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Anthony Cortese, the new executive director of St. Anne Institute in Albany, wants to maintain its 125-year-old tradition of compassionate treatment for children and families in crisis - and also boost collaboration with other agencies and organizations.

This, he says, could help St. Anne's adjust to changing economic realities and improve care.

"Can we save money and still spend more on the kids?" Mr. Cortese has pondered in his first three months on the job.

He has more than three decades of experience serving children and families: a teaching career at Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons School in Schenectady, then serving as a child care worker at agencies in Utica and in the Albany Diocese, including Parsons Child and Family Center in Albany.

A parishioner of All Saints Church in Albany, Mr. Cortese teaches religious education for confirmation students. He's also chief of the McKownville Fire Department, where he has volunteered for almost two decades. He and his wife adopted their foster son in the mid-1990s.

The new director said St. Anne Institute's reputation as a nationally-recognized residential and community-based treatment center and school for troubled teenage girls - plus its special additions, like yearbooks and alumni reunions - attracted him to the job.

"They seem to do a lot of things [that] keep staff connected to why they came here in the first place," he said.

He's noticed that many of the center's 300 staff members have worked there for more than 20 years.

"That is a tribute to the kind of culture here," Mr. Cortese said. "It's a compassionate place to work where you have this kind of external family feel to it. When you see people that talented, it's humbling, because the work that they do is selfless."

More than 800 clients, mostly girls ages 12 to 18, benefit from the center's services. About 82 girls live at St. Anne's and attend accredited middle school and high school programs, along with about 25 girls who commute.

Residents are offered therapeutic, vocational, recreational and spiritual programs. Mr. Cortese wants to add a fourth intensive care unit to the campus.

The center also offers co-ed special education preschool and daycare services and a new co-ed tutoring program for City School District of Albany students. Community-based services through St. Anne's in more than 40 other counties state-wide specialize in sex abuse prevention, juvenile sex offenders, strengthening families and more.

The center's clients often come from low socioeconomic families and have experienced trauma, including sexual abuse. Many of them cope by committing crimes or running away and need supervision, structure, predictability and self-esteem.

"It's like giving a second chance to kids and families who have lost a sense of hope in their lives," Mr. Cortese said. "It's not about a cure, [but] about giving them the skills that we hope they can internalize. We try to create relationships with them so they can see themselves as not hopeless, but having skills and abilities."

About 75 percent of residents reunite with their families when they're discharged from the program, and about 50 percent pursue further education.

Economic pressure on schools and county social services departments has led to fewer clients for St. Anne's and more than a dozen staff layoffs in the past year. But "the kids are still out there and they need the services," Mr. Cortese told The Evangelist. "We just have to figure out different ways of delivering to them."

The center has been experimenting with shorter residential stays and collaborating with sister agencies like St. Catherine's Center for Children and LaSalle School in Albany and Catholic Charities' Community Maternity Services. Mr. Cortese is looking into sharing staff and purchasing of items like medications or cleaning services; he'd also like to work with other care providers, colleges, neighborhood associations, police and fire departments.

"It's really important for us to open the doors and become more community-sensitive," he said.

Mr. Cortese is seeking grant money. Donations are down, but he's happy just to break even. "The services aren't about making money," he said. "They're really about helping families."[[In-content Ad]]

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