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Meet Philly’s Project HOME co-founder Sister Mary Scullion
After a tremendous 35-year run in leadership, Project HOME’s co-founder Sister Mary Scullion, is stepping down. FOX 29’s Jeff Cole discovers more about Sister Scullion’s career in honor of Women’s History Month.
Sister Mary Scullion, the founder of Project HOME, offering shelter for Philadelphia’s homelessness, will step down from leadership of the organization by the end of the year.
As FOX 29 honors Women’s History Month, Jeff Cole spoke to Scullion about her career and her future.
Sister Mary Scullion sat in the ornate lobby of the Inn of Amazing Mercy a lifetime from where she started as the teenage daughter of immigrant parents.
Scullion was asked about her joining the Sisters of Mercy while a teenager. "I did at 19-years-old, 1972, said Scullion. "My parents thought I was too young to make that decision. Adding, "they weren’t very enthusiastic about it."
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70 years old and nearing a form of retirement which will place her back on the streets doing outreach,
Scullion, the founder of Project Home, along with her longtime Associate Director, Joan McConnon, remembered the birth of her renowned organization in the basement of a rec. center with 50 homeless men.
"Mr. Connelly, who had sisters who were Sisters of Mercy, he just wrote us a check for $100,000 right on the spot. Joan, being the financial guru she is, put the 100,00 right in the bank and we used it to start project home." she said.
Over 35 years, Project Home has built 1,000 units of housing, constructed health care, learning and occupational training centers and recently opened the Inn of Amazing Mercy, 54 units of housing and emergency beds in deeply troubled Kensington.
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Project HOME's co-founder Sister Mary Scullion stepping down after 35-years
FOX 29's Jeff Cole sat down with Project HOME co-founder Sister Mary Scullion to reflect on her 35-years of service with the organization.
When asked how much she had raised for Project Home and her other efforts, Scullion said, "hundreds of millions of dollars. She said, "It’s not me people see a need and they’re willing to invest in solutions."
The investors are rock stars, Jon Bon Jovi, and people of great wealth willing to offer millions to the slight, Sister of Mercy, with a fiery belief in equality.
Scullion believes Project Home is, "in some ways an embodiment of the American dream, equal opportunity."
Scullion houses women and wants them to rise. Scullion said she thinks women should be priests in the Catholic Church, and argues, "women should be fully incorporated in, and equal to, men in the church and every other place in society."
As she nears retirement, she said she looks back without regret, but with gratitude.
Sister Mary Scullion said, "I feel like I’ve been true to the gifts I’ve been given by God, done the best I can, and I’m going to leave it for whatever it’s worth."