Finding Stability

Mike Hopkins, his wife and daughter took a vote before making the life-changing decision to relocate to Northeastern Pennsylvania after living in New York for five years. • A Post-it Note poll said and done, Hopkins got his wish: He and his family would move back to Tunkhannock, where they had resided for many years and where his wife grew up. He would assume the role of executive director of the Children’s Service Center in Wilkes-Barre.

“You could cut the tension with a butter knife,” he said, describing the days leading to the difficult decision.

A friend had called from Tennessee to tell Hopkins about the job opening but mistakenly said it was in north-central Pennsylvania.

After hearing the position was in Wilkes-Barre and going through two interviews, the 49-year-old Syracuse native was sold.

“After the second interview I said, ‘I’ve got to have that job,’ ” he said.

At the center, Hopkins and new chief financial officer Bob Bray have taken on a big task: balancing the annual budget and cutting into the approximately $1.5 million in accumulated debt.

“What we needed to do is bring stability to our financial program,” he said. “There’s no sense in working on anything else if you’re not going to be here.”

With a balanced budget, the center can continue helping area young people through the host of programs the 147-year-old organization offers: psychiatric services, a medication clinic, home-based intensive family therapy, functional family therapy, an autism program, crisis services, residential treatment and foster-care services, to name a few.

In fact, the foster-care program, which has just one employee on staff and five children enrolled, is one program Hopkins would like to expand because there’s “no question” more foster families are needed locally.

“I’d love to have more recreational activities for the kids, too,” Hopkins said.

At 22, Hopkins began working as a caseworker for Counseling Care in Scranton while he resided in Tunkhannock.

“I remembered hearing Tunkhannock mentioned in my interview,” he said. “I interviewed for the job on a Wednesday and started on Monday morning. I’d never been to Scranton in my life.”

At that time, the job seemed like a dream. Hopkins recalled driving to Mehoopany to visit a child in his Volkswagen Beetle convertible with the top down.

He also ended up meeting his wife, Diane, in Tunkhannock at the Shadowbrook Inn & Resort.

As a caseworker, Hopkins helped children growing up in troubled families or who had behavioral problems.

“I would say to them, ‘The major difference between you and me is my family was there to support me when I was making mistakes,” said Hopkins, who has three children himself: Nick Brown, 26; Colin, 21; and Anna, 14.

He liked “working directly with the kids and families,” he said, referring to times he would take youngsters to basketball games and whitewater rafting and even had sleepovers at his apartment.

Today, “the needs of kids have become more extreme,” he said, citing television content, drug and alcohol availability and family disintegration.

Later, he worked at Wiley House, which then became Kidspeace, where he helped set up offices in other states such as New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, Georgia and Maine.

“The goal was to work with some tougher kids and take it (the program) on the road,” he said.

But he proved his financial acumen within the past five years when he served as vice president of Youth and Family Services at GA Family Services in Jamestown, N.Y.

He helped bring the agency back from a $1 million debt and led the restructuring process of a residential facility, group homes and a school and the development of three therapeutic foster-care offices in western New York.

Much of that may have prepared him for his role in Wilkes-Barre, which he started full time on Feb. 2.

“I was able to hit the ground running,” thanks to working for the organization part time since December, participating in daily staff meetings via conference calls and working with the center’s board members, who Hopkins said “have a long history in the Wyoming Valley.”

These days at the Children’s Service Center, he spends time trying to secure government money, looking for a fund-raising director and getting acquainted with the campus grounds in downtown Wilkes-Barre.

“To me, that’s the fun part of the job,” he said of visiting the various offices and group homes.

With the help of a new fundraising director, Hopkins hopes the agency can continue providing the thousands of dollars worth of free services it does on a yearly basis.

“We are contacted frequently to assist victims and their families of violent crimes committed in Luzerne County,” he said. “We offer these services because it’s the right thing to do and is a perfect fit with our mission.”

Of course, Hopkins finds time to unwind, too, whether by attending Yankees games or golfing at Stonehedge in Tunkhannock.

And even though his wife and daughter haven’t relocated yet, he’s not lonely.

Golf tourney to aid center

Cost: $90 per golfer or $360 for foursome; $100 to sponsor a hole; $500-$1,000 to corporate sponsor

To donate: Tax-deductible checks may be sent to Cathy Podlaski, c/o Children’s Service Center, 335 S. Franklin St., Wilkes-Barre, PA 18702.

Center mission: To provide and promote quality services with care and compassion to enhance the emotional well-being and mental health of children, adolescents and their families.

Clear 27°

Features

Golf tourney to aid center

Click to Read the Guide Online!

Place Quick Ads