Every year, the nonprofit organizations in our community roll up their sleeves and get to the work that is required to fulfill their mission which, in one way or another, improves a life – make that, many lives and in many ways.
It’s a special kind of person who dedicates their career, and life, to actively helping others. We spoke with some of those passionate people to discover the challenges, rewards and simple matters that come with a job where the goal is simply to do good. Every day.
Something they’re proud of
The wonderful thing about the Y is when you are in the pool or in a program, however you’re participating, we don’t know what your income is. You’re just here. What that does is provide people with a sense of dignity.
Shaun Elliottt
We are involved with an organization called Goodwill Home Medical Equipment. We take donations of used medical equipment, and we refurbish it, store it, sanitize it and sell it at a tremendously reduced price. It’s a program we’re very proud of because it makes a real difference in people’s lives.
Mark Boyd
I’m especially proud of our newly opened medical suite at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Hospital. The medical suite has an X-ray machine and surgical equipment, so veterinarians can come right to Cedar Run and give care here.
Mike O’Malley
Mend was organized 55 years ago, so this is a long-standing organization that fills a critical need of affordable housing in the community. We acquired six homes two years ago, and now we’re trying to acquire another building. I’m proud of our progress.
Eileen Wirth
I started working at Oaks during the pandemic, and I’ve seen the rise in need for mental health services. Mental health is something that hits close to home for me. Sadly, the need for services is growing more each day, so it makes me proud to work for an organization that is trying to tackle this head on.
Denise Soto
We’re celebrating our 10th anniversary, and we have a few staff who have been here even longer than 10 years. Salvation Army has been in South Jersey for 144 years, but the Kroc Center building is 10 years new. All of our employees, no matter how long they have been here, are compassionate – they have heart.
Major Richard Sanchez
Our new Social Isolation, Loneliness, Connection Collaborative is something I talk about every opportunity I get. We now have a steering committee and a mission statement, and we’ve set plans for 2025. There’s going to be a lot of positive outcomes from this.
Erika Thomas
We’re particularly proud of the evolution of the organization over the last four or five years. We’ve become more community responsive. There’s been a focal point over the last few years to take community feedback and use that to develop programming.
Kahra Buss
Some people talk about nonprofit work as a calling, and I really believe it is. It’s not for everyone. I’m so proud of the staff we have. We’re a top workplace in New Jersey – our staff is inclusive, welcoming and they’ve built a culture around the values of the organization.
Fred Wasiak
We are celebrating our 40th anniversary. We were founded in 1984 by Monsignor Michael Doyle whose dream was to have a nonprofit that would be focused on the redevelopment of the Waterfront South neighborhood. But 40 is just a number. We have 40 years of 250 families served. 40 years of building arts and culture facilities. 40 years of working to make sure public spaces were built here. 40 years of fighting environmental injustice. 40 years of having people’s voices heard. It’s not just the number, it’s the impact. That’s what I’m truly proud of.
Carlos Morales
In addition to launching three new lines of business in the last two years, we were certified by the state of New Jersey as a competitive, integrated place of employment. What that means is people who are blind are working right alongside their sighted counterparts, doing the same or similar complex operations, and they’re receiving a competitive wage. I’m really proud of that.
Jon Katz
One program that has a great impact
Samaritan’s social connections program has 100% made a huge impact in New Jersey. We provide programs for people who are suffering and dealing with challenges of social isolation and loneliness. One part of that is our Friendly Caller Program, where we match volunteers, who are background screened and trained, with patients who have similar interests and life experiences, and they make weekly phone calls to them. It’s an amazing program.
Erika Thomas
We used to go to South Jersey Food Bank with a van and a little trailer on the back, and we could pick up a maximum of 5,000 pounds of food with that trailer. But we were able to purchase a 26-foot box truck with a lift gate. So now every time we go, instead of the 5,000 pounds we were limited to, we can pick up 35,000-45,000 pounds of food in one shot. We’ve greatly increased our capacity for food distribution.
Major Richard Sanchez
Our signature program is an adult alternative high school, called Helms Academy, where people can get their high school degree. We have nine locations, and we partner with four-year colleges and community colleges to offer a GED service, college credit program, adult basic education, and English as a second language classes. So far, we’ve had over 300 people get their high school diploma at no charge to them. It’s a program that has fundamentally changed many people’s lives.
Mark Boyd
During our free public programming in the summer, we ran about a dozen free concerts and festivals, and we worked with community partners to reach populations that may not have been represented fully in the past. We want all people to feel they can walk into one of our locations and connect with the arts, either passively or actively, through concerts, exhibitions or even taking classes.
Kahra Buss
I have a letter from a mom of a 10-year-old girl who was being bullied at school and then went to our summer camp. The letter says, “I don’t know what you did, but you’ve changed my daughter completely. She’s doing better at school, she’s making friends, she has some sense of self-worth. I’m not a religious person, but I thank God the Y was there.” That’s evidence of the impact our camps can make on a child’s life.
Shaun Elliott
We’ve created the Camden County Schools Wellness Program – a partnership with 22 school districts, and we have a three-pronged approach: Our therapist is in schools for on-site therapy one to two days a week. And when a student is facing a crisis, oftentimes they’ll have to get a clearance to return to school. We handle those clearances. And then we’re also working with staff within the schools, so they know the signs of youth struggling and can direct them to seek support.
Denise Soto
Our wildlife rehabilitation work has been especially impactful. Our previous record for the number of injured or orphaned wild animals we’ve ever taken in was 6,382 in 2021. By September of this year, we already had 7,000. Most of the animals are brought in by good Samaritans who found an animal on the side of the road or on their property. We try to get every patient back out into the wild as much as possible.
Mike O’Malley
We’ve privatized our Summer Meals Program, which gave us a little more flexibility in the way we deliver and serve our meals. By privatizing, we were able to reduce some of the barriers to get more healthy, nutritious produce and proteins delivered to children.
Fred Wasiak
We’ve built 250 homes for first-time homebuyers – that’s made a major impact to the Waterfront South neighborhood, but our work goes beyond the bricks and mortar. We also work on support services, trying to make sure residents are able to become successful homeowners and stay in their homes.
Carlos Morales
Myths they bust
We have a nasty piece of disinformation that’s on social media that says Goodwill is a for-profit company – that we don’t help anyone, we’re privately owned and all the money goes to some CEO. All of that is a lie. We’re a 501c3, not for profit. Last year we served about 1,800 people, and we serve them for multiple years because we’re trying to make a fundamental difference in their lives. It’s expensive and time consuming, and I have an incredible staff who works with people every day. So when people say we’re a for-profit company, it’s hurtful.
Mark Boyd
When somebody says a blind person can’t have a job, first of all, I have to get over the shock of such a statement. With proper training and assistive technology, people who are blind can do just about anything. We attach guides and fixtures to a sewing machine that allow them to perform the same operations as people who are sighted perform. It allows them to align their fabric with the machine and also ensures that their fingers aren’t anywhere near the needles.
Jon Katz
One myth I want to dispel is that the Salvation Army is a place to only seek help for emergencies – that once people get back on their feet, they no longer need the Salvation Army. We have comprehensive services. We serve people from the cradle to the grave, with fitness programs, spriritual care, an after-school program, food assistance. The thought that we’re just for emergency services is a myth.
Major Richard Sanchez
There’s a lot of misinformation about wild animals. Someone posted a picture of a red fox on their property and said, “Watch out for your kids.” Red foxes are not trying to hunt down your family. If anything, they’ll run and hide from you. We’re trying to teach ways to peacefully coexist with the wildlife around us.
Mike O’Malley
Many people are unaware of the breadth of programming we offer. We offer a lot of very, very diverse programs, from music to visual arts. And we’re one of five Folklife Centers in the state of New Jersey. We want people to understand there is a place for everyone within the arts, and we hope to be that conduit.
Kahra Buss
One myth we would like to dispel is that we’re just a hospice. We have so many other services: palliative care, in-home physician care, massage therapy, pet therapy, music therapy. There’s our Center for Grief. A lot of people just aren’t aware of all the services we provide.
Erika Thomas
Stigmas they fight
We face NIMBY – not in my backyard. People hear “affordable housing,” and they envision the projects, but that’s not what affordable housing is. We have 265 affordable homes in Moorestown, and some of them are duplex homes right next to a privately owned home. If you didn’t know it was a MEND home, you wouldn’t know because it blends in with the community.
Eileen Wirth
The biggest stigma we face is the perception that any work we do can’t meet the same standard as a typical industry contractor. Last year, we were the Manufacturer of the Year for New Jersey in the mid-size program, which was enormous for us, because it was a testimony to the quality manufacturing we do. We’re a defense contractor, just like any other defense contractor, and we’re held to the same standard.
Jon Katz
Stigma is huge in the mental health space. There’s a stigma around first seeking treatment, and then around talking about that care. A challenge for us is to let people know we’re here to help, because the people we serve aren’t talking about their experience with Oaks. They’re still working through some of those things themselves.
Denise Soto
Some people think those who are struggling with poverty have brought it upon themselves, and they should just pick themselves up by their bootstraps. We want to combat that, because there are certain situations people fall into. As a young kid growing up in Brooklyn, I remember taking a shopping cart and going to the local church to get government cheese or dry milk. It wasn’t anything my mother did. She was working from morning to night. It just happened that our family separated, and she became a single parent with three children. So when people are looking for help, we want to offer that help with dignity and respect, and make sure they receive compassionate assistance.
Major Richard Sanchez
Our stigma is shame. Probably every day you pass someone who’s food insecure, you just don’t know it. During the pandemic, we saw people whose lives stopped and who needed to make ends meet in our food lines – and there were Mercedes and Volvos. I believe we did such a nice job in welcoming people with integrity and compassion, that we broke down that stigma. We’ve doubled our serving numbers since the pandemic. We were serving about 95,000 people a month then. In the last 11 months, we’ve been serving over 170,000 a month.
Fred Wasiak
How private donations help
People will say, “I only have $10, $20, $100 to give.” I wish people understood how important that money is, because it’s flexible money that we can use to do the things we need to do to help us move forward. The impact of that donation is huge.
Carlos Morales
We don’t get public or government funding of any kind, which surprises a lot of people, because the work we do is so essential. If you were driving to work and you found a great horned owl hit by a car, you have a free resource to call. If we didn’t exist, you wouldn’t have any option. We are almost exclusively reliant on private donations.
Mike O’Malley
What makes Goodwill work is when you give us a bag of clothes or housewares. We would rather have your donated goods than your cash. I know that sounds counterintuitive, but we have 1,000 employees, and we hire people who are at risk. We start building a resume for them.
Mark Boyd
We use private donations to supplement the services we’re offering. Someone may come into one of our programs and we discover they need a coat or they need food – individual donations help with that.
Denise Soto
The vast majority of our revenue is derived from our contracts with the Defense Logistics Agency and the General Services Administration and the state. But we also seek private donations, which allows us to buy assistive technology equipment so we can grow our business and train people who are blind on how to use those machines.
Jon Katz
Private donations help us maintain our properties, and we also use donations for expansion. We’re currently working on trying to acquire another small building that would need some significant renovation, but in doing so, we’ll be able to provide two additional affordable homes in an existing building.
Eileen Wirth
I tell people, pick one or two organizations whose mission resonates with you, and then put your money and time behind it. Get involved – we rely on volunteers for so many of our programs. And any money we raise goes into our programs.
Shaun Elliott
How you can help during the holidays
We have a Children’s Fund, which works like an adopt-a-family program. We get wish lists from families, and we combine toy donations with monetary donations to give the children a nice holiday. We also run a special program for our most vulnerable population – elderly and disabled residents – we provide a $25 gift card so they can fulfill some special need.
Eileen Wirth
We start with distributing a minimum of 2,000 complete Thanksgiving meals. To do that, companies hold food drives or individuals donate what they can. In December, people can go to our website and identify individuals in need of sponsorship. Often, it’s families with young children asking for one simple toy or warm clothing for the winter. In addition, we allow our case managers to come in and “shop” for the youth served in our programs, and everything in the shop is donations received through individuals. The holidays are a fun time at Oaks, and it’s a great way to get involved.
Denise Soto
We always take donations for Thanksgiving meals and toy donations for Christmas. We’re also doing a coat drive through the fall so we can distribute in January.
Carlos Morales
One of the ways people can help is to participate in our Angel Tree program. We distribute approximately 7,000-8,000 toys to anywhere from 3,000-3,500 children in need. We’re also known for our Red Kettle, which starts on Black Friday, because that is the day where retail moves from being in the red to being in the black. That’s the same for Salvation Army – we are collecting funds to help throughout the whole year.
Richard Sanchez
What their work has taught them about life
You don’t know what life is going to bring you. You don’t know when you may get hit with some kind of challenge that you just weren’t expecting.
Eileen Wirth
People who are blind and visually impaired are no different than people who are sighted – they just can’t see.
Jon Katz
Even when things seem so bleak, there are people out there who really care and want to make sure you are well.
Denise Soto
Life is messy. We’re all human. We’re all trying to figure it out. There’s not a linear path, and we need to have grace.
Carlos Morales
The resilience of the human spirit is just incredible.
Fred Wasiak
We are so small in comparison to the size of the world around us. I live to make a positive impact as much as I can in my time as a steward of our surrounding world.
Mike O’Malley
A simple conversation with a stranger will show you that there are many similarities between the two of you. You never would have discovered that had you walked past them.
Erika Thomas
A pivotal moment
During the height of the pandemic, there was a mom driving through one of our distribution lines. She had two children in the backseat. I could see above her mask, her eyes watering up. She didn’t have to say anything – you live through that moment of their despair, their hopelessness, but also you see tears of joy and gratitude. And in this one particular car, the two children in backseat held up a sign that said, “Thank you very much.” Those rewards keep you going, keep you centered and humble.
Fred Wasiak
We had a young person who had been in eight foster homes and had real concerns about whether people were liking her at camp – or ever. She was sitting on a rock beside the lake and talking to the camp director. And I saw a young person in their 20s, who we give this huge responsibility to manage hundreds of kids at a camp in a remote area, working with this child to make them feel at home, make them feel appreciated and important. I also watched that child walk away feeling really good and smiling after a 10-minute conversation. Man, that’s pretty powerful.
Shaun Elliott
Recently, a single mom came to our toy distribution with two small children and volunteers helped her load this big bag into the vehicle. And the tears start to swell up, not only in the mom, but also in the volunteers. When you volunteer, you actually see the difference you make. It’s a great thing, and I see it all the time.
Major Richard Sanchez
I met a young man named Bobby who said to me, “You know, I don’t have anything to do.” And he was very frustrated, and I was frustrated because I had more important things to worry about. I mean, come on, Bobby, can’t you see I have to solve these problems. Well, we managed to get Bobby employed, and when I saw Bobby again, he was so proud. He had such a sense of accomplishment. And it hit me: I’ve been worrying about all the wrong things. Bobby is important. The programs are important. I’ll always have problems to solve, but if I keep my focus on Bobby, things will turn out just fine.
Mark Boyd
When a family gets a key to their house and they move in, that reminds me, ok, this is why I do this work. It may have taken two years to get that project done, but that family’s life has changed. They have a new home they can afford, and they can move forward. It’s very humbling to see that. Because it’s not just about the real estate. I could build all the buildings in the world, but if I’m not impacting a family, what’s the point?
Carlos Morales
Challenges they face
As we move into an automated society, the messaging of why the arts are important seems to be a constant struggle. The arts are how we share our humanity, how we connect with one another, how we tell our stories. Now is the time to invest in that.
Kahra Buss
It requires a lot of people to do what we do, and the need for clinicians and staff is great all over the state. We encourage people to enter the social services field if they’re interested in helping people, because there’s always going to be somebody who needs their support.
Denise Soto
During this transition of growing out our new lines of business – e-commerce, document scanning/digital imaging, packaging – we want to find enough work to keep those lines of business sustained. We want to keep people working on a fulltime basis. The biggest challenge for me right now is business development.
Jon Katz
Raising money is a challenge. And finding staff, particularly in childcare, is very, very difficult. The number of incidents related to behaviors in our programs has gone up in terms of mental health needs and special needs of participants in our programs. We need extra resources and expertise to support not only the participants and the kids, but the staff themselves. It can be really stressful in those situations.
Shaun Elliott
New Jersey is a difficult state to do business in, especially when it comes to real estate. Zoning, building permits take a tremendous amount of time. Let’s say we identify a site that could be a donation center, it can be as long as four years until we’re able to open. I find that to be outrageous. It’s too long.
Marc Boyd
The need is increasing. In my last five years of being a Salvation Army officer, I’ve seen more people come in with that 1,000-yard stare, and that stare is because they don’t know who’s going to help them. Someone told them about Salvation Army and said maybe they could help. So people come in looking for any type of assistance. That need is increasing.
Major Richard Sanchez
One thing you should know
Affordable housing is not the enemy. It just means housing for an average working family who is trying to have a stable place to live.
Eileen Wirth
Perkins Center for the Arts is open and accessible to the community six days a week. We want people to feel like these are spaces they belong in.
Kahra Buss
Samaritan’s social connections program isn’t limited to our patients. We offer our friendly caller services and our robotic pets to people in the community.
Erika Thomas
We are here for you. Reach out to the food bank. We have a food finder on our website. Just plug in your zip code and it will get you to the local pantry within your neighborhood.
Fred Wasiak
You can have a major impact on your fellow man, and if the Heart of Camden can be that vehicle for you, come visit us. Come meet people from Camden and see the passion that’s here. Come see Camden for what it is. It’s not perfect, but there are good people here, trying their best.
Carlos Morales
We connect people to a healthy lifestyle and each other. Turns out, the number one predictor of longevity is not your food, not the exercise you do, but the number one predictor is your social connections. Our programs bring people together, and we don’t leave anybody behind.
Shaun Elliott
I don’t want to scare folks, but Cedar Run is not a guarantee. We are an independent nonprofit that does not receive government funding. If the South Jersey community continues to stick together and support Cedar Run, like it has done for so many years, we can make sure we continue this worthwhile mission.
Mike O’Malley
—Bonus Quotes—
What does it take to work for your organization? Do you have positions open?
What it takes to work at Bestwork is no different than what it takes to work at any other manufacturing facility or business services facility – dedication and work ethic. We have strong core values here. We have high standards of conduct. People who come to us who are motivated and have strong work ethic, we typically always have jobs for people who are blind and visually impaired, at least across one of our four lines of business.
Jon Katz
We have a few positions open here at the Food Bank. And, what it takes to work here is a caring spirit. We look for technical skills, skilled labor skills, nutritionists – everything from one end to the other to make it happen. But first and foremost, you want to care for your community.
Fred Wasiak
We do have positions available on our careers page on our website – samaritannj.org, including Spanish-speaking positions.
Erika Thomas
At Perkins, we are always looking for committed and dedicated people who have a love for, and a passion for, the power of the arts. We’re always looking to connect with artists and independent artists who are interested in becoming part of the of Perkins community. And we’re always looking to expand our community, and we always find there is room for everyone in some capacity. If people are interested in connecting with us, they should just our website and reach out to us. There’s plenty of people to contact on our contact page.
Kahra Buss
We have almost 4,000 employees, so there are always open positions. The top two areas are typically childcare – teachers and aquatics, think lifeguards – but we have a whole variety of other positions. We have multiple levels and opportunities to progress within the organization. So if you work in an after-school program, you might want to become a district team leader, where you help supervise a group of schools. We’d also like to see more counselors from the Camden and Burlington areas at our camp. So the short answer is, we always have some positions open, and we’re looking for great. The number-one qualification is you just want to do great work.
Shaun Elliott
We have several different departments. Obviously, we have our housing department, with property managers and skilled maintenance technicians to complete repairs. In most of those cases, there are certifications needed for being knowledgeable about affordable housing. Then we have our corporate office staff, so accounting and development departments. We don’t have any positions currently open. But fully staffed means we have 17 people so we may have a need early next year.
Eileen Wirth
Oaks has a number of positions open. So if anybody’s interested in looking for a position, they can visit our website to see what’s available. It’s a range – we need individuals to drive consumers to and from programs, which would require a high school diploma, to, clinicians, nurses and doctors, which requires very specialized certifications and degrees. We need people at every level, and there are just so many positions available all over the state.
Denise Soto
I would recommend to anybody that has an interest in our programs, whether it be environmental education or wildlife rehabilitation or just working in the natural world, start out as a volunteer, and you can explore your interest. Typically we hire from folks who have been either volunteers or interns. I was actually a college intern in our wildlife rehabilitation hospital. So definitely check out our internship programs and volunteering.
Mike O’Malley
It takes a combination of passion and skill set to work at Heart of Camden. In the near future, we’ll be looking for a community engagement coordinator, which is essentially someone who’s going to engage the community and have larger discussions about public safety, cleanliness. Is the city of Camden showing up to pick up trash on time? Do we have enough presence by the police? We needthose levels of discussions – the things that we don’t think about.
Carlos Morales
We always have job openings. What does it take to work here? You need to have tenacity and resilience, it’s necessary. You also need to have a heart. You should have a compassion that’s there all the time.
Major Richard Sanchez
