Respond, Inc.'s Work in Camden has Haddonfield Roots

Respond, Inc., a non-profit community service agency that since 1966 has helped thousands of Camden residents from infants to seniors began with a pastoral chat and a bit of budget surplus at .

While the agency has no religious ties, and has support from communities and civic groups throughout Camden County, many of the individuals who helped develop Respond’s programs were or now are members of the congregation.

Dr. Charles Sayre, who retired in 1990 as senior pastor at the church on Warwick Road, recently gave a rundown of some of Respond's projects, the thread that ties it together.

Today the program has a budget of about $10 million, almost all from pubic funding sources, employs more than 300 people, and believes the assistance it provides for those struggling in today’s economy in Camden, generates $16 million in income.

Sayre, the son of a minister, grew up in Woodbury, Trenton, and Moorestown. He was called to the church in Haddonfield from an assignment in Asbury Park.  But right out of Princeton Seminary in the 1940’s, Sayre was appointed to work with the Camden Board of Education.

 “Camden was a lovely city. Cooper Street still had mansions and State Street was beautiful. My first service appointment was in Fairview Village,” where many shipyard workers settled. “We were the bedroom for the shipyard,” he remembers.

The current core building of the Haddonfield United Methodist Church replaced a church burned down in 1955. The new building opened in 1958 and by 1966, a year after Sayre arrived, the mortgage was paid off.

“Many of our members had come from Camden and one of our congregants, Ed Schmauder, said it was time to pay back to Camden.  Haddonfield grew at the expense of Camden. The business leaders moved out of that city to the suburbs and they brought their money with them,” he said.

“Ed said a lot of our growing membership was from Camden and we have to be concerned about what’s happening there.

“The last thing we wanted to be was like so many of the politically-motivated people. The city was replete with attempts at exploitation for political purposes,” Sayre said of the thoughts of his colleagues in the 1960s.

 “We were all part of the community of faith, whether Jews or Christians or Protestants.  No one among us was trying to exploit anyone then, or now. The faith community has spawned much of what’s good today in Camden.”

He cited the Salvation Army, the Volunteers of America, Urban Promise, and Respond as examples of community service groups with roots in organized religion. 

Sayre said the initial plan was to partner with a Methodist Church in Camden. “We thought we could strengthen that church with our resources, with our people and with our money," he said.

But the plan to help restore hope to those in the inner city was rebuffed. “They didn’t want us involved in the life of their people. They suggested we pay for a new roof and help with heating bills. But don’t push us around was their message,” Sayre said.

“That wasn’t what we wanted, what we believed was needed,” Sayre said.

The group from Haddonfield then crossed paths with Dr. Stanley J. Menking, who later became a professor of church administration and an associate dean of  Perkins School of Theology. Menking went into Camden to listen to people, to hear about their fears, their hopes, their frustrations.

“People in North Camden were working, but they believed the streets were  becoming unsafe for their 3- and 4-year old kids. There was nowhere for them to go while the parents worked. They needed pre-school day care,” Sayre said.

Menking became the architect of Respond’s first operation, a day care center at the State Street Methodist Church. “We worked with adminstrators of the Camden public school system. They gave us a vice principal from Pyne Poynt School, but we had to recruit teachers. We recruited the teachers and we got Wilbur Mitchell as our leader,” Sayre said.

Providing housing, job training

Today Respond operates 13 day care centers, including one in Merchantville that serves Pennsauken, and one in Winslow. The day-care centers provide service to about 800 children daily.

“A lot of the big shots from Camden came to our church and our strength in the Respond program was our leadership.” Sayre said.  One of our early strengths was Rob Andrews when he was freeholder-director." Andrews, a Democrat, now holds the House of Representatives seat for New Jersey’s first district

But Respond wasn’t satisfied with day care programs. The group purchased abandoned homes which were repaired and put on the market. “At one time we had 100 houses. Often home ownership in poverty areas is not practical. So we rented. We still have 50 homes that we rent, most in North Camden.”

A further step was the creation of Wesley Housing at the foot of State Street. The City of Camden eventually took over those housing units.

Currently Respond is the force behind the building of 40 units of affordable housing close to the grounds of the former state prison. All of the town house style buildings will be rental properties.

“We work quietly on these projects,” Sayre said.

Respond also operates shelters for homeless men, counseling programs for adults and teens, programs for drug addicts, and a range of services for women and teens.

The biggest and newest project is job training in culinary arts and auto mechanics, both underway at a former warehouse in the 900 block of N. Eighth Street in North Camden.

Andrews engineered a $250,000 federal grant to cover the costs of a fire suppression system and improved egress to the building. “Without the EDA (Economic Development Administration)’s help Respond would be forced to significantly limit its trainees because their building could not sustain the increased demand for their services," the congressman said. 

The first job training program is geared at filling culinary jobs in the casino industry. It is taught by retired chefs.  A second training program works to prepare young adults for jobs as auto technicians.

The job training programs, Andrews has said, “aren’t just about the people who will now get a paycheck. It’s about the thousands of future workers who can now develop the skills needed for higher-wage jobs.”

The culinary arts program trains 180 teens and young adults designed “at risk” by the New Jersey Juvenile Justice Commission.  Now learning the essentials of preparing hot foods and baked goods, and catering, those in the program soon will be preparing meals for Respond’s day care programs, Sayre said.

The auto technician program trains 40 people each year, with classroom vehicles provided by Holman Enterprises.