Speaker 1: 0:08

Hi everybody. I'm Brian Licata with Marvel Consult. I'm here with Mike Grittoli from Community Resources, and today what we want to talk about is helping Staten Island and participating in nonprofits. So thank you for being here today, mike.

Speaker 2: 0:21

It's a pleasure. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1: 0:23

So what is your official title over at Community Resources?

Speaker 2: 0:26

I am the Chief Operating Officer.

Speaker 1: 0:28

And how long have you been there now?

Speaker 2: 0:29

I've been there three years, oh wow. Yeah, I'm part of a sort of a new leadership team. It's a long established agency. You know. Community Resources has been in business for about 70 years. I think we celebrated our 70th year last year, so we're about 71 now and they had a recent sort of rebranding and refreshing and I'm part of a team that came in an administrative level to institute this refreshing and rebranding and sort of a reorganization. So a lot of us have been here pushing forward our strategic plan for the last three years.

Speaker 1: 1:03

So I've been on Staten Island since like the mid 80s, so familiar with community resources. But, to be honest with you, I would love to hear more about the rebranding and you know what you're focused on right now, because when I drive around the island, I see CR everywhere, right, whether it's the vans or the houses. But you know where to start. So let's start with what instigated the rebranding.

Speaker 2: 1:29

I think it was a board decision and I think the board felt, you know, we've been in business for so long and they were coming out of the pandemic at that time. So you know, the pandemic was a time where not a lot was happening, you know, and not a lot of new development or new programming. So I guess it was a good time to take stock in what you were doing. There was a change of leadership because of a retirement of the executive director. So I think the board took the opportunity to say where can we go from here, coming out of the pandemic, and what can we do to sort of refresh what we're doing?

Speaker 1: 2:01

See, that's great. And I think people don't realize that nonprofits like any other business, they have to change with the times, right? Like whether you talk about a name change, a logo change or missions change, right, I mean, we're both around the same age, most nonprofits. When I was a kid, no one talked about technology, right? Nobody thought like, oh, we got to give computer skills and we got to do this and you know. Now you look around and every nonprofit focuses on that, you know. But so many things have changed. And I mean you know, like you said, community resources has been around for 70 years. I can't even begin to think how many lives have been impacted right Over over the decades. Yeah, right. And the fact that you're rebranding and saying we want to do more, we want to get more out there, that's great. So how long did the rebranding take?

Speaker 2: 2:56

Well, when I came in February of about three years ago, I sat with the new executive director and we hashed about ideas and I said to make significant changes. It doesn't happen in a year. That's sort of a get to know you period, that first year, and get to know everybody in the agency, get to know how the organization operates. But we're in our third year of this sort of new leadership and we feel like we like what we see and we like the direction we're going in. So you look at something like this and it's a three to five year commitment to say in three to five years we can sit back, take a breath and maybe say, hey, that was pretty good, well done, you know we're getting there.

Speaker 1: 3:34

So what is the key age demographic that you serve?

Speaker 2: 3:38

So it's pretty wide variety of children and adults. So we have a preschool and they serve about 80 children who are mostly on the spectrum and other children with varied special needs and disabilities. We have a day program that serves about 130 people per day at this point and that's expanding and growing. Interestingly enough, coming out of the pandemic, when I got here, we were only serving about 60 people in that day program. That's the devastating effect of what the pandemic did keeping people home and keeping people further isolated and not getting them engaged. So we did a big push to increase our engagement, increase our outreach, increase the activity level. The meaningful work meaningful work we're going to talk about that because that's so important. It's a lot of what you guys do here. By the way, I'm super impressed with this podcast studio and I can't imagine that the folks you serve don't come in here and think, well, this is something special and I'm doing something meaningful.

Speaker 1: 4:40

Today we're at the Grace Foundation, we're using their podcast studio doing something meaningful. Today we're at the the Grace Foundation, we're using their podcast studio, and this is kind of the similar point where it's about the rebranding and it's the effective and meaningful programs. Right, and you know it's strange you hear so many nonprofits that they want to get their participants out there. They want to get them involved and you know they don't want to just have them do something for the sake of doing it. But unfortunately a lot of nonprofits are stuck in their ways. Yes, and they don't change. Because if I change I might not have a job or, you know, my participants might go somewhere else.

Speaker 1: 5:18

And to hear the numbers that you're describing, community resources, I mean, so you're saying established around 1950, somewhere around there, right? So well before the bridge, well before all of us came over, which I'm always told the worst things came over the bridge. So you've been operating since then. Before, I mean everything with Willowbrook, I mean that's like saying one of the key anchor institutions, with the IDD community on the island.

Speaker 2: 5:45

Yeah, well, you know these are like. Many of these organizations are parent founded Parents who, early on, didn't know where to go. Services were limited and they had to create the services themselves. And a lot of parents or families are still involved. You know, siblings are still involved and that's a good thing because the input of those families is critical and important.

Speaker 2: 6:08

So it's taken us way beyond, I think, what the initial vision was right, Because families just wanted a good place for their kids to be educated and to learn and to be safe. And we've done that and even gone way beyond.

Speaker 1: 6:21

So now you have a preschool you have to have. Does community resources have residential programs or anything else?

Speaker 2: 6:28

We have 15 residential programs, all Staten Island based. We have a new one slated to open in the new year, in 2025. And we have a handful of supportive apartments for people who can be more independent. We've done a lot of work with those residential properties, uh. We came in with the feeling, uh, that people needed to be in quality environments, environments that made them feel good about they were and where they were and where they were living. So we've spent a good part of these these last three years improving and doing sort of home improvements on the places where people either lived or go to day program new kitchens, new floorings, you know, new bathrooms, new furnishings, new bedroom sets. We wanted people to feel like your home and the place where you come to learn or work is a comfortable and special place.

Speaker 1: 7:24

And I mean there's been so many changes just with the kind of technology people are using in their houses, I mean. So I have to imagine, like you know, updating things is expensive.

Speaker 2: 7:34

Yes, right and yes it is.

Speaker 1: 7:36

You know, I, I know that. You know, like most organizations, you have city funding, you have state funding, but there's never enough, right, right, absolutely true, you know, and there's a lot of non nonprofits that are out there, a lot of them that are doing good work. But you know, I was reading just recently how there's a huge decline in the amount of money being donated from individuals, especially the younger generation, and they were saying that when it comes to this new generation, they don't have an attachment to any of the nonprofits in their community, they don't give, and a lot of nonprofits are seeing that over the last couple of years there's been a drop off with their private donations and everything else. Is that also part of the rebranding and the image and trying to figure out how do we get out to more people?

Speaker 2: 8:27

Yeah, without question, it's about exposure. It's about exposure to local businesses. We had to do a lot of outreach just on the executive level to say, hey, this is who I am Now, full disclosure. I am not a Staten Islander. I did most of my work throughout my career in the borough of Brooklyn and I live in Queens and I want to say that the interesting and unique thing about the borough of Staten Island is that people do come together and that when you make the effort to go out and let people know what you're doing, that there is interest.

Speaker 2: 9:01

So of course, it's a little bit more competitive here because everyone's doing the same thing and everyone's got the same vision and idea, but I will say this as well, which speaks to the uniqueness of Staten Island, that a lot of the executives of the nonprofits here meet frequently, talk frequently, they are connected and they share a larger vision of what we could all be and what we could all do together.

Speaker 1: 9:27

You know it's so hard. So I did about 20 plus years in the nonprofit world and you saw, like anything, there are clicks, there are some executive directors that get together. There's always the executive directors hey, I'm applying for this, don't apply for that, right? I do a lot of work in the other boroughs and in some other states and you know, depending on where you are, things are different. I tell everybody that Staten Island is extremely friendly. Yeah, until you cross the line.

Speaker 2: 9:54

Yeah Well, you know you want to make friends. You have to be friendly as well.

Speaker 1: 9:59

That's part of it. But you know once and this is part of the changing the guards going from, you know people who've been around for 20, 30 years. You know not a native Staten Islander. I grew up in Brooklyn. No matter how long I've been here, people tell me all the time I'm not from Staten Island, right, when I'm in any of the boroughs, nobody asks me where I'm from. It doesn't really happen. But I have found that there are a lot of executive directors that are like we're good at this, we're going to stay in our lane and we'd like to work with other people. Like we can, you know, work with another nonprofit, or maybe we're a bigger nonprofit than this other one. We both do the same thing, but we're doing it at different levels, right? And the other thing I found which is really interesting, but it's only specifically with the IDD community. You all share the same participants.

Speaker 2: 10:53

Yes.

Speaker 1: 10:54

Right that. So, coming from someone who worked in workforce development and afterschool programs we don't share, you're in my program. It's the only program you can be in. Yeah, where is the IDD community? You know we're on Staten Island. I'll be at Grace one day. I might be at On your Mark. I might be over at Eden 2, a very special place. I might stop at Community Resources, city Access, and I see the same participants. Yeah, yeah, right. So there's I guess there's more of a friendliness because you're serving the same families.

Speaker 2: 11:28

Yeah, and without question, we kind of know each seem to know what we do well, what we're good at. So there have been times where Eden has referred someone to us or we've referred someone to On your Mark. Hey, this person is a person of great capability and wants to work in a bakery or a cafe. You know, on your Mark, a very special place. They have a cafe. We might let the parents know that and say, hey, you should try them. So, while there is competition for the funding and the dollars, when it comes to the mission, I think everybody wants to do the right thing by the person that they're serving you're helping the same kids and no one is serving 100 of their needs.

Speaker 1: 12:09

No, you know, because if they were, they would never be going to other places. But then that comes back that that means all of those groups are asking the same families for funding, or all of those groups are asking the same families for funding, or all of those groups are asking the same sponsors for funding. And I think that's where things sometimes with the nonprofits, you are always looking for new things right.

Speaker 1: 12:32

Outside funders, outside businesses, forming new relationships right, and I love what you said about the, you know, creating awareness and everything else, because it's not transactional. It's more about let's form a relationship and, you know, let's get them involved in the programs that we run, let's let them see what we do. Even when I drive around the island, I see all of these vans, you know, with the stickers for some of the organizations. Some of them have sponsorships on them, some of them don't. But I think what people you know are most interested in, not just from a business perspective, but even on the personal one, is like how can I help? Right, like you know, I was always brought up that you know, first off, if you can give, you should give.

Speaker 1: 13:16

Yeah. If you can't give, you know first off, if you can give, you should give. Yeah. If you can't give, you should give your time. Yeah, right, because we all have time. No matter how busy we are, you can find the time to do something. Unfortunately, in the nonprofit world, while we love volunteers, ultimately we need the money, because that's what allows us to do our mission. Yeah, yeah, right. So having that almost community feel and I know that we all go after the same people, but expanding and trying to bring in other things. What I've seen since covet ended was almost like a resurgence with events yeah, right, for sure everyone's doing galas again.

Speaker 1: 13:57

Everyone's back to golf outings. Other people are putting together other kinds of events, right Right, and trying to think how do I do things that other nonprofits aren't doing?

Speaker 2: 14:06

Yeah, yeah, which is hard, and we go to all the events. You know we've been to the Eden golf outing, they've been to ours golf outing, so we share in that way and you're right, we try to do something that is a little outside of the box, because how many golf outings can you go to and then you're really soliciting or trying to get a lot of the same people and it's limited to how much time they could even give you. So we try to think a little bit out of the box. Last year we had the Taste of Staten Island where we had different restaurants and food vendors come in and you can have a variety and different tastes of the different restaurants in Staten Island. Of course Staten Island is great for food. Everyone knows that and you know maybe one of the capitals of pizza, I hear and I've sampled a lot of the pizza here and it is good. So you try to think a little bit out of the box. We had a virtual golf event. It was an indoor golf event and that was different and a lot of fun and certainly different for golfers who golf a lot. That's sort of more practice for them than actual golf. But they enjoyed it and everybody enjoyed it and everybody.

Speaker 2: 15:09

The comments were yeah, this is something different and thanks for doing something a little different. You know this old saying that more things change, the more they remain the same. So you open up by saying you know things have changed and they have changed in the field, but what's remained the same is the service you provide. It's kind of the nucleus of that is how can I give the best and the best care and the best services and put together the best resources for the people we serve? That remains the same. What's changed is kind of how you do it and how well you do it. And I tell the folks where I work all the time it's like we may be doing things that are similar to other nonprofits, but how well are we doing it? And if we do it really well, then parents who have children who are in need of services are going to take notice and come to us and say I'm going to go there because I like the way they do it and I like how well they do it.

Speaker 1: 16:04

But I think that's back to that point. I would be okay with taking my child to five different places If each of those places were providing the best service for that particular thing. Right, because that makes sense, you know, and it's unfortunate. Sometimes there's a nonprofit or two that spoil it. Makes sense, you know, and it's unfortunate, sometimes there's a non-profit or two that spoil it. And you know, they provide subpar and then everybody gets labeled as oh, don't trust them, don't do this, um, but that really is it. I mean, like, the proof has always been in the pudding, you know, you have families that have. Probably some of those families might be with you for 40 years more. Yeah, like, depending on their children and the fact that they've stayed with you. They're not staying with you just for convenience, right? They're happy all the time, or as much of the time as they can be, as much of the time.

Speaker 2: 16:51

You know, even with the families that are loyalty, you hit some bumps in the road. Sure, no service is perfect, but they do stay with us and we make a really concerted effort to listen to a family's feedback and to respond to it as quickly and efficiently as possible. So we look at the families as our customer base, you know, and we try to provide the best customer service to them, as well as their child.

Speaker 1: 17:16

And it's so great that you use that, because that's the real thing about nonprofits it is a nonprofit but ultimately they are customers, right? We all pay tax dollars. The tax dollars then go back and support the nonprofits and then we're using that, you know, for that service, and if we're not happy we go somewhere else. You know, no matter how you want to look at it, and parents do speak that way if you know they're unhappy.

Speaker 1: 17:42

Unfortunately, sometimes it is good when a certain person leaves because it just wasn't a good fit on both ends, but for the really big piece it really comes down to, you know, this is the service that we provide and if we, you know the nonprofits on Staten Island are actually the biggest employers, you know, even if you remove the two hospitals, because the two hospitals are the largest out of anything.

Speaker 1: 18:06

But after that the rest of the nonprofit community employs more than any other business on the island, any other industry. You know. So the amount of money that's being generated through the nonprofits, so the amount of money that's being generated through the nonprofits, and then when you think about it on the flip side, not just how much is coming into the nonprofits but salaries that they're paying All of the accountants and the lawyers that they hire for things, all of the restaurants that they send their participants to, that they order from. The nonprofits are more like the lifeblood. And you know, some people realize it, not everyone does, which is why it's so important to really support them. Because if you remove that support, you know, if the nonprofits didn't have the funding, weren't able to go out, you'd have a lot of businesses on Staten Island that will go under.

Speaker 2: 18:55

Yeah, yeah, and you know it's. And it's a funny thing. When I first started in this field I've done just about every job in this field. I started as direct support professional, I was an assistant manager, I was in human resources, I did recruiting. But as you move into these more administrative roles you realize what a vital business the nonprofit is and that it is a business. But when you're on the front lines and you're really providing the care, all you think about is the care and that's what you should think about. But when you're on the front lines and you're really providing the care, all you think about is the care and that's what you should think about.

Speaker 2: 19:22

But when I did that I never thought much for the business part of it. I always thought you know, that's not as important as what I'm doing here for this person. And the fact is they're both important. They're both important that you have to balance your mission with some margin. You have to have the funding to get the appropriate resources so that you can bring the best programming to the people you serve. So you sort of learn that over years. It takes a little bit of time to sort of learn that and sort of embrace that too, to say, okay, I've got to understand the business part of this.

Speaker 1: 19:56

Yeah, and I mean the fact that you've been around for 70 years, right, that the community resources have been around that long, I mean that does speak volumes to, and I'm sure there've been ups and downs in the road funding, you know, but you still see it just like any other business that we have.

Speaker 1: 20:11

I think it's something like over 2,200 registered nonprofits on the island now. Wow, right, there was a big, you know, boost in COVID numbers. Everyone was opening up nonprofits, but a lot of them remain grassroots. They never really get anywhere. And then you know you have this handful of nonprofits that employ hundreds of people, right, or that serve thousands a year each right, which is just incredible. But getting the stories out, telling people like, if you know community resources, you know community resources, but the amount of people on the island that still are oblivious to like the top nonprofits and what they do, right. So how can we help get more of that message out to let people know what it is that you do and how they can participate, volunteer, donate, like what's the easiest starting point for something?

Speaker 2: 21:06

well, there's so many ways and I think the easy starting point and something we're kind of proud of is we've done so much work over the last three years on the innovative programs we put in place and on beautifying our residences and our day program, really making it look like a place where you want to spend time, reach out and come visit us, come see what we're doing. We love tours, we love giving tours and we love showing people around. We, in the last three years, we started when I got here. I'll give you a quick story. When I got here years. We started when I got here. I'll give you a quick story.

Speaker 2: 21:36

When I got here, we had about a 44,000 square foot worth of building space, beautiful grounds. There's a lot to work with. But again, coming out of the pandemic, it was all dormant. So we had this garage which was a mechanics garage, and next to it was this big parking lot and it was just full of old cars. It was like a salvage yard and there were old tires and batteries. It was a mess and the first couple of months I got there I said to the executive can I move some of this stuff out and put some garden boxes? You'd be amazed what you could grow. I'd like the guys to grow some fresh vegetables. We could do it organically. I've done this before. I just want to put like six. I didn't want to overstep, right, I was new and she said let's do a dozen, like okay, a dozen. And then we looked and we put them up and they look beautiful. And we looked out there we said let's get rid of everything in this parking lot and let's expand and make the whole thing a garden.

Speaker 2: 22:28

Before we knew it, in year three, we've got a thriving, almost urban farm going there where we grow, uh, organic vegetables, uh. We've made a connection with the community the jacob swell uh food pantry, yeah, which is down the road at the local church and we, our guys, volunteer there once a week and they bring fresh organic vegetables to people who come there, wait online early in the morning because we don't get there until till 9, 30 or 10 and they're waiting for us. So from that idea, which grew tremendously, we got a lot of community outreach out of that and we got a lot of people who were interested in what we're doing with our garden across the street from us as a nursery the Victory Nursery when we first got there my first week I said let's go say hello to those people you know. And we did, and they donated. In the first year when we opened our garden, we had a big opening ceremony, which we do now every year. They donated about 215 plants to us vegetable plants, and you know that was huge. What a gesture, because they liked what we were doing and they saw it.

Speaker 2: 23:27

So you want to get involved? Come see what we're doing. We're at the CR-SIorg. Come see what we're doing. Um, we're at the cr-siorg. Uh, you can email us at info at cr-siorg and you can say I want to come visit, see what you're doing in your garden program or your music program. Uh, you know, I look at what you're doing with this podcast studios. People should see this.

Speaker 1: 23:47

They should see the meaningful work that that the folks we serve can do listen, I, I think the non-profits, like I said, they they serve so many people and they help out. But even the fact that you're telling me, like it's not even just that, the giving back piece, the growing the vegetables and then doing the food pantries, like that's just stuff that doesn't reach your participants, that reaches the families. And you're right, there are so many great programs that are out there and you know, um, I don't know, I've like there's so many things that they do on the island, like they do the food trolley festival right on the south shore. Uh, they do the historic uh trip where people come from the ferry and they go to historic richmond town, they go to the uh the ship graveyard.

Speaker 1: 24:29

I mean, maybe there should be like a non-profit tour where you get to go hit up a few non-profits, that's a great idea like, see what they're doing, yeah, um, but definitely I would suggest, you know, reaching out, going to the website, checking them out on social media, um, you know and just seeing what they have going on and, if there's a an opportunity to volunteer, volunteer. I'm sure if you have some money that you can part with and you can make a donation, that would be much appreciated, certainly, take donations, come to our events.

Speaker 2: 24:58

I'll tell you one great event and we try to get every year. We have, uh, the grand opening of our, of our garden, and it gets bigger every year. By the way, we've made it completely accessible now, uh, where we have ramps put in and, um, we've taken over about,000 square feet where we started with just like, yeah, less than 100 square foot of space. But every year we have this big opening and we do invite the community. We like people to come and see what we're doing and celebrate with us. We have the borough president came one year. We have representatives from the assembly's office come. So it's a nice event, but we do other things.

Speaker 2: 25:30

We have a woman who is on the spectrum.

Speaker 2: 25:34

She's probably in her 50s, her parents were concert pianists and they played at Carnegie Hall, and her parents, from when she was an early age, taught her how to play piano and she plays brilliantly, like classical music, yeah, and the interesting thing, when I got to see her and I was thinking about taking the job in, inside our lobby there's a big, grand grand piano that I believe her family donated, and so now what we do is we feature her as a feature performance.

Speaker 2: 26:00

We have these evening performances which are open to the public, so people can get involved in that and come see what we're doing. And generally what we do is we take we usually get a professional musician and this woman, ellen, and we don't say you know who is the person with a disability, we just say these are our featured performers tonight and they, you know, the professional opens up and Ellen closes the show and it's fantastic and people are always impressed, as I'm impressed when I hear a play. So those are the kind of things they're simple things that give us exposure to the community, that we'd like the community to come see us and what we're doing. So by all means, come visit, set up a tour. We'd love to show you around.

Speaker 1: 26:43

Well, I'm going to definitely post all that information in the description. If you haven't looked at Community Resources' website or checked out their social, definitely go check it out. I'd like to thank Mike for coming by today. Definitely appreciate it.

Speaker 2: 26:57

Pleasure. Thanks for having me.