Non-Profit Community Living Corporation Names New Leader

MOUNT KISCO, NY — A Mount Kisco-based group that helps thousands in the region with developmental disabilities and autism has named a new Executive Director.

Jessica Thomas of Stony Point will take the helm at the Community Living Corporation (CLC) headquartered in the Radio Circle Industrial Park. Thomas will oversee the non-profit organization which operates 40 residential facilities. The group offers a wide variety of services to more than 2,500 people in the Hudson Valley with developmental disabilities and autism.

The non-profit operates with 450 employees and an annual budget of roughly $25 million, according to a spokesperson.

Thomas was Residential Services Director at Jawonio in New City. Prior to that, she was Deputy Director of Operations and Services at M & K Health Care Services in Middletown.

Thomas has worked in the developmental disabilities field since 1998. She earned a Bachelor's Degree from SUNY Purchase and holds a Master's Degree from Columbia University.

"I am looking to navigate the latest challenges which CLC together with other non-profit organizations in developmental disabilities and autism face with New York State," Thomas explained. "Over the past several years, NYS has begun transitioning Office of People With Developmental Disabilities-OPWDD direct funding into a managed care approach. It remains to be seen how the Governor and the Legislature will address the pressure of a growing population and current waiting list for services in this community."

Thomas said that while CLC clients as a whole have been hit hard by the pandemic, her organization has become a leader in dealing with those challenges.

"Covid has meant severe difficulties for both the employees of CLC and the people it serves," Thomas said. "Most all agencies in this field have been faced with restrictions, limitations and considerations based on public health policy. CLC has had a very responsive vaccination program. And its employees including essential caregivers have been very dedicated."

John Porcella of Mount Kisco, who has been CLC's Executive Director for many years, will become the group's new CEO.

Porcella will oversee all of the different business units connected to the CLC Group, including the CLC Supplemental Needs Pooled Trusts and Surplus Income Trusts, the CLC Foundation, CLC Transportation, Inc., ADI Cares, Hidden Treasures, Winslow Therapeutic Riding Center and the Epilepsy Foundation of Metropolitan New York.

The Community Living Corporation was established 32 years ago by John Signorelli, John Porcella and Roger Cooper. Together with concerned parents, they sought to identify suitable residential facilities needed in Westchester County. They went on to develop health treatment, vocational training, day habilitation and recreational programs.