This month we wanted to bring some awareness to a hub of support and care that exists right here on Staten Island for the local community. Community Resources is a prominent community services center that stands tall as a beacon of hope and a catalyst for positive change. In this exclusive interview, we sit down with CEO, Mary Rafferty, COO, Michael DeGrottole and Director of Staff Training and Employee Engagement, Matthew McGuire to talk about the remarkable work they have been doing and all the different ways that they serve our community.
Staten Island City Lifestyle: Thanks for sitting down with us! Would you mind telling us about the organization and what your specific roles are?
Mary Rafferty: I am the Chief Executive Officer for Community Resources. We are a non-profit organization that has been serving Staten Island for the last 70 years. We are an organization that provides support to adults and children with developmental disabilities and autism. We have 15 group homes, 5 supportive apartments, day habilitation services for 200 people and a pre-school that supports 80 children.
Michael DeGrottole: I am the Chief Operating Officer. I oversee all the programs that we run. I assure that they are quality programs and I assure that they meet the guidelines of OPWDD (The New York State Office for People with Developmental Disabilities). I also follow the vision and the strategic plan of the executive staff and the board in how they want to see the agency develop, grow and present itself to the community. That’s a very important part of what we all do because we are extending that executive vision. Our reputation in the community is paramount to any of our success. We have a lot of different programs as Mary described to you, those programs have to provide not only the best care but the best opportunities for people to grow. Innovative ideas such as our herb and garden program, our music program, our job training programs etc. are critical to improving people’s lives.
Matthew McGuire: I am the Director of Staff Training and Employee Engagement. I train all of the existing and new employees on the rules and regulations of our agency as well as handle all social media and community outreach in addition to designing all of our promotional material.
Staten Island City Lifestyle: Tell us more about your job training programs. How exactly are you assisting people with this program?
Michael DeGrottole: We have a day program. It serves people who have basic skills but still need some additional help and guidance. We give them that support to prepare them for work and teach them prerequisite skills that they might need. We have a working café on the grounds here where we teach them how to handle money and things like customer service, how to bus tables and those sort of skills to prepare them for a job outside of our program. Our garden teaches them how to grow fresh vegetables, pick those vegetables and prepare simple meals. There are other programs such as job coaching and supportive employment programs where we help people to put resumes together, teach them how to interview and get them out into the community using the connections we have.
Staten Island City Lifestyle: We heard about your partnership with Red Rabbit. Did you want to speak more about that?
Mary Rafferty: Yes, Red Rabbit is a company that takes care of all the school lunches for the parochial schools in Staten Island. They are in our cafeteria space here which has given us the opportunity for some of our folks to be employed by Red Rabbit. We also have the Hungerford School. They have a group of high school students that come to the program here in the building. Hopefully, when they graduate, they will be attending our day program so we began integrating them into some of our programs here already.
Staten Island City Lifestyle: We love that you work with people of all ages and the comfort it brings to families knowing that they have a safe place in the neighborhood for support. Are there any upcoming projects you want to discuss that relay back to this?
Mary Rafferty: We have been approved to open a new home for people who were at residential schools who have now turned 21 and are coming back home. We just entered a contract to purchase a property on Staten Island and we’ll be doing some major renovations. One of our philosophies is we try to make sure people have their own bedrooms, as an adult to have your own space is an important thing. Once we purchase this home, renovations will start and hopefully, within the next year, the home will be certified and people can move in. We spend time getting to know the families and the individuals that are accepted for the home because it really is a collaboration and we need to be able to meet their needs.
Staten Island City Lifestyle: I know 2020 was a difficult year in terms of the future of Community Resources. What are some of the challenges you faced during that time and how did you pivot out of that situation?
Mary Rafferty: In 2020, every agency was faced with a decision considering all that was going on with the pandemic. It put quite a strain on staffing and finances for agencies because day programs were shut down. When I came in, it was the middle of this crisis and we had to stabilize our work force. We just had to get in good alignment, we’ve been around for 70 years so luckily we’ve been doing something right and we were able to get it back on track.
Staten Island City Lifestyle: Touching on that point, how have things changed since the new leadership team has come in?
Michael DeGrottole: We’ve had this new leadership team in place for almost 3 years now and we have remodeled nearly every part of the agency. Not only the office but the pre-school has been completely remodeled and many of our residential programs. We want to put everyone in a place that they are happy, proud and comfortable to be in. Another project we are very proud of is the garden which was an old mechanics garage and parking lot. It is now a fully accessible fully organic garden. We have horticultural classes that are going on weekly and every week we take some of the produce and we bring it down to Jacob’s Well Food Pantry.
Staten Island City Lifestyle: How can people get involved?
Mary Rafferty: We run fundraising events every year. Last year we did an indoor golf event and we just had our Taste of Staten Island event. We haven’t rolled out our fundraising yet for this fiscal year, but being involved in our fundraisers whether it’s buying a ticket and attending or just opening up your own contact list to try and get people to participate. In terms of volunteering, you can go right through our website and send us a message. We can use volunteers in the garden this summer. We brought on some summer interns in different departments so even for students who need an activity or summer internship, we are always looking.
Staten Island City Lifestyle: What are some of the future plans for Community Resources?
Mary Rafferty: We are so optimistic about the future. The approval to open this next group home has been such a big deal. We are very excited about that. Our goal is to continue to improve the quality and support that we are providing but also to expand our footprint in terms of residential homes. There is such a need for folks in the autism community. Next year we are spending a lot of time providing pretty intense autism training and getting ready for individuals that will be moving in with us. We also collaborate with other non-profits on Staten Island and we have really nice relationships with them so another goal is to continue to collaborate. We want to position ourselves as the place where people want to go to work. We’ve spent a lot of time improving the benefits for our employees. We provide full family medical coverage for our direct support professionals. It’s completely paid for by the agency so that has really helped us to attract a talented staff. Another goal is to continue to retain staff and have a really engaged work force.
If you are interested in volunteering or collaborating in any way with Community Resources you can visit their website at www.cr-si.org or visit their Instagram page @communityresourcesstatenisland
We are an organization that provides support to adults and children with developmental disabilities and autism. We have 15 group homes, 5 supportive apartments, day habilitation services for 200 people and a pre-school that supports 80 children.
