Catholic Charities holds ribbon cutting ceremony for new facility
Assemblyman Joseph Angelino, John Franco from the R.C. Smith Foundation, Mary Davis from the R.C. Smith Foundation, Commerce Chenango President and CEO Kerri Green, Catholic Charities Executive Director Robin Cotter, donor Donald Westcott, Catholic Charities Board President Steve Natoli, and donor Jeff Chesebro performing the Leilani’s Way ribbon cutting ceremony, in front of a flower garden dedicated to Marilyn Kochersperger. She joined the Catholic Charities Board in 1983, and played a large role in building Chenango House, a center for those suffering from severe mental illness. (Photo by Dustin Genter of 5th Dimension Photography)
NORWICH — Catholic Charities of Chenango County held a ribbon cutting ceremony for their new facility, Leilani's Way, on Wednesday, September 15.
Leilani's Way is split into three suites, each containing a different organization that provides assistance to the Chenango County community, according to Catholic Charities Executive Director Robin Cotter.
"There's the Addiction Center of Broome County, and the Chenango County Behavioral Club. They're independent, they lease those spaces from us," she said. "We have the Roots and Wings program there, and the services we offer in the building are: we have the food pantry, the household goods and clothing sales, thrift store I guess you could call it. We offer insurance enrollment through Fidelis and Molina. We have NOEP enrollment, that's for food stamps."
The $1,110,000 community center, located at 105 Leilanis Lane in the Town of Norwich, was made possible by the generosity of local organizations and donors, including Don and Karen Westcott, Care Compass Network, Mother Cabrini Health Foundation, the Greater Norwich Foundation, the Follett Foundation, the R.C. Smith Foundation, and more.
Cotter explained Catholic Charities was looking into renovating their former facility, located on Berry Street in Norwich, but it was more cost-effective to build the new center. From there, she said they reached out to clients to ascertain the needs of the community.
"We did a random survey of 200 people that utilized Roots and Wings back when we were kind of trying to figure out what we were going to do, to see what they were interested in," said Cotter.
The center has been in the works since 2018, according to Cotter, which gave them the time to raise the funds, purchase the building, and renovate. But the wait paid off, and Catholic Charities is now able to offer more services to the public than before, and the new property allows for the possibility of expansion in the future, said Cotter.
"As we look at the needs in the community we realize that housing is a great need in our community. We do a lot of housing services through Catholic Charities currently," she said. "So we know that housing is a problem. So, you know, we're looking at doing some type of housing project there on the property in the future."
Cotter said another great motivator for Catholic Charities to build the new facility was to provide visitors with a more comfortable and dignified stop at the center.
"I want people to feel uplifted when they come here. I want them to know that they're valuable, and that we're here for them during tough transitions in their life," she said. "We just wanted it to be a place where people felt good about themselves. You know, uplifted when they came there, worthy, that kind of thing. Having dignity when they came in there."
The ribbon cutting was attended by Catholic Charities officials and board members, donors, and Assemblyman Joseph Angelino. Commerce Chenango President and CEO Kerri Green was one of the guest speakers during the ceremony, and spoke to the compassion of those in Chenango County.
"I'm just so excited that it has finally come to fruition. I think the investment from our local organizations, from our donors, from the foundations really shows that Chenango County and our area really is concerned with this population of our citizens, and how invested we are to try to help them," said Green. "I think this is just a great example of what we can do when we come together."
Cotter said Catholic Charities has provided valuable services to approximately 800 individuals and 35 new families a month. With Leilani's Way up and running, they are now able to move on to establishing other services.
"Today we continue with all services and are looking to add mobile medical vans, we have transportation, hopefully partnering with Cooperative Extension after COVID in our community kitchen area. We have also added generators so we can assist with community sheltering needs," said Cotter.
"That's what we do here, we look at the needs of the community and then we adapt our business to try and meet those needs," she added.
For more information on Catholic Charities and Leilani’s Way, visit their website at ccofcc.com, or their Facebook page at facebook.com/ccofcc.
Leilani's Way is split into three suites, each containing a different organization that provides assistance to the Chenango County community, according to Catholic Charities Executive Director Robin Cotter.
"There's the Addiction Center of Broome County, and the Chenango County Behavioral Club. They're independent, they lease those spaces from us," she said. "We have the Roots and Wings program there, and the services we offer in the building are: we have the food pantry, the household goods and clothing sales, thrift store I guess you could call it. We offer insurance enrollment through Fidelis and Molina. We have NOEP enrollment, that's for food stamps."
The $1,110,000 community center, located at 105 Leilanis Lane in the Town of Norwich, was made possible by the generosity of local organizations and donors, including Don and Karen Westcott, Care Compass Network, Mother Cabrini Health Foundation, the Greater Norwich Foundation, the Follett Foundation, the R.C. Smith Foundation, and more.
Cotter explained Catholic Charities was looking into renovating their former facility, located on Berry Street in Norwich, but it was more cost-effective to build the new center. From there, she said they reached out to clients to ascertain the needs of the community.
"We did a random survey of 200 people that utilized Roots and Wings back when we were kind of trying to figure out what we were going to do, to see what they were interested in," said Cotter.
The center has been in the works since 2018, according to Cotter, which gave them the time to raise the funds, purchase the building, and renovate. But the wait paid off, and Catholic Charities is now able to offer more services to the public than before, and the new property allows for the possibility of expansion in the future, said Cotter.
"As we look at the needs in the community we realize that housing is a great need in our community. We do a lot of housing services through Catholic Charities currently," she said. "So we know that housing is a problem. So, you know, we're looking at doing some type of housing project there on the property in the future."
Cotter said another great motivator for Catholic Charities to build the new facility was to provide visitors with a more comfortable and dignified stop at the center.
"I want people to feel uplifted when they come here. I want them to know that they're valuable, and that we're here for them during tough transitions in their life," she said. "We just wanted it to be a place where people felt good about themselves. You know, uplifted when they came there, worthy, that kind of thing. Having dignity when they came in there."
The ribbon cutting was attended by Catholic Charities officials and board members, donors, and Assemblyman Joseph Angelino. Commerce Chenango President and CEO Kerri Green was one of the guest speakers during the ceremony, and spoke to the compassion of those in Chenango County.
"I'm just so excited that it has finally come to fruition. I think the investment from our local organizations, from our donors, from the foundations really shows that Chenango County and our area really is concerned with this population of our citizens, and how invested we are to try to help them," said Green. "I think this is just a great example of what we can do when we come together."
Cotter said Catholic Charities has provided valuable services to approximately 800 individuals and 35 new families a month. With Leilani's Way up and running, they are now able to move on to establishing other services.
"Today we continue with all services and are looking to add mobile medical vans, we have transportation, hopefully partnering with Cooperative Extension after COVID in our community kitchen area. We have also added generators so we can assist with community sheltering needs," said Cotter.
"That's what we do here, we look at the needs of the community and then we adapt our business to try and meet those needs," she added.
For more information on Catholic Charities and Leilani’s Way, visit their website at ccofcc.com, or their Facebook page at facebook.com/ccofcc.
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