For Immediate Release Contacts:
Tuesday, November 28, 2006 John Rago
City Communications Director
302.420.7928 (cell)
jrago@ci.wilmington.de.us
Executive Director and Board of New HOPE Commission Announced
New Non-Profit Commission To Continue Community-Wide Effort to Implement the
Remaining Recommendations of the Original HOPE Commission
Wilmington Mayor James M. Baker, working in concert with a Steering Committee of the original Wilmington HOPE Commission, today accepted the Steering Committee’s recommendation of an Executive Director and newly-constituted Board of Directors that will lead a new permanent and independent entity known as the Wilmington HOPE Commission.
Mayor Baker created the original HOPE Commission in May of 2005 to formulate solutions to serious societal ills that affect public safety and the prosperity of Wilmington as a whole. The Mayor accepted the group’s recommendations earlier this year. The Executive Director and successor Wilmington HOPE Commission is now charged with advocating for and implementing the recommendations of the original Commission.
In establishing the Wilmington HOPE Commission, Mayor Baker concluded that the root causes of crime and violence could only be addressed effectively through a combination of law enforcement and substantive solutions to the community and social issues that cause criminal and violent behavior. One of the original nine recommendations of the HOPE Commission was to name a new Commission and Executive Director to carry on the work needed to change attitudes, actions, behaviors and beliefs among citizens.
During the past few months, the Mayor’s Office and the Steering Committee of the original Commission drafted the incorporation papers for the new independent HOPE Commission and developed a job description for the Executive Director of the new non-profit entity. The new Commission is empowered to seek additional funding and to look beyond the original recommendations if and when necessary in order to implement a comprehensive plan.
The Executive Director of the new non-profit HOPE Commission, Inc. is 51-year old Provey Powell, Jr., who served as one of the three co-chairs of the original HOPE Commission. Powell is the owner of Powell’s Insurance Agency affiliated with the Allstate Insurance Company and is President of the Stop the Violence Coalition and a member of the Coalition to Build a Safer Community. He is an active member of the youth mentoring program at Ezion Mt. Carmel Church and at the Ferris School for incarcerated youth. Powell is currently a candidate for the ordained ministry in the United Methodist Church. Powell will be paid $100,000 annually in the new position.
News Release
New Hope Commission Executive Director and Board of Directors Named
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
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The Board of Directors of the new 21-member Commission, and who appointed them to the Board include, Antoine Allen, Senior Vice President of People Communications with Bank of America, Michael Purzicki, Executive Director of the Riverfront Development Corporation and Reverend Derrick Johnson, Pastor of Joshua Harvest Church, all appointed by Mayor Baker; Dr. Robert J. Laskowski, President and CEO of Christiana Care Health System, appointed by Wilmington City Council President Theodore Blunt; and Lynne Howard, Deputy Chief Administrative Officer for the New Castle County Government, appointed by County Executive Christopher Coons.
The remaining Board Members will serve by virtue of the positions they hold with various government or community agencies that are designated in the HOPE Commission incorporation filing as permanent Board Members. They include Cari DeSantis, Cabinet Secretary, Delaware Department of Services for Children, Youth And Their Families, Karryl McManus, Deputy Secretary of the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services, Debbie Chang, Senior Vice President and Executive Director of the Nemours Foundation, William S. Montgomery, Chief of Staff for the City of Wilmington, James N. Mosley, Director of Public Safety for the City of Wilmington, Drew Langloh, President of the United Way of Delaware, Connie Hughes, Executive Director of the Delaware Association of Non-Profit Agencies, Tyrone Jones, President of the Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League, James Wolfe, President of the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce, and Chandlee Kuhn, Chief Judge of Family Court for the State of Delaware. The Board, at its discretion, may add up to six additional members.
The Steering Committee of the original HOPE Commission that made the recommendation of a new Executive Director and helped to formulate the new Commission announced today include, John C. Carney, Delaware’s Lt. Governor, Karryl McManus, Deputy Cabinet Secretary of the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services, Drew Langloh, President of the United Way of Delaware, Fred Sears, Executive Director of the Delaware Community Foundation, Tyrone Jones, Executive Director of the Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League and Dr. Timothy Brandau, Executive Director of YMCA Resource Center of Delaware.
“Two of the nine original HOPE Commission recommendations, including the adoption of community policing as a Department-wide model within the Wilmington Police Department and the naming of a successor Commission, are now in place,” said Mayor Baker today in welcoming the new Executive Director and Commission. “Now it will take the same spirit of cooperation, partnership and hope that marked the work of the original Commission to bring about the implementation of the remaining recommendations. This new group has my support and encouragement as I know it will have from all people who believe in our City’s future.”
The previous Commission’s 10-month effort to formulate remedies to the social and economic ills that affect many citizens and neighborhoods included an extensive exchange of ideas throughout the community and included valuable insight from community residents, youth, businesses, political leaders, social service agencies, educators, law enforcement officials, and other professionals both locally and nationally.
Mayor Baker today issued a call for all citizens to step forward and assist the Commission. “We are stronger as a united population, one that recognizes that each of us can play an important role in helping everyone in our community to believe, succeed and have hope,” said the Mayor. “I urge citizens to contact the new HOPE Commission office and become directly engaged in the process of helping to implement the remaining recommendations of the Commission, and in doing so, become part of a new Wilmington that will emerge from this process.”
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