Paul's House

May/June 2005

Over 300 attend grand opening of Paul's House in South Bronx

BY CHRIS WITT

On May 18, Episcopal Social Services celebrated the grand opening of Paul’s House, a new Center for Children and Families located in the South Bronx.

Colorfully decorated walls replete with child-friendly motifs greeted the more than 300 people who gathered to inaugurate the new facility and honor the memory of the late Bishop Paul Moore, for whom the Center is named. Bronx politicians, lay and clergy leaders, community members, friends of the organization, and Episcopal Social Services (ESS) board members and staff were united in their appreciation for the needed services offered at the facility.

In his remarks, Bishop Mark Sisk observed, “Paul’s House is a wonderful tribute to Paul Moore and the concern that he embodied for the South Bronx and young children.” Three of Bishop Moore’s children who attended agreed.

The 17,000-square foot center will help ESS increase its good works in the community and respond to the absence in the area of any center-based childcare services for low-income children under the age of three. Paul’s House will help strengthen an estimated 1,000 South Bronx families annually through life changing services that include Early Head Start, Early Intervention, Family Preservation Services, Foster Care & Adoption Services and Children’s Health Services.

Executive Director Robert Gutheil remarked, “In a neighborhood with 54% of young children living in poverty, ours is the only comprehensive facility for children under the age of three.”

“Tragically, many families in this poorest congressional district in the nation have not had access to services desperately needed to break the cycle of problems that pass through generations of a family,” commented Julianne Wagner, Assistant Executive Director for Planning and Development.

Wagner noted that 90-100 professional and administrative staff members at Paul’s House will “catch children’s developmental issues through early intervention services and will train parents in how to care for their children, to stimulate healthy development. We also will offer medical and dental care for foster children. And the Center even has a supervised rooftop play area.”

A centerpiece of the new facility is the William H. Wright II Early Head Start Center, which hosts six Early Head Start classrooms. This program provides crucial early help to young children and their families, ensuring that the children are ready to succeed when they start school.

Paul’s House also features the Starr Dental Center, made possible with the support of the Starr Foundation, and the Stephen Chinlund Children’s Health Services facility, which serves as a legacy and tribute to Episcopal Social Services’ recently retired Executive Director.

In a happy display of church, community, and agency collaboration, several dignitaries cut the Paul’s House ceremonial ribbon: Bishop Sisk, Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión Jr., State Senator Efraín Gonzalez Jr., ESS Board Chair Marshall Green, and current and retired ESS Executive Directors Robert H. Gutheil and the Rev. Stephen Chinlund.

Episcopal Social Services, a good works arm of the Episcopal Diocese of New York since 1831, is highly respected in the human services field. Its staff of 340 professionals helps over 4,000 individuals turn around their lives each year with intensive, personalized assistance.

In addition to the services offered at Paul’s House, ESS runs four Group Homes for Adolescents, five Community Residences for Developmentally Disabled Adults, a nationally benchmarked After-School Program at MS 302, the Murray Hill Senior Center out of Church of the Transfiguration, and four College Education and Rehabilitation programs for prison inmates and ex-offenders.

As ESS approaches its 175th year, the opening of Paul’s House renews its 30-year commitment to the South Bronx and to, as Chinlund described it, “cutting the cycle of violence, drugs, alcohol, and recrimination. We give families and children a new beginning.”

Young visitors and their families enjoy exploring the six Early Childhood Head Start classrooms located in Paul’s House during the grand opening celebration on May 18.

ESS Board Chairman Marshall Green and Bishop Mark Sisk visit one of the Early Head Start Classrooms.