By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
DEC. 8, 2020 | Implementing a new idea isn’t easy. It takes a certain problem solver with vision. That’s what the Gwinnett Health and Human Services Coalition found as it started its collaborative partnerships nearly 30 years ago and hired Ellen Gerstein as its first director.
The idea had germinated out of Gwinnett United Way. The Coalition, started in 1991, luckily hired someone who had the understanding, drive, and intelligent insight to lead this new program to success. Ellen Gerstein is soon retiring after implementing this idea into an invaluable program for Gwinnett.
Back in the late 1980s, local leaders had the foresight to raise money to tackle human problems in the underbelly of the county. They hired consultants out of North Carolina, who recognized that Gwinnett was right on target to tackle such problems. A major problem: few non-profit agencies did not know one another, taking maybe 14-15 phone calls to get the right person to solve a problem.
Starting the Help Line came early. Most shocking to Ellen was that “…most people using the Help Line were not seeking counseling, or suicide prevention, or larger problems, but were homeless, or needed their money to pay their bills.”
Gerstein in 2015 photo.
During those days, there were few nonprofits based in Gwinnett, with most off-shoots of downtown agencies. Ellen says: “There might have been 50 non-profits in Gwinnett then.” Today the Tax Exempt World counts in Gwinnett 6,342 non-profit agencies.
Ellen says that downtown funding agencies looked upon Gwinnett as affluent and growing, and did not think Gwinnett needed their grants. “The image of success of Gwinnett hurt the county, for by then Gwinnett had caught up with the rest of Atlanta with their same severe problems, such as homelessness, abuse prevention, mental health and veterans’ services.”
An immediate success of the Coalition was framing the model of the Norcross Cooperative Ministry to organize the county. “We used the Norcross Co-op’s model of enrolling participating churches to help people with food or rent or clothing. Eventually we had six co-ops, covering every Zip Code in the county.”
Early on the Coalition did a youth survey to find risk behaviors and how to address them, putting the spotlight on substance use prevention. “The survey found 59 percent of high school seniors had tried underage drinking. Out of this came the GUIDE (Gwinnett United in Drug Education), and today underage drinking by seniors is down to 12 per cent. This area also addresses school athletes addicted to pain killers. It was an incredible work.”
Gwinnett continues to need a homeless shelter, Ellen says. “We were close to starting one, having the money and space, but then COVID hit. It is a key unmet need.”
At the center of all these human problems has been Ellen Gerstein. An Atlanta native and UGA graduate, she came to Gwinnett from Arizona, where she earned a master’s degree in management and human resources from the University of Phoenix, before it became an online school. She had worked with violent offenders in a rehab program.
While she’ll be officially retired from the Coalition, Ellen plans to take some time off, but will stay active. She’s presently teaching a course in management for future doctors at the Suwanee campus of the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. She plans travel and writing, but will be concentrating much of her time with her twin grandsons, now two and a half, who live near her in Snellville.
It’s been wonderful to see what great implementation of a simple idea Ellen Gerstein has produced for Gwinnett! She succeeded beautifully. Now go, Ellen, and enjoy your well-earned retirement!
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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