Letter From the President

Dear Friends,

This year, SVS celebrates its 140th birthday, and our nation commemorates the 40th anniversary of the first man landing on the moon. Each child, teenager, or adult who passes through our doors shares a common bond with those at NASA who struggled, failed many times, yet kept on going-until they reached their ultimate goal.

Astronaut Neil Armstrong's "one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind" changed the consciousness of the world. The steps taken by those we serve at SVS might not be so obviously "earth-shaking," but in their own way, they are just as profound. Before coming to SVS, the lives of our children, youth, and adults were fraught with failure and despair. They suffered and struggled before they took that first step.

Parents have also taken a quiet but momentous step over the threshold of hope. After years of journeying through frustrating bureaucracies and waiting lists, they now bring their developmentally disabled children to one of our specialized residences, and find refuge. At SVS, their disabled loved one will have our compassionate and competent care for his or her whole lifetime.

All emotionally troubled or chemically dependent individuals take the hardest step in their difficult lives when they come through the doors of one of our behavioral health centers. That first step leads them to a new world of health and renewed life.

For a young child who has never known a secure family, who has been passed from one family member to another, moving from neighborhood to neighborhood, sometimes from state to state, registered in more schools than her record can track, her life has been an unending nightmare. Then suddenly, this child's fate is changed when she walks or is carried through SVS's doors into the strong and loving arms of her new foster parents, possibly her prospective adoptive parents. Even if that child is handicapped, or has HIV/AIDS, SVS has the facilities and the expertise to care for her.

For a once-desperate mother, who took the heart-wrenching step of giving up her children to foster care until she conquered her demons of drug abuse or mental illness, to answer again the knock on her door, after so many disappointing knocks, and hear an SVS social worker say, "We will put it all together for you now, so you can have your children back forever," is a private triumph that shows bravery beyond the bounds of most heroes.

And, it is a wandering teenager's unheard, hesitating step across the threshold of an SVS group home after years of an aimless journey on the streets of New York that will change his life forever. Years later as an adult, thanks to our American Dream program, he will have completed another transformative step in his journey: being certified in a well-paying trade, holding a State license in a technology, or earning a bachelor's or advanced degree in a secure profession.

Hundreds of first steps are taken at SVS every year, and many second and third steps as well. Our job is to help these young heroes and heroines overcome their pain, and to give them the tools to help them realize their potential and meet the many challenges they face in their young lives.

We look forward to continuing to do this for the next 140 years.

Rev. Msgr. Robert M. Harris
President & Chief Executive Officer