The Community Place- Media Room

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (August 1, 2005) – Today The Community Place of Greater Rochester, Inc. (CPGR) will officially announce the appointment of Roderick Jones as the organization’s new president and CEO. Jones, who has been with CPGR since 2001, formerly served as executive vice president and chief operating officer.

Jones will be taking over a nonprofit agency that has seen tremendous growth since its inception in 2001. CPGR served over 9,000 unique individuals in 2004, offering a wide range of human services from family emergency services to early childhood and youth services to services for seniors and the developmentally disabled. Between 2003 and 2004, CPGR increased its number of individual services offerings from 6908 to 9113, a nearly 32% increase. This success has been due to the quality of CPGR’s program and service offerings, a talented staff, and a business approach that relies more on finding creative funding sources instead of relying solely on traditional grants. CPGR currently has an operating budget of roughly $4.5 million and fixed assets of $9 million. Jones replaces Sherry Walker Cowart, who left CPGR earlier this year to take the executive director position at the Center for Dispute Settlement.

“(Jones) has compiled a good record as CPGR’s Executive Vice President,” said Bill McCullough, executive vice president, United Way of Greater Rochester. “He knows the organization, the people and the communities they serve. I know that United Way looks forward to working with him in his new role.”

Jones is a member of the Rochester Business Journal’s 2002 Forty Under 40. Prior to his tenure at CPGR he was project director at the Perinatal Network of Monroe County (1999-2001), director, adolescent sexuality and pregnancy prevention projects at Baden Street Settlement House (1997-1999), director, management information systems, at Baden Street Settlement House (1996-1997), and coordinator, youth services division, at Action for a Better Community (1993-1995). He holds an M.S. in Public Administration from Brockport College and a B.S. in Economic Crime Investigations from Utica College of Syracuse University.

“My work here (at CPGR) is to be a good steward of trusted resources and to work with the communities we serve to ensure the desired standard of living for its members,” said Jones. “The litmus test of our success is the quality of life in the neighborhoods where we live and serve.”

The Community Place of Greater Rochester, Inc. is a nonprofit human services agency that provides a variety of programs and services to individuals, families, children, seniors, and the developmentally disabled living in Rochester’s Northeast Quadrant. As a self-empowerment agency, CPGR’s ultimate goal is client self-sufficiency. CPGR was formed in 2001 after the merger of the former Lewis Street Center, Genesee Settlement House, and Eastside Community Center. CPGR is headquartered at 145 Parsells Avenue, Rochester; its other main locations are 500 Carter Street, Rochester and 57 Central Park, Rochester.