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Common Beliefs Which Guide PYHIT
Recovery from addiction requires a three-pronged support system that includes the essential elements of Treatment, Housing and Employment/Education, all working seamlessly together.
Individuals with a chemical dependency shall be given every opportunity and encouragement we can provide to break loose from the hopeless cycle of addiction.
People who have recovered can serve not only as role models, but as counselors and support for those who aspire to conquer their addictions. For those who dedicate themselves as help mates we coined the name "wounded healer". Some 70% percent of our staff fit that category.
Rehabilitation works more effectively than incarceration with most of those whose chemical dependency resulted in criminal acts.
Those exiting prison need a safe place to live, a meaningful job, and often professional treatment provided by caring people for any real opportunity at successful reintegration to society.
Homeless veterans shall be provided with special facilities with the services and support for adjustment to a life restored with dignity.
Relevant vocational training, complemented by job placement services, is provided to clients in need of skills or further training to obtain meaningful employment.
We try to offer assistance to everyone who comes to our doors for help, aware that many times the person has complex co-occurring mental problems and often has been shunted aside due to the lack of adequate services elsewhere.
One Man’s Mission
For over 45 years, Father Peter Young has led a crusade to institute new policies and new programs to redress the callousness of society in its treatment of people with chemical dependencies, many of whom are incarcerated in state prison or local jails. He has been guided by the pleas of so many individuals exiting the criminal justice system ‘Father we’re all dressed up but have no place to go.’
He aimed high to formulate meaningful services to provide every client entering the programs, a realistic hope to overcome their addictions. He carefully designed his programs to offer a new approach whereby the client served is offered a combination of treatment, housing and employment opportunities. This approach is commonly referred to as PYHIT.
Mission Statement
The core mission of PYHIT may be stated rather simply: To create taxpayers. But for a full understanding, this mission summation must be amplified to read, To create taxpayers by serving people who are afflicted with chemical dependencies, the homeless and those unequipped and unprepared to make a successful transition from prison to the world of work and good citizenship, responsibility and community reintegration.
Without sobriety a person cannot function to their fullest potential nor make the sound decisions necessary to cope with the stress and demands of our global society. What makes us unique is our concentration on not just providing a bed (shelters) or treatment (rehab/halfway houses), but a long-term, integrated and comprehensive commitment to treatment, housing and employment.
Our mission consists of the following: To help individuals recover from the disease of alcohol and drug addiction. To help ease the transition from correctional facilities to community living and assist the individual in innovative and effective ways to confront and overcome the underlying problems that trigger and sustain substance abuse, negative and self- destructive behaviors. To end the cycle of incarceration and relapse and assist the individual in successful and constructive reentry into society. To create taxpayers.
Wounded Healers
Wounded healers are the people in recovery who dedicate themselves in helping others trapped by chemical dependencies. There are hundreds of people like the ones pictured here working in our programs who are known as the wounded healers. They dedicate themselves to support others who aspire to become sober and serene after years of terrible addictions. Their cause may not be popular in this day of personal aggrandizement, but their cause is noble and loving for others who suffer as they once did. We call them the wounded healers. In Father Young’s own words:
“Now, we prefer to use that because we try to get the people who are wounded to then, in their changing of the negative to positive, to be the healers and we really form groups, we form associations, we form ways that we can reward them. We try, if we can, to get them to ‘each one teach one.’ We get them to carry the message. Now, that turned out to be a great happy kind of thing because it gives them a pride, a distinction, and esteem, and all of that makes their recovery feel important.”
Our goals are:
Making taxpayers of people who are afflicted by chemical dependencies, the homeless and those unequipped to transition from prison to the world of work and responsibility can be achieved by:
Making available a continuum of treatment, housing and employment/educational services
Offering professionally administered treatment services in licensed locations.
Establishing licensed, safe, clean and appealing living environments that encourage progression to full independence.
Tailoring educational and vocational programs to meet individualized needs as preparation for full integration with civic responsibilities.
Provide services and facilities to support particular groups of people who fall within the ranks of the homeless such as veterans, families, and single parents with children who find themselves destitute.
Develop social reform and remediation policies that can be advocated in partnership with governmental and other community agencies to address problems of chemical dependency, homelessness, gambling, and co-occurring disorders
Altamont Program Inc. is a key not-for-profit corporation, established in 1988, to offer the aftercare programs in Father Young’s efforts to provide extended treatment and services for criminal justice clients. Father’s philosophy is known as T.H.E., a three-legged stool that offers Treatment, Housing and Employment/Education. The three approaches work together to offer complementary supportive programs that enable an individual to walk the road to recovery, mile by mile, with serenity and sobriety as companions.
The Altamont Program Inc. operates transitional housing, vocational training, job placement, an industries program and a substance abuse program within the meaning of Article 19 of the Mental Hygiene Law. In recent years, supportive services have been offered to homeless veterans and families identified by the Travelers Aid Society as needing temporary housing. We are a NYSID member agency with expansion of our janitorial contracts surpassing one million dollars in 2005, with plans to expand in other regions of the State. Under the direction of Chief Operating Officer Jackie Gentile, the Altamont Program Inc. is responsible for the following program areas:
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Independent Housing
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Vocational Education, Training and Employment
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Grants Administration
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The Schuyler Inn in Menands
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LeMoyne Manor in Syracuse
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Veterans' Housing
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Adult Education
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Transitional Living
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HIV/AIDS prevention and education services
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Parole Stabilization
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Homeless Veterans Housing
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Janitorial Services contracts
The 820 River Street, Inc. is the second key corporation that works in conjunction with the Altamont Program Inc. and encompasses much of the treatment components of PYHIT. The company has over 20 years of experience in the field of addictions and in the area of criminal justice. Its expertise is applied in targeting both men and women involved in the criminal justice system at various stages of that process:
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Pre-sentencing
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Alternative sentencing
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Alternatives to incarceration treatment services
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Residential community reintegration services
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Services to parolees and probationers
Although there are several programs in New York State that offer treatment services for the chemically addicted, 820 River Street is able to integrate with PYHIT's other components of training and housing to give clients an integrated and effective treatment plan. Under the direction of Dennis Bassat, Chief Operating Officer, the following programs are managed:
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Inpatient rehabilitation center
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Eleanor Young Clinic in Albany with satellite operations
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Baywood Outpatient Clinic in Glens Falls
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Honor Court
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Jail based programs
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Halfway Houses in various locations
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Supportive Living in many locations
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Program Development
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The Sutphin Outpatient Clinic In Jamaica with a satellite operation in Brooklyn
Peter G. Young Foundation was created to help the homeless. Often a person, for various reasons, is ineligible to receive Medicaid or other public funding. Using 100% private donations, Father Young is able to feed and shelter the homeless for whom there is no other help available. Thousands of people have been helped through the years in getting their lives back on track and back into society, becoming law-abiding, productive citizens once more.
Under the Foundation's by-laws, its stated purpose is to financially support existing and established programs within the areas of alcohol and substance abuse, alternatives to incarceration, and job training skills which may otherwise be under-funded, and to mobilize and coordinate the efforts of community leaders in this regard. The Foundation is registered as a Private Foundation under section 509(a) of the Internal Revenue Code, and donations are tax-deductible as provided under Section 170. Its main office is located at 40 Eagle Street in downtown Albany.
Peter Young Residence Services, Inc. is a 150-bed male homeless shelter located on Pacific Street in Brooklyn. It was opened in December, 2000, funded by the Department of Homeless Services. This large, five story site provides a structured housing program for transition back into society. The goal of the program is to habilitate individuals who are homeless and who have lost the life skills or the hope of functioning happily within our society.
VESTA Community Housing, Inc. was incorporated in 1992 as the property development and holding arm of PYHIT. As set forth in the articles of incorporation, VESTA's purpose is to restore individuals with addiction issues to their rightful role in society as responsible, respectful, working citizens who can support their families. The housing program greatly enhances the effectiveness of PYHIT's treatment and employment programs by providing the programmatic framework necessary for a supportive community. (For a complete list of properties, click here.)