Lehigh County Conference of Churches -- Justice and Advocacy Fall Gathering

Homelessness: Voices of Hope

Saturday, September 26, 2009


Overview
Program
Speakers
Schedule
Resources

Directions
and Parking

Flyer
Poster


Lehigh County
Conference of Churches

Justice & Advocacy

Plenary Speaker

  • Paul Lucia has worked extensively with homeless people and community organizing through the Presbyterian Self Development of People (SDOP) program at both the national and local (presbytery) levels. Several years ago, Paul was site coordinator for a homeless day shelter project in Waltham, Massachusetts, funded by a grant from SDOP. The day shelter, which was to be created and staffed by street people with Paul's support, gave a place for the homeless to stay when they were removed from the overnight shelters. It was a place to receive mail, watch television; there were computers to create resumes, read email, surf, etc.. The shelter still exists and is now funded by private donations and part of the city budget.

    As the husband of an interim minister, Paul has lived in many areas of the country (Denver, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Waltham) and has stories about his work with SDOP in all these areas. He has also visited many areas of the country as well as the Dominican Republic and Mexico in his national SDOP capacity.

    Currently Paul serves as Moderator of the Lehigh Presbytery in northeast Pennsylvania. He holds a BS degree in Economics from Albright College, an MA in Community Development and Church Administration from Regis University. In 1998, he completed a 13-week course at Cleveland State University, "Neighborhood Leadership Cleveland" which teaches participants to bring together all members of the neighborhood for neighborhood organization.


Panel Participants

    Dick Cipoletti, MPA, PMC is President of RCC Associates, a full service human resources consulting and training firm. A published author and former HR columnist, Dick hosted the popular Lehigh Valley PBS TV series, "Job Quest" for 8 years. He has trained nationally for CareerTrack, Dun & Bradstreet Seminars, Day-Timer, and PESI. He has served as Vice President of Human Resources for four organizations in three industries. In all, he has managed six HR departments, of which he started four. In the Lehigh Valley, he was VP/HR of Lehigh Valley Hospital, the Wood Company, and the Greif Companies. Dick has taught college on a variety of management topics at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and now teaches in the MBA and HR programs at DeSales University. He has taught over 60,000 supervisors and managers and career coached over 12,000 individuals and groups, at all levels. Dick is a graduate of West Virginia University, where he earned a B.S. in Journalism and a Master's degree in Public Administration. He and his family reside in Allentown, PA.

  • Katie Clancy is a counselor at Confront Treatment Services, a program of Treatment Trends, Inc. Katie is a Master's level Counselor and a Licensed Professional Counselor. She has served on the Veterans Planning Committee of Treatment Trends's Veterans Sanctuary program. She is knowledgeable in the area of trauma and trained in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
  • Jeff Held
  • Nancy McCullar, MSW is Executive Director of Turning Point of the Lehigh Valley since April 2009. She is a skilled not-for-profit executive with a 20-year history of leading organizations that reach out to women and girls. She is the former CEO of Girl Scouts Great Valley Council and former CEO of Girls Incorporated of Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey. Nancy has extensive experience managing service delivery to families and is a local expert on programs for empowering women and girls. Vital to any nonprofit organization is fundraising experience.
  • Nancy has raised over $1 million in funds for four different non-profits in the past six years. She has a Bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan, a Graduate Degree in Social Service Administration from the University of Chicago, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Women's Leadership Initiative of the United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley. She also serves as a volunteer consultant and board member for the Executive Service Corps of the Lehigh Valley.

  • Russell "Rooster" Valentini is Homeless Educational Liaison in the Allentown School District and for a portion of Pennsylvania's Region 8. He started working in the Allentown School District in 1985 as an Elementary Absenteeism Specialist and insisted on doing home visits to accomplish the goal of getting children to come to school. He discovered that many of those children didn't have a home -- or at least not the same home every night. Twenty-one years ago, when Mckinney Federal Grant funds became available to deal with the Education of Homeless Children & Youth, the Allentown School District was one of the first five sites in Pennsylvania to receive a grant. Now every year Rooster supports about 600 students and their families who experience homelessness. He has also worked as a Truant Officer/ Home School Visitor, as well as a Drug & Alcohol Counselor and a counselor at a Maximum Security Facility for delinquents.

  • Tom Walker, Human Services Director of Lehigh County Conference of Churches manages the LCCC Homeless Supportive Services program. He holds a BS in Psychology from Clarion University, a Master's in Social Work from Duquesne, and comes with experience in a variety of MH/MR agency settings.

Workshop Leaders

  • Alan L. Jennings is Executive Director of the Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley (CACLV) which works to enhance economic opportunity for all residents of the Lehigh Valley. Alan is a leading advocate on housing issues in the Lehigh Valley. He joined CACLV in 1980 where he served in several positions before becoming executive director in 1990.
  • Rev. Dr. Christine L. Nelson is executive director of Lehigh County Conference of Churches and an ordained pastor of the United Church of Christ. She has contributed to a number of community initiatives, including the Allentown 10-year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness, ACHIEVE (Action Communities for Health, Innovation and Environmental Change), the Mayor's faith-based initiative, Women's Leadership Initiative of the United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley, and the Lehigh Valley Children's Coalition Policy Summit. Dr. Nelson has served on the Muhlenberg College Board of Associates, President of Alliance Hall, and the Allentown Rotary; and she is a frequent contributor to the Morning Call religious and editorial pages.

  • Deanne Malacsics is Pathways Director for Lehigh County Conference of Churches. She has a degree in criminal justice from Kutztown University and had six years experience providing services to children and their families before coming to Pathways three years ago.
  • Lisa Pawlowski is co-chair (with Christine Nelson) of Allentown's Commission to End Chronic Homelessness. She is a licensed social worker who is working with congregations and organizations to help them create and implement child sexual abuse prevention guidelines. She has a Masters of Social Work from Marywood University and a Bachelors Degree in Bible Theology from Moody Bible Institute. She is a former children and youth caseworker for Lehigh County Office of Children and Youth Services. She is a wife and mother of two children, and a member of New Covenant Christian Community Church in Bethlehem, PA. She is also the First Lady of Allentown.
  • The Reverend Maria Tjeltveit has been rector of Episcopal Church of the Mediator in Allentown since 1999. She grew up as a missionary child in Japan. Before seminary she worked with senior citizens as a Volunteer for Mission at the Highland Educational Project in the coal fields of West Virginia. She has been very involved in social justice ministies, frequently in ecumenical or interfaith contexts. She is a member of the Institute for Jewish-Christian UnderstandingÕs Colloquy group of Christian and Jewish clergy who meet together for study monthly, and an Interfaith (Jewish/Christian/Muslim) in Action Group. Rev. Tjeltveit has been involved in homelessness throughout her ministry especially serving as the chairperson of the board of the largest shelter in Virginia in the early 1990s. Currently she chairs the Homeless Supportive Services and Linkage Program Support Committee for the Lehigh County Conference of Churches.
  • Bob Walden has been involved in many areas of peace and justice work, especially as an organizer, educator, and public policy advocate. While teaching college physics and math in Cincinnati, Ohio, he was engaged in several urban renewal projects, and while living near Eugene, Oregon, he worked ecumenically on food, hunger, and public policy issues. Bob and his family live in Bethlehem, PA, where he works as an engineering consultant. He currently chairs the Justice and Advocacy Committee of Lehigh County Conference of Churches and the Franconia/Eastern District Mennonite Peace and Justice Committee (PJC). He maintains web pages for both organizations, and edits the PJC newsletter "Peace and Justice News". He has had a major role in organizing more than 25 workshops, conferences, and retreats on peace and justice themes over the past ten years, as well as presenting occasional seminars, sermons, and classes.
  • Tom Walker, Human Services Director of Lehigh County Conference of Churches manages the LCCC Homeless Supportive Services program. He holds a BS in Psychology from Clarion University, a Master's in Social Work from Duquesne, and comes with experience in a variety of MH/MR agency settings.

*The program and workshop offerings are subject to change. Please check this page again for updates.

Last Updated: 9/24/09
Created: July 15, 2009