Choices 2020 September Special Edition Volunteer Spotlight

A Message from Robert Stack, President & CEO

Dear Community Options’ Stakeholder:

Robert Stack, President & CEO

Last night, I watched the Shawshank Redemption again. In the movie, Tim Robbins’ character got himself out of the horrific institution and then helped Morgan Freeman’s character return to society. The best line: “Get busy living or get busy dying.”

Then I watched Morgan Freeman in Driving Miss Daisy. Thinking about how much strife, turmoil and growth this country has gone through, it made me appreciate how much we can all help each other gain freedom and how together we can work to make sense of some of the wretched lousy places we find ourselves in as a society.

We emphasize busy living and strive to dismantle the old institutionalization model. Thirty years ago, we figured out how to free our first 17 people from an institution. We did this with no money, from the kitchen table in a row home in Bordentown, New Jersey.

We meet with families, individuals with disabilities, and state officials to find proper homes and close large institutions. We have emancipated over 3,200 souls into small community programs. We helped close North Princeton Developmental Center and the Western Center in Pennsylvania.

Nostalgically, Bridget Haney became our first employee to celebrate 26 years at Community Options. I remember when our Treasurer Frank Zak and several former board members presented in Pittsburgh before a large team of case managers explaining how we could provide a better life for persons with disabilities living in that institution.

Today, three decades later, we reflect on how the COVID-19 pandemic forced us all to embrace our purpose and reaffirm our relentless, intrepid pursuit to shape a better future for persons with disabilities. People deserve to have work and to live in their own home. No person with disabilities who has not harmed society in any way should be segregated in an institution and denied fundamental freedoms.

Community Options offers a better life.

You see, COVID transmissions are greater and deadlier within large settings like state supportive living centers and nursing facilities than our small homes. When we place people out of a large facility after isolation, we are not only providing a better life, but a longer life.

To repeat, we have been engaged in this labor for a long time. We have 116 employees who have worked at Community Options during the half-life of our incorporation 30 years ago; another 206 have worked here for over 10 years and 609 employees have worked here more than five years. The dedication to the people we support as well as their families is second to none.

Our work remains more rewarding than difficult. It is more satisfying and uplifting emotionally, particularly during a pandemic. Those of us who have found our niche and our calling know the intrinsic value of helping enhance the quality of life of another human being---and we realize what an incredibly worthwhile endeavor it is to work at Community Options.

We are excited as we plan the openings of an additional 30 homes by the end of the year preventing institutional recourse. This is always cause for celebration and is one of the most gratifying aspects of what we do.

We will continue to fight the fight to increase wages for our direct care staff who support persons with disabilities. Government funding needs to change.

I know that this pandemic has brought to light the true meaning of essential. We cannot cancel the support that persons with disabilities need in their lives like a school semester. We cannot shut down our services like a bar or a movie theater or a restaurant. We cannot host a zoom call for the life caring needs of those we support.

We live our lives in the service of others. We all drive Miss Daisy. We all free people from unnecessary institutionalization. And, we all make sure that we can apply our experiences and knowledge to not only free ourselves but others from the shackles of injustice.

Thank you for all that you do as board members, volunteers, staff, family and business advocates. Together we ensure that our metaphorical Miss Daisy and those in need of our support make it to their chosen destination of freedom and happiness. Warmest Regards,

Robert Stack
President & CEO
Community Options, Inc.