Community Treatment Solutions, a non-profit organization in Moorestown established in 1990, is dedicated to providing services to children and youth who have been traumatized by abuse, neglect, abandonment and even trafficking, almost all suffering from delayed development and trauma. Without CTS, these children would fall “outside the system,” meaning they would not get the care, supervision, clinical services and therapy they need.
CTS provides care and treatments for those children, but it can’t provide the children with a place they can call their own, as most need supervision.
However, CTS is working on getting that place for those in its care. It is looking to build a recreation center where children in the program can hang out and relax.
To help gain funds for the recreation center, CTS will celebrate its 25th anniversary on May 8 with a gala. To commemorate the milestone and all the children it has helped over the years, CTS is organizing the Shining Star Gala at the Skybox Event Center in Philadelphia. The event starts at 6:30 p.m. and includes a wine-tasting, CTS informative video, dinner, award presentation, dancing and auctions, where all proceeds go toward its cause.
“Come out to support the children who have been through a lot of trauma in their lives and to give them a chance to have a place of their own, where they can act like regular kids. A place to just play, be able to express themselves creatively and do other things they might not normally get to do, outside of the school day or treatment programs they’re involved in,” Mark Hatoff, director of development at CTS, said.
The idea for the recreation center is for it to be a place where kids can have a chance to be creative, relax and hang out with other children in the program, in a relaxed setting. A lot of restrictions are put on the individuals in the program on how they can spend their free time without supervision by CTS staff; any extracurricular needs to be accompanied by a CTS staff member. The recreation center will still have supervision, but provides more of an open and relaxed atmosphere.
“We hope to be able to have theater, dance, cooking and basketball. We’d just like to provide them with a place to relax and serve as an outlet to get out their anxieties. A place that will be theirs with supervision,” Hatoff said.
The location of the recreation center has yet to be determined as there are programs as far north as Chatman and south as Bridgeton.
“We need a place that is pretty much accessible for all of them,” Hatoff said.
At the gala, things will start with a wine tasting for VIPs with a jazz band. Then a video will be presented by CTS, featuring kids in the program, treatment home parents and former kids who have come through the program, and what the recreation center would mean to them, presented by CBS channel 3 sports director Beasley Reece.
To follow will be food and dancing along with the presentation of CTS’ Shining Star Award to Judith Gran and Elise Nocella for their outstanding contributions to give children and families confidence, competence and hope. Gran, an attorney, has represented children and adults with disabilities in 15 states, including Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Gran has brought a number of class action and system change lawsuits designed to improve special education and community services and secure the right of persons with disabilities to inclusion and full participation in schools and communities.
Nocella, a mother motivated by the unmet medical need of her daughter, started her own medical equipment company. Today, At-Home Medical & Orthopedic Bracing is one of the premier companies in the area, and Nocella has become a significant philanthropist supporting children and youth. The recreation center plans to be named in Nocella’s honor.
“Both exude CTS’ mission that include children with needs like these,” Hatoff said.
Also, there will be a live and silent auction featuring items from a Lagos diamond bracelet and autographed sports items and tickets to children packages for the Philadelphia Zoo and Please Touch Museum, and everything in between.
Proceeds from the gala will be used for the recreation center. CTS’ membership in GuideStar Exchange ensures transparency in the use of donor dollars. No amount, donation, sponsorship or ticket is too small.
Sponsorships and tickets are still available. The deadline for sponsorships, to be listed in program, is April 29. Tickets are sold up until the day before the event, on May 7. Ticket cost is $250, and tables of 10 are available for $2,500.
“They can donate any amount they wish. A minimum for a business card listing is $100, but any donation that anyone makes will be acknowledged on a page in our program,” Hatoff said.
For more information on CTS, to get tickets or be a sponsor, go to the CTS website www.ctsnj.org or call Hatoff at (856) 642–9090 ext. 402.
“I hope that people know more about what CTS does and the kids that we serve; just to let them see that they’re basically normal kids, like any other, who’ve had some kind of trauma, and that we are working to get them the same chances as every other kid has growing up,” Hatoff said.
