The MIssion and History of Respond Inc.

Respond, Inc. is a voluntary, not for profit (501) (C) (3) agency created by community residents to enhance and promote the economic independence and general welfare of individuals and families residing in Camden City and county. This mission is carried forth in the provision of comprehensive services in child care, a senior adult center, programs for homeless adults, rental housing and home ownership, youth services, employment, economic development, job training and associated programs that help people help themselves.

Consistent with our mission, enabling people to be healthy, productive members of the community is the goal of everything we do at Respond. We understand that most people want to lead useful, productive lives that benefit themselves and the society. They don't want handouts; they want the chance to earn their own way. We believe that even the most needy people can succeed if supportive services to back them up are deeply rooted in, and grow out of, our community. All of our activities at Respond are guided by one conviction: If we provide individuals and families with basic services and opportunities, they will grow to lead more productive lives.

To carry out this mission, Respond has developed programs that:

  • Provide more than 400 full-time, part-time and seasonal community based jobs in Respond programs
  • Provide an enriching environment for more than 200 infants and toddlers age two weeks to 2½ years and for more than 800 preschoolers in a county-wide system of child development centers, including the operation under contract with the Camden City Board of Education of 22 Abbott District classrooms for three- and four-year-old children living in the City of Camden.
  • Provide more than 800 families with child care, making it possible for parents to work or train for employment
  • Provide child care that allows parent/families to generate more than $20 million in income, contributing to the well being of the local economy
  • Employ seniors from the age of 60 to 90-plus years in all areas of agency operation
  • Administer a summer career exploration internship program in local businesses for high school students from the city
  • Design a volunteer experience for 13 to 15 year-olds (children who are too old for summer camp and are too young for employment programs) with job shadowing, employability skills training, mentoring, field trips and cultural venues
  • Operate year-round enrichment programs for school-age children in before- and after-school programs and a summer theme-based enrichment camp
  • Develop and operate day, emergency overnight and transitional housing programs for homeless single adults and assist participants in obtaining employment, job training and permanent housing
  • Provide seasonal employment for college students as mentors for special youth projects and in other positions
  • Provide emergency housing units for Camden residents displaced by catastrophic emergency
  • Assist staff members to move forward through career path training, providing tuition reimbursement, participation in state and national training workshops, Child Development Associate certification and other educational and training competencies
  • Engage in a process for National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) national accreditation for Respond child care centers
  • Administer a senior adult day center to help prevent institutionalization of our aging population
  • Provide volunteer opportunities and internships in Respond programs for local students and community residents of all ages
  • Secured a $1 million foundation grant to build state-of-the-art playgrounds at our child care centers and make the facilities available for use by community residents
  • Pilot a hands-on training program for housing rehabilitation and maintenance skills in a partnership with participants in our homeless programs for single adults
  • Designate housing for both rental and home ownership for individuals and families
  • Bring literacy programs to parents and children in cooperation with local community partners
  • Design intergenerational, hands-on art and music projects and other shared activities for young persons to engage with older adults
  • Design programs for learning employability skills and workplace protocols
  • Initiate economic development projects in the community, including the funding of a $4.5 million career training facility and preschool/child-development center in North Camden
  • With the support of government, foundations, the United Way, faith communities and private donations, celebrate over 40 years of working with community residents, our peers and constituents to develop and manage programs that respond to the self-identified needs of individuals and families
  • Focus on the creation where sustainable communities of peace, hope, healing, harmony, and wholeness exist through a partnership with the Communities of Shalom

History
Respond, Inc. was created in 1967 through a joint venture of residents of the North Camden community and the United Methodist Church in Haddonfield, a nearby suburban NJ town inhabited by many former Camden residents. The church assigned its Minister of Mission to meet with neighborhood residents in North Camden. A survey of needs was undertaken and child care for parents who were in school or training for employment became the highest priority.

The minister of mission, the principal at Sewell Elementary School, a teacher at the school and other community residents formed the North Camden Day Care Project that established the first child care center in the area, using space in the State Street United Methodist Church at Sixth and State Streets. In 1967, the program housed 30 children in a half-day program. Wilbert Mitchell, a young teacher at Sewell School, was appointed the first Executive Director and took a leave of absence from the school district. He has led the agency throughout its history and continues to provide the vision and hard work necessary to ensure its continued success. The child care project was incorporated in 1968, with two programs in operation, the first continuing at the State Street church and a second, the Linden Street Day Care Center at 9th and Linden Streets. Together they served 90 children. Both remain in operation.

By 1975, administrative offices had opened at 532 State Street in North Camden (where they are today) and the agency was named Respond, Inc. In the interim, Vine Street Day Care opened, and the child care programs were all extended to a full day. The infant program began in 1972, followed by the Winslow and Merchantville Day Care centers. East Camden and Bank Street Centers were opened in the 1980s. The Firehouse Center on Vine Street opened in 1989, housing both preschool and School Age Child Care programs.

Respond began operation of the New Jersey Abbott District 3- and 4-year-old classrooms for the Camden Board of Education in 1998 at scattered sites in the agency's existing child development centers and at the new Fairview center in the city. For the opening of the 2007-2008 school year, Respond had 22 Abbott district classrooms. Stockton and Washington & Williams Child Development Centers opened in the fall of 1999 and Respond assumed operation of Virtua-Camden's Leaps & Bounds Child Care Center in the year 2000. Services for infants and preschoolers expanded in 2003 with the opening of the North Camden Child Development Center at 6th and State Streets at the site of the former Check-In Market.

State Street Housing and the Community Elders Council were created in 1972 and 1974. The Summer Youth Career Exploration Program, the Summer Enrichment Camp, the Teen Volunteer Program and Youth Advisory Board followed over the next two decades. A weekly intergenerational workshop at the Elders' center in partnership with members and staff of the Philadelphia Orchestra is one of the new and exciting programs that Respond provides for children, senior citizens, adults and families.

Respond continues to create economic development and adult education initiatives and will open a job training facility in North Camden early in 2009. The New Worker Job Development Center is a state-of-the-art vocational training facility for culinary arts, automotive technology, and other demand occupational areas. It will also provide on-site child care and demonstration preschool classrooms. Training services will be targeted to out-of-school youth, unemployed and underemployed adults in a holistic program approach.

A pilot program in culinary arts has started off-site in cooperation with the New Jersey Juvenile Justice Commission pending readiness of the new facility. Other projects to assist the most challenged populations to become self-sufficient are in development and planning stages.

The PATH Homeless Day Center was developed in 1989 in response to the community's need for a day shelter facility with essential services for homeless men. An emergency low demand Code Blue daily overnight shelter from October through April was added several years later, and continues to serve homeless adults from both Camden City and County. Temporary housing units for city families displaced by emergency and Crossroads House, a transitional housing facility for men provided by federal HUD funds, opened in 2004.

In 1993, Respond entered the world of direct welfare reform programming, selected by the state of New Jersey to operate a pilot program for single adult recipients of what was then known as Municipal Welfare in the city of Camden. In 1998, Respond was the lead agency for a grant under the collaborative Employment Partnership of Camden County at the Community Planning and Advocacy Council to establish a New Worker Center on Washington Street in the Lanning Square neighborhood of center city Camden. Programs providing services to both General Assistance and TANF recipients continued with funding from the New Jersey Department of Human Services, Division of Family Development through June of 2004, when New Jersey merged all to-work programs into the newly created Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Staff members from the New Worker Center brought a strong voice to the planning, development, design and implementation of workforce training, always advocating for sound client-centered program models that stress personal responsibility as the main component of achieving independence and economic self-sufficiency.

Since its inception in 1967, the agency's diverse staff and volunteers have grown to number 400. Respond has succeeded in building an outstanding example of how people from diverse backgrounds and all walks of life can work together toward the common goal of an enriched community for all of its citizens. The respect of that community to know its own needs, the ability to direct that knowledge into viable programs combined with exceptional support from government, foundations, the faith community, the United Way, local business and industry and private donors have all been instrumental in making Respond, Inc. the successful organization that it is today.

>>Read the Message from the Executive Director

Communities of Shalom

In 1992, the United Methodist Church witnessed the violence and riots in Los Angeles which brought about a resolution in the church to create peace and wholeness in communities of the world. The Communities of Shalom was created as an initiative of the General Board of Global Ministries in an effort to bring shalom to the world, one community at a time. This organization has developed into a grass-root, faith motivated, community development network spanning the USA and into Africa.

Though the Communities of Shalom was officially started in 1992, the United Methodist Church in Haddonfield has recognized the healing and harmony which is desperately needed in the City of Camden through the creation of Respond, Inc. Their commitment to the community since 1967 embodies the goals and values of shalom, making a perfect partnership between the Communities of Shalom and Respond. Through this partnership, we focus on the creation of economically and ecologically sustainable communities of peace, hope healing, harmony, and wholeness in which all God's people experience shalom by supporting local congregations and community residents as they work together to renew community life.

The Communities of Shalom equips local ministry teams in asset-based and collaborative approaches to systematic change, economic prosperity, healing and health, and sustainability. This six-point approach to community transformation can be easily remembered by the letters SHALOM:


S = systematic and sustainable change
H = healing, health, harmony, and wholeness
A = asset-based community development
L = love for God, self, and neighbor
O = organizing for direct action
M = multicultural, multifaith collaboration

For more information on how to participate in a shalom ministry near you, request shalom training and/or become a new community of shalom, visit: www.communitiesofshalom.org

"Seek the shalom of the city where I have sent you for in it's shalom, you will find your shalom." (Jeremiah 29:7)

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