MIDDLETOWN – For the second time this year, the Monmouth County Human Services Advisory Council welcomed 100 representatives from the county’s non-profit community to a seminar entitled “Adaptation to a Changing Economic Environment.”

 

“This is the second phase in an ongoing effort to bring providers in our social services family together to network and share ideas that will make them stronger as individual organizations within the broader county system,” said Freeholder Amy Mallet, liaison to the Department of Human Services.

 

The downturn in the economy has adversely impacted fundraising abilities for all nonprofit social service agencies, including those in Monmouth County. The Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders is trying to help them find new ways to do more with less.

 

Attendees heard presentations on collaborative efforts from Children’s Specialized Hospital, The Visiting Nurse Association of Central Jersey and the United Way of Monmouth County as well as others. The seminar was held Oct. 30 at Brookdale Community College, Lincroft.

 

“This conversation addresses the challenges and difficulties that our social service partners face in these difficult economic times,” said Charles Brown III, director of the county’s Department of Human Services. “There is a benefit to realizing that no group is in this alone and there is strength in numbers when it comes to finding efficiencies while still providing quality service.”

 

Individual breakout sessions covered the topics of successful collaborations, faith-based collaborations and the responsibilities of board members when it comes to collaborative efforts.

 

Amy Mansue, president and CEO of Children’s Specialized Hospital in Mountainside, shared her experience when Children’s Hospital formed an affiliation with Robert Wood Johnson University Medical Center in New Brunswick. She advised the group to identify goals of any collaborative effort as well as possible “deal breakers” before entering into negotiations.

 

“If it doesn’t feel right, don’t do it,” she said.

 

Mary Ann Christopher, president and CEO of The Visiting Nurse Association of Central Jersey, talked about the VNA acquiring The Visiting Nurse Association of Middlesex County.

 

“We decided to affiliate due to a reduction in reimbursements,” she said. “We decided we needed to be a different organization in order to spread overhead across a variety of services.”

 

Timothy Hearne, president and CEO of the United Way of Monmouth County, said his organization is currently re-evaluating its role in the community.

 

“We are now moving toward making lasting changes in the community by centering our efforts on education, income and housing, and health care,” Hearne said.

 

The United Way of Monmouth County will be focusing on early childhood education, after-school programs and high school advancement; basic income needs and helping people get and keep jobs and find a home; and providing information and access to health care, he said.

 

“As a result of this broader economic recession, the mission now is for Monmouth County and its nonprofit community to create a new environment than will energize the human services family in ways that foster collaborative action focused on improved delivery of services,” Mallet said.

Collaborating on the event were Brookdale Community College, which provided the venue, and New Jersey Natural Gas, which provided refreshments.

 

 

                       

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