From a very humble beginning as a young parish priest in one of Albany, New York's most impoverished neighborhoods, founder and Volunteer CEO of Peter Young Housing, Industries & Treatment (PYHIT), Father Peter G. Young's career epitomizes the very essence of a man with a vision. His program is a one of a kind treatment and job training center for individuals in recovery based on the "Three Legged Stool" approach to treatment, housing, and educational and employment opportunities.

Thousands of people in New York state, and across the country know Father Young for his work as a crusader for the downtrodden in society who suffer from chemical dependencies, homelessness, and troubled lives. This year, we celebrate his life with 50 years spent in active ministry as a priest and as a forceful leader and innovator.

Every day, dozens of men and women knock on his door, call him by phone or e-mail him, asking for his help. He just can't say "no." One way or another, he tries to help. As impossible as it may sound, he wants to solve everyone's problems.

He uses the strengths of his personality, exuberance, passion, humor, and persistence to lead the charge for reforms and humanistic treatment to produce "taxpayers" within the ranks of people who otherwise might roam the streets.

During his priestly ministry for 50 years, nothing has deterred Father Peter Young in the pursuit of his vision "to create taxpayers." Creating taxpayers is the avowed mission of PYHIT, his statewide network of Treatment, Housing and Education/Employment programs. Nothing has deterred him in seeking solutions that offer hope to those who seek recovery.

At an age when many of us have long since retired, he continues to devote 18-¬hour days to the work he loves. His vision has no blinders. It is directly related to his faith and his contentment with a priesthood that is his calling to serve the people of God, especially the poor in spirit and the poor in pain. That call came to him 50 years ago.

Snapshot of a Full Life
It was in the seminary that Scripture touched his mind and heart with the love of the poor. He found that the eight beatitudes were particularly meaningful. Father Young finished his studies intending to do his best in living what each beatitude taught - meekness, resignation, poverty of spirit, mercifulness, peace making, justice and humility. Clearly, the work he was about to undertake would test him in countless ways and would require reading the beatitudes over and over again.

Over those 50 years of service, Father Young, in addition to duties as a parish priest and pastor, taught in high school, served as chaplain for various associations and in the prison system for 33 years, founded dozens of organizations and non profit organizations, and chaired or was president of dozens of organizations involved with treatment, housing, shelters, and programs serving veterans. His resume lists about 40 recognition awards for community service, leadership, dedicated public service, human rights initiatives, and for his efforts to deal with the problems of alcoholism and addictions. In 2001, Father was ranked number two in the Top Ten New Yorkers Survey as conducted by the Empire State Report, a prestigious independent magazine.

The Schuyler Inn, a once bankrupt hotel that was an eyesore to the village Menands, NY, has, under the direction of PYHIT, now become a clean and friendly establishment that serves as a training site for the Altamont Program in culinary arts and the hotel and restaurant industry. Other sites also offer classroom and practical experience in computer training and applications. The effectiveness of the vocational program epitomizes Father Young's "Three Legged Stool" approach - Treatment, Housing and Education/Employment and has been replicated in other areas of the state.

The Altamont Program offers all three and can be measured by its job placement rate of 87%. Its track record won it the "Model JTPA Program of the Year" award in 1990. This award is given each year by the New York State Department of Labor to programs meeting the following criteria: uniqueness in meeting the needs of the local community, coordination of services and funding with local providers, attainment of certain measurable outcomes, and application of program in other areas of the state.

Reaching Out to the Clients
In the 80 statewide locations where he has programs and businesses, Father Young is present to the client at every opportunity. The faces are mostly brown and black, men and women, many in their 30's and 40's, often speaking in downstate accents and greeting Father with handshakes, high fives, bear hugs, and slaps on the shoulder. People feel special in his company because they are special to him. Bishop Hubbard once remarked, "He has the ability to make people feel as very special, very affirmed, which gives them the confidence and self-esteem they lack." People search him out, to open doors, close a deal, lean on his strength, make things happen.

Forging Partnerships
No one person can change the system or create meaningful and constructive programs alone. Father realized that from the beginning. Often he allied himself with others striving to effect changes or used his ingenuity to work out cooperative ways to install and maintain programs for people with addictions.

One of the more interesting arrangements involved the City of Albany Housing Authority (AHA). AHA had a building, with about 300 senior apartments, with a vacancy rate of 70 percent. Desperate for housing for his clients, Father convinced the AHA to rent 60 units to the clients who were recovered and working. In turn, his clients would patrol the premises and the neighborhood and thereby discourage locals who were involved in crime and drugs. They protected the seniors and they paid rent. The program has been so successful that it has been introduced in a number of locations of the state, including Syracuse.

PYHIT also partners with the New York State Industries for the Disabled (NYSID), through maintenance and janitorial contract services that involves multiple locations which, either directly or through partnerships, employ over 100 of our clients on annual contracts. The quality of our services has been recognized in its annual reviews.

PYHIT partners with community organizations to ensure that clients are referred for services best suited to their needs. Father seeks out federal, state and local government support and those sources have encouraged PYHIT through contracts, grants, and appropriations over the years. Father Peter Young has acted as a catalyst and an innovator in forging partnerships that will solve problems and help those in need.

Spirituality Embedded in PYHIT
"We're talking spirituality," Father Young says, as the fundamental basis of all that PYHIT does. "Spiritual development is encouraged, but never required." We are inter-denominational and therefore we don't come into conflict with governmental funding support. Because we don't turn away anyone who seeks our help, many of our clients come from many different religious backgrounds.

If you speak to our "wounded healers," people who have recovered and now serve others lost in addiction, you will find prayerfulness, the love of God, and love of neighbor as essential elements of their motivation. Successful recovery means reliance on yourself, but also on others. That typically includes reliance on God, to help bear the weight and pressures in beating the addiction, to set one free for sobriety and serenity.

Making The Beatitudes Work
When you listen to the people he has helped, you understand why the poor in heart rally around his name. For many, they find a reason to try or try again to make their recovery work. For many people, they find a reason to hope and trust in their fellow man and woman. For others, they find their way back to God and are sustained. And for still others, they have that "second chance" as their incentive to make good, become whole, earn their way, win self respect, and attain the dignity that, after all, is derived from a spiritual nature.

Priesthood Is His Privilege
Father Young=s priesthood is something his passion. As he celebrates his 50th year since ordination, Father gives thanks for his two communities; his parish in Bolton Landing and the Mother Teresa Community located on Second Avenue in Albany in the inner city. It is the people with whom he works that sustain him, He says emphatically, "It's a privilege to be a priest." On May 2, 2004, friends from inner cities communities honored him at a "Celebration of Gospel Praise," to celebrate the occasion with him.

When coping with physical infirmities some years ago, Father responded to an inquiry, "I stopped planning a long time ago. I realized God had a plan so I let him take over." Although he believes in divine providence, he is always planning his next steps. Most recently, the PYHIT Committee on Strategic Planning set forth the organizational goals of PYHIT, its strengths and weaknesses, and a course of action for the next five years or more.

The Real Father Young
How do you define this man? How do you describe how one person has accomplished so much without seeming to take a breadth in between hundreds of initiatives to help addicted people in general and thousands of individuals in particular?

Father Young is untiring. Even with a few hours sleep, he tackles each new day refreshed and invigorated. A booming laugh sounds his presence, ringing of the cell phone punctuates his proximity, e-mails by the hundreds highlight his activities and concerns. His life is constant motion - meetings, interviews, and incoming traffic as people seek his personal attention. They all combine to encompass a daily routine without breaks or rest. How does he do it? That question persists in the minds of observers and his staff.

Father Young is God loving, joyous in his priesthood; generously giving of himself, his energies, his talents, and his time to others. There is no apparent return to him other than knowing that in giving, you are blessed as says the beatitude. His 50 years of ministry are years of service to God's people. He remembers names as if they are branded on each head of the person he meets. Whether he is conversing with a chief of operations, a legislator, a friend, a staff member, a client or a homeless person on the street, he sees no distinction. For each is a AGod's person@ and deserves equal attention, respect, and treatment.

He is a man, a priest, and a visionary, who tries never to say no to people in need and only reluctantly accepts a no when he thinks there is a chance to obtain support from others to assist in the mission of creating taxpayers. Persistence advances his crusade, a prayerful spirit guides his ways, and kindness signals his cause. Fifty years is but an interlude in his total commitment to serve others.

The beatitudes keep him company. They beam their blessings on him and his actions. Happy are those who are merciful to others. God will be merciful to them. God bless Father Peter Young.