federal Bureau of Prisons Full Monitoring Report in June!

To Tito Rodriguez for his recent promotion from Program Director of Sargent House to Deputy Direc-tor of the Social Justice Services Department.

To Randi Mundell for her recent promotion from Program Coordi-nator of the Westboro and Brook-field Residences to Assistant Direc-tor of Community Strategies.

To Jenny Kiberd of Community Strategies for organizing the recent Community Strategies deep sea fishing trip. Fishing could have been better but the day on the wa-ter was great.

To Len Engel of CJI for appearing on the June 30th panel with people like William Carbone, Executive Director at CT. CSSD in CT, San-dra McCroom, Undersecretary of MA EOPSS and Ron Corbett, Com-missioner of probation in MA, dis-cussing “the Road to Rational Jus-tice in Massachusetts.”

To Tia Tallman and the Keene Re-gional Office of Community Strategies for organizing 18 staff and consumers to go to a Concord, New Hampshire rally advocating for funding services to people with developmental disabilities in the NH state budget.

To Matthew Smith, the Suffolk University intern, who was instru-mental in helping CJI with their organizational assessment of the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Su-pervision project. Matt went above and beyond to get as many of the paper surveys entered in a very tight timeframe. Matt also updated and organized the LSI results for the adult programs of SJS. Best of luck to Matt as he returns to his home state of NJ.

Shout Outs

Our Advancement team has been working during this last month to develop an RFP - a Request for Proposal - that will encourage qualified vendors to pitch CRJ to hire them for this critical project. Paul Swindlehurst, our chief advancement offi-cer said that “the website is one of our most important ‘front doors.’ It’s often the place where people receive their first im-pression of CRJ and our many programs and services.” Paul sees the opportunity to not only refresh the design but make the website content more valuable to all that rely on the site for current information. “It’s a big project to re-do a web-site,” Paul said. “We’ll be working on this for many months with a planned re-launch during the Spring of 2012,” he added. Many employees throughout CRJ will be asked to contribute content specific to their area in the course of revamping the site. If employees have “favorite sites” that are strong on content, or design, or navigation, they are encouraged to forward the URL addresses to Paul at pswindlehurst@crjustice.org. “ Having great examples of other strong, useful, functional websites really stimulates good thinking, “ he said. “While we won’t copy any one site, we do want to take advantage of best practice examples available for review.”

Page 4 CRJ Employee Newsletter

Recently Unity House was visited by state officials who were looking at services provided there. The inspec-tor, Sue Ouellette stated that Unity House is the best 24/7 staffed home she has ever seen. “Too bad we cannot clone this program across the state.” In a debrief with Leslie Nelson, Community Strategies’ Deputy Director for New Hampshire, Donna Barrett and Wayne Bouchard were specifically praised for their helpfulness and professionalism.

A note came to Eric Scharf and Deborah Hopkins from a parent of one of the consumers in our new Leomin-ster/Wachusett Residence: “While we’ve had a few bumps in the road, typical of transition and getting to know each other, [we] wanted to let you know that [our son] hasn’t been this “o.k.” with being away from home in FOUR YEARS. We have a lot of confidence in CS – it’s obvious that [Assistant Director] Angelo [Maroun] and [Program Manager] Tammy [Manning] are working very hard at putting together a good team and getting everyone settled in, and engaged in a new life/community. He talks about his “staff” with comfort and humor, and sounds like he sees his housemates as friends, which is a wonderful thing.”

Abington Residence’s consumers Herbert, Tony, and Dan along with staff Rosa Evora volunteered recently to help clean up three schools in neighboring Brockton. This was an event that the Brockton Lion’s club had put together. In the thank you letter to the over 300 volunteers who participated our crew was singled out for spe-cial appreciation.

Heather Keegan, Senior Nurse at Community Strategies, passed along this customer delight story about the work of Ashley Root, a Resident Counselor at the Westboro Residence:

We had an individual in the hospital that just had major surgery and she wasn't progressing as fast as she should. The hospital was thinking that they would not be able to discharge her back to Westboro and she would have to go to a rehab [center]. I had asked if they could hold off and have PT evaluate her on Monday and we will send a staff in at the same time … When I received report from the hospital on Tuesday, the case manager said "She has improved 100%...The difference is night and day since the staff came in and worked with her on Monday… We cancelled the rehab admit, it looks like she will be able to go home now… Thank-you for sending her in to work with us, to motivate and receive accurate as-sessments". I explained that she was a supervisor and knows the individual very well, and they have a great working relationship, etc... I thought it was Randi [Mundell, Assistant Director] that went, but it was Ashley Root! She is completely dedicated to the individuals that she works with and clearly brings out the best in them.

The staff and residents at Hampshire House planted the barrels in front of both buildings, as well as re-planted grass and flowers along the side. An elderly neighborhood couple stopped by to comment on how nice it looked and to discuss the various types of plants, etc.

Customer Delight Stories

Page 5 CRJ Employee Newsletter

COMMUNITY RESOURCES FOR JUSTICE NEW TEAM MEMBERS

Welcome!

Who We Are: Hampshire House Places Emphasis on Community Relations With a capacity of 32 beds, Hampshire House serves as a Comprehensive Sanctions Center for male and female offenders un-der contract with Federal Bureau of Prisons. It is located in Man-chester, New Hampshire. Resi-dents are referred from the Fed-eral Bureau of Prisons, US Proba-tion and Federal District Courts. Most residents are in the program for an average of 3 months, during which time they receive case management services that emphasize suc-cessful reentry. Hampshire House works with a diverse population with regard to age, type of Federal offense, and length of incarceration. Hampshire House opened with their first resident on April 1, 2009.

The location of Hampshire House came after great contro-versy. When the City refused to give CRJ a zoning vari-ance, we took them to court. In a four-year legal battle, the case went to the N.H. Supreme Judicial Court twice, before finally CRJ was granted zoning relief. The court’s decision was ground-breaking and has been cited in other legal de-cisions across the U.S.

Since opening, the program has placed a great emphasis on community relationships. It has formed an advisory group

of community people who meet on a periodic basis to dis-cuss the program. It has planted flowers and maintained the grounds around the building. In a recent full monitor-ing review by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Hampshire House was cited for having 2 significant strengths. First, the staff and the staffing pattern were recognized as strength. In addition, Community Relations was seen as strong. The Bureau specifically noted, “On May 15, 2011 Hampshire House staff participated in the New Horizons

Walk Against Hunger. As a result, Hampshire House and Community Resources for Justice raised $148 which was donated to the New Horizons Homeless Shelter. We com-mend you for being active in the community and providing support to the local homeless shelter and food bank.” As a result of these efforts, many who opposed the placement of a halfway house in Manchester have been won over.

John Sullivan, the former Director of Coolidge House in Boston and CRJ’s first Facilities Director, is the Program Director. Ernie Goodno, a former Manchester Police Offi-cer, serves as the Assistant Director. There are 12 full-time and 3 part-time staff working at Hampshire House. The program was given American Correctional Association cer-tification in 2011, receiving a score of 99 out of 100. Hamp-shire House consistently gets strong results in job place-ments for the residents.

STAFF PROGRAM STAFF PROGRAM Jeremiah Baker Windsor Residence Sheri Kirouac Leominster/Pleasant Res. Anthony Bator CJI Richard LeBoeuf Hampshire House Vershara Brown Coolidge House Courtney Liferidge McGrath House Frantz Charles STS Elyszabeth Michalski Hampshire House Marcel Cuffy STS Christopher Nesmith Sargent House Jacob Cushing Keene Program Kenny Perez Shared Living Russell Desir STS Rovena Selimi Administrative Office Anibel Fernandes Carver Residence Lillian Sierra Leominster/Pleasant Res. Bojan Fisher Coolidge House Amanda Smith Hampshire House Christina Gatej Coolidge House Odessa Sydney Coolidge House David Hester STS Vedran Trifkovic Coolidge House Phyllis Hogan Administrative Office Pamela Walker Sargent House Crystal Johnson McGrath House Amanda Wetherbee Hampshire House Geoffrey Johnson Coolidge House Marcel White STS Farah Joseph McGrath House Penny White Brookfield Residence