Thornton Academy Postscripts Alumni Magazine Fall 2015 | Page 4

Helping People Find a Compass

Phillip Saperia ’64 has devoted
his life to decades of work in
community relations and nonprofit service, much of it in New
York City.

Phillip Saperia’s office looks out on the art deco façade
of the Woolworth Building and the glossy polyhedron
tower of One World Trade Center. On the bookshelf,
titles such as Madness in the Streets, Recovering Life, and
Leading Change say a lot about how this Class of ’64
alum has devoted his life. When Phillip was recently
awarded a 2015 Leadership Award for Advocacy, this
alum was introduced as “A leading force for change since
arriving at The Coalition of Behavioral Health Agencies”
where he has been Executive Director since 1994. As
Director, Phillip manages an umbrella organization that
supports over 130 member agencies that, in turn, serve
nearly half a million people throughout all of New York
City’s buroughs, as well as down state Long Island and
Westchester, Rockland, and Orange counties. While
Phillip and his staff provide advocacy, policy analysis,
policy development, training, and media relations
services to the member agencies, the agencies, in turn,
provide treatment and support services for people
suffering with the often intertwined conditions of mental
illness and substance addiction.
When Phillip was still a newly-appointed Director,
a social worker showed him how they provided on-

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the-spot services to the homeless. Phillip remembers, “He
took me to Central Park on the Upper West Side, pointed
to a clump of grass and dirt in a corner, and said, ‘That’s
one of ours.’ I didn’t know what he was pointing at or what
he meant. Then the social worker walked over and left a
sandwich in a paper bag about twenty feet from the mound.
It was for the person who was living under the ground there.”
That was one of the many days when Phillip learned how
hard member agencies in The Coalition were working to
identify and engage people in trouble and earn their trust.
“Recovery isn’t always a straight line. It’s about taking one
step at a time,” Phillip said. “You entice them to come out,
build their trust, and then maybe they will come to a dropin center, take a shower, and get new clothes. Once that
happens, those who are suffering can create bonds and
develop a social life. Shelters are dangerous places, but they
can also be places where friendships develop, where those in
need can meet people who can care about them and look out
for them.”
Phillip’s passion for supporting the work of The Coalition
is clear. “The staff who are working in shelters, working in
treatment centers, they are not paid lots of money. They