My Career in Gerontology: Assistant Director

My next position with Catholic Charities was Assistant Director of the Department of the Aging. The department grew out of a task force in the late 1970’s to address the “graying” of the Archdiocese. Under the leadership of a former deputy commissioner in NYC’s welfare department, a staff of 20 persons was responsible for reaching out to the 400+ urban, suburban and rural parishes of the New York Archdiocese.

I joined the department in 1981, as director of its city and state funded Recreation Program for the Elderly, which provided technical assistance, trips and teachers to parish senior clubs. (See February 6th blog - What I did all day as a Gerontologist.)

In 1987 I became Assistant Director of the department. My job responsibilities included: overseeing a NYC funded senior center and homemaker program in the South Bronx; supervising the Grants Program, the Recreation Program and the regional field workers who provided consultation and technical assistance to the parish outreach programs to the homebound. Supervision is not my strong point and I worked very hard, taking advantage of every training opportunity to hone my skills.

When I left Catholic Charities after 25 years of service, I felt that what I would miss most was the people I worked with. However, over the years, we did have a few characters that kept me on my toes as a supervisor. Much of my time was spent guiding the workers, helping them set goals and reach out to the parishes, encouraging the parishes to begin programs to reach out to their homebound elders or convincing them that we could help their volunteers with training from our staff. It is amazing to me how hard it was to get parishes and volunteers to accept free training. In those days, we even had a “carrot” to dangle before them, small grants to help them get started.

In the early days of the department, we struggled to come up with a mission statement, goals and objectives. As you can imagine, several hours a week were given to staff meetings, not much fun.

The greatest challenge was in designing a model of a parish outreach program, that would give parish volunteers the tools that they needed to be effective ministers to the frail homebound elderly they served. We never quite knew when a parish “program” could be named as such, despite our considerable resources, including a sizable parish grants program. “Training” on the parish level varied with individual staff consultants.

I also spent a great deal of time with the South Bronx Senior Center, monitoring their budget, their case management files, and helping the director deal with personnel issues. City contracts are unbelievably mired in bureaucracy – and you know how I feel about that! We were attempting to renovate a Parish Hall in which to relocate the program and make it accessible. Despite the cooperation of my program officer at the city, there were just too many hurdles to overcome. In addition, the program was being subsidized by Catholic Charities, which was facing a fiscal crisis. We decided to give up the contract, a difficult decision indeed. It was a very dark time, trying to find another sponsor and eventually closing the center and transferring the clients to other centers and programs.

Shortly after I became assistant director, Cardinal Cooke died and John Cardinal O’Connor became the spiritual leader of the Archdiocese. We proposed an annual Mass for Older Adults at St. Patrick’s Cathedral at which the Cardinal would present Good Samaritan Awards to outstanding senior volunteers from all over the Archdiocese. This spiritual event would replace the annual Christmas Brunch at Lindy’s. And all the parishes could be invited.

What a major project this turned out to be! The entire staff was involved in organizing the event. As its coordinator, I believe that I spent most of 9 months preparing for the first Mass for Older Adults. The cathedral has a master of ceremonies, with whom I worked to coordinate the events of the day. Plus I had to work with the director of music to select the hymns and the director of liturgy to select the readings for the Mass. I learned a lot that year. Picking the awardees and getting them approved was another major undertaking. There was also the selection of gift bearers and lectors; some years we had celebrities doing the readings, which meant more approval. We needed to publicize the event, get out invitations to all the parishes, including transportation for many. Some seniors from the rural counties traveled close to three hours to get to the Mass. The first Mass turned out to be a wonderful spiritual event, despite competition from the Polish Day Parade on Fifth Avenue. Over 1500 seniors met their new archbishop. The Mass continued to be an annual event for many years until shortly before Cardinal O’Connor’s death.

One of my favorite achievements as Assistant Director was the organization of parish senior leaders and staff into support groups on a regional basis serving over 100 Manhattan, Bronx, Staten Island, Westchester, Rockland, Dutchess and Ulster parishes. At meetings we provided speakers, information, technical assistance and educational materials on aging for the parish coordinators to share with their volunteers and homebound elders. This was also key to spreading the word about the importance of trained outreach volunteers. It gave parish leaders a chance to know and learn from one another.

Finally, I represented the Archdiocese on the Elderly Services Committee of the New York State Catholic Conference from 1987 to 1990. It was another step in my education in public policy, advocacy and the legislative process. I traveled to Albany several times a year, where we met with key legislators and networked with my colleagues from other NYS dioceses.

When the director of the Department of the Aging retired in 1990, during a major financial crisis, staff cuts and a re-structuring period at Catholic Charities, I became responsible for the overall operation of the department. After about one year, a decision was made to de-departmentalize the Department of the Aging, and to merge its remaining staff into another department. For me, this was both a personal failure and an opportunity to start over, with the support of new colleagues. The lesson learned was that out of great pain and loss may come hope and new growth and this lesson impacted my own personal spiritual journey. Out of a new team approach to goal setting, we chose a new name for our program - Ministry to Seniors and with new staff, we designed model programs with structured parish volunteer training and accountability components. But more about that later …….