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Honoring Sister Mary Scullion for her steadfast dedication and tireless advocacy efforts on behalf of Philadelphia's homeless population and for being chosen one of Time Magazines "Worlds Most Influential People" for 2009.
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WHEREAS, Sister Mary Scullion has been involved in service work and advocacy for homeless and mentally ill persons since 1978; and
WHEREAS, She was a co-founder in 1985 of Woman of Hope, which provides permanent residences and support services for homeless mentally ill women; and
WHEREAS, In 1988, she helped to found the Outreach Coordination Center, an innovative program coordinating private and public agencies doing outreach to chronically homeless persons in Center City Philadelphia; and
WHEREAS, In 1989, Sister Mary Scullion and Joan Dawson McConnon co-founded Project H.O.M.E., a nationally recognized organization that provides supportive housing, employment, education and health care to enable chronically homeless and low-income persons to break the cycle of homelessness and poverty; and
WHEREAS, Project H.O.M.E has grown from an emergency winter shelter to 447 units of housing and three businesses that provide employment to formerly homeless persons, and has helped build the Honickman Learning Center and Comcast Technology Labs, a state-of-the-art digital learning center that's the envy of even the best private schools; and
WHEREAS, More than 95 percent of those who cycle through Project Home never return to life on the streets - a success rate that has made the program a model for dozens of other U.S. cities; and
WHEREAS, Sister Mary has received numerous honorary doctorates for her leadership in the City of Philadelphia. She was also awarded the Liberty Bell Award from the Philadelphia Bar Association, the Prudential National Nonprofit Leadership Award and the 1992 Philadelphia Award. In 2002, Mary was awarded an "Eisenhower Fellowship," and that same year, she and Ms. McConnon were national awardees ...
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