Allies very own Maryanne McMillan was awarded the John Walker Community Service Award from the American Horticulture Therapy Association this past October at their annual conference in North Carolina. Maryanne has tirelessly worked to improve the lives of the people we support by giving them the chance to learn about sustainable living through our Project Grow partnership with Mercer County Community College’s DREAM Program,  as well as other programs she has been instrumental in running and supporting statewide. We are so proud of Maryanne. She is an incredible asset to our individuals and our agency as a whole. She is the embodiment of our mission here at Allies Inc. Thank you Maryanne, you are an inspiration!

Congratulations to William “Bill” Curnan named NJBIZ’s Top “CFO of the Year”.

Congratulations once again on being recognized during the 2011 CFO of the Year Awards! On behalf of NJBIZ, presenting sponsor WithumSmith+Brown, Certified Public Accountants and Consultants, major sponsors CIGNA, Financial Executives International, Real Estate Strategies, Robert Half and SorinRoyerCooper LLC and supporting sponsors Wells Gargo and Vanguard Engery Partners, LLC., we hope you enjoyed your experience with the program and had a memorable time during the awards breakfast and ceremony on October 25th.  It was a pleasure to honor you for your tremendous accomplishments as a top New Jersey financial executive.

Thank you for your cooperation over the past several months.  In appreciation, enclosed is a photo (image on left side) of you  (far right) receiving your award from Christine Rowe, Regional Vice President, Robert Half’ Andrew Zezas, CEO, Real Estate Strategies Corportation and Host of CFO Studio; David Sorin, Co-Founding and Co-Managing Parnter, SorinRoyerCooper LLC: Ann Servais, New Jersey Business Manager, CIGNA; Bill Grammaticas, FEI New Jersey Chapter President and CFO of ISH Inc. and Kirk Holderbaum, Parnter, WithumSmith+Brown, PC.  Click here to see the letter.

By Rich Bockmann

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

TRENTON — After completing the 10-week Trenton Marriott Food and Beverage, Hospitality Internship program, students from two local schools were informed at a graduation ceremony on Monday that they would be placed on the hotel’s on-call staffing list.

“Getting into spring, we’re entering the busy season, and chances are very good we’ll be giving them a call,” said Jeffrey Zeiger, the Marriott’s general manager. He said that after completing the internship the students are ready for entrylevel work such as dining room assistant and steward-utility positions.

When the hotel hosts large banquets and cannot fully staff them through its union, Zieger turns to the on-call list where, on the condition they can complete the standard Marriott hiring process, the students’ names will be waiting.

Ten juniors and seniors from Trenton Central High School and Delaware Valley School participated in the new program, which was formed out of a partnership among the two schools, Allies, the Trenton Marriott, the Trenton Public Education Foundation and Local 54, the hotel/restaurant employee union.

The students were recommended for the internship by their schools’ work departments based on their skill level and their expressed desire for a career in the hotel/service industry.

Over a 10-week period they attended training programs at the hotel for four hours a week during the school day.

Under the guidance of a jobs coach financed by a New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development grant procured by Allies, the students progressed through two training modules.

The first focused on the front of the hotel, where they learned how to prepare the restaurant, how to service it during operations and how to clean up afterward.

In the “heart” of the hotel, the students moved on to the second module. There, they learned how to rotate stock to keep food fresh and how to plate dishes.

Davon Perry, a junior from Trenton Central, said he thought lessons on resumes, interviews and the hotel’s systems and operations would serve him well in the future. “I think the program will help me get into college because it looks really good on a resume,” said Perry.

Zeiger said he is already working on expanding the program to include areas of the hotel such as the front desk, security and housekeeping.

Friday, November 12, 2010

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

Danny spent most of his 30s in nursing homes watching his elderly friends grow frail and die. He knew there had to be more to life than that. Danny has cerebral palsy, uses a wheelchair and is legally blind. He also reads The New York Times, has a wonderful sense of humor and likes to flirt. With the help of a service provider, Allies Inc. and Project Freedom, a nonprofit housing developer, Danny has a new life in the community. He has a job and an apartment that is completely accessible. He has true freedom — and his new fulfilling life costs less than his nursing home.

All over New Jersey, good-news stories like this are taking place for people with special needs, whether those needs are physical or developmental disabilities, mental illness or homelessness. They are good-news stories for the people and their families, who have benefited from decent homes they could afford, and for the taxpayer, who is saved money in the long run from the higher cost of nursing homes and institutions.

Because of pending legislation that would eliminate housing opportunities for people like Danny, the good-news stories may now stop. While we believe the intent of the legislation is laudable — to help communities devise a simpler, more manageable system — the two attempts at reform, S1 and A3447, have missed the mark and instead put vulnerable, special-needs populations in jeopardy.

The irony is that the bills serve to undermine what the Supreme Court has called a constitutional obligation of municipalities to provide for realistic affordable housing. If enacted, years of costly litigation will ensue that will benefit no one. It would seem far more practical to create a process that is balanced and that takes into account the needs of all parties. While we recognize Sen. Ray Lesniak, D-Union, and Assemblyman Gerald Green, D-Plainfield, for spearheading the process, the result thus far offers people of low to moderate income, including people with disabilities, a bleak future in New Jersey.

A little-known fact is that housing opportunities for lower-income residents of New Jersey have produced 59,066 units of housing, with another 50,081 in production or proposed for completion. In fact, the nonprofit housing development community is currently contributing more than $162 million in economic stimulus and jobs to the state. If S1 and A3447 are approved, this production will be threatened and few to no homes will come through the pipeline for those who need them the most.

Another little-known fact is that such housing is the most affordable and most effective social policy. When people have good, safe places to live, there is less need for costly institutions, there is less crime, less addiction, less poverty and less homelessness — all drains on our social system.

Also, many of the housing developments like Danny’s have been wonderful collaborative endeavors with municipalities as they plan for all their citizens — those with and without special needs.

Without clear, understandable benchmarks that provide incentives for successful collaborations, which better housing legislation could include, we stand to lose a lot, as a society and as taxpayers.

Social policy may be complicated, but the need for a good, safe place to live is not, for we all know: There is no place like home.

Ed Murphy is executive director of Supportive Housing Association of New Jersey. Carolyn Beauchamp is executive director of the Mental Health Association in New Jersey. Lowell Arye is executive director of the Alliance for the Betterment of Citizens with Disabilities. Alison Recca-Ryan is program director of the Corporation for Supportive Housing-New Jersey. Kim Todd is chief executive officer of the New Jersey Association of Community Providers.

©2010 Times of Trenton
© 2010 NJ.com All Rights Reserved.

A program through which people with disabilities work as credit union interns promises to help more CUs better serve disabled members.
So far, in the pilot cycle, The Building Economic Strength Together program has placed five interns with disabilities in four credit unions in New Jersey. Organizers said that eventually they expect to expand the program to 20 interns spread out among more credit unions.

BEST came about through the collaborative efforts of the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions, the Kessler Foundation, the National Credit Union Foundation’s REAL Solutions Program, Allies Inc., a New Jersey based training group for people with disabilities, the New Jersey Credit Union League, and the National Disability Institute.

“The BEST program is a fantastic opportunity for the participating credit unions to explore and develop strategies to better serve people with disabilities,” said Lois Kitsch, REAL Solutions Program Director. “The promising outcome is to be able to replicate the BEST program and the best practices that result from it so that credit unions throughout the country can tap into this emerging market.”

A program through which people with disabilities work as credit union interns promises to help more CUs better serve disabled members.

So far, in the pilot cycle, The Building Economic Strength Together program has placed five interns with disabilities in four credit unions in New Jersey. Organizers said that eventually they expect to expand the program to 20 interns spread out among more credit unions.

BEST came about through the collaborative efforts of the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions, the Kessler Foundation, the National Credit Union Foundation’s REAL Solutions Program, Allies Inc., a New Jersey based training group for people with disabilities, the New Jersey Credit Union League, and the National Disability Institute.

“The BEST program is a fantastic opportunity for the participating credit unions to explore and develop strategies to better serve people with disabilities,” said Lois Kitsch, REAL Solutions Program Director. “The promising outcome is to be able to replicate the BEST program and the best practices that result from it so that credit unions throughout the country can tap into this emerging market.”

The Times, August 30, 2009