By Leslie Collins
Northeast News
August 17, 2011

Working for years in the corporate world, Ben Cascio needed a change. He wanted to make a difference and he wanted employees who were passionate about their jobs.

Don Bosco Centers was the answer.

“I’d gotten to a point in my life where I thought, ‘I really want to do something different for the next 12 or 15 years,'” Cascio said.

Cascio applied for the executive director position of Don Bosco Centers and began his new role at the end of June.

“I feel like it was meant to be,” Cascio said of his new position. “I was so excited. I was so I excited I probably drove my wife crazy. It was all I talked about.”

During the first few days of employment, Cascio inherited several challenges: the recent closure of Don Bosco Charter High School and the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) accusing Don Bosco of misspending federal funds. To recoup the monies, DESE withheld Don Bosco’s state aid payments for May and June, which threatened the school’s ability to pay its teachers and staff through the end of their contracts.

“I came in knowing there were some challenges and I like challenges,” he said.

Cascio isn’t new to Historic Northeast.

Born and raised in Northeast until the junior high, Cascio said he remembers the area fondly.

“I remember an environment of a vibrant community and where people really took care of each other,” he said.

When he walked down the street as young boy, neighbors would poke their heads out to ensure he safely crossed the block, he said.

A number of his family members also lived in Northeast and his grandfather owned the Thriftway grocery store on Independence Avenue.

For Cascio, the highlights of Northeast include its diverse architecture, melting pot of cultures, the Kansas City Museum, Cliff Drive and history.

“I’m always kind of drawn back to it because it’s such a unique area of the city,” he said.

Surrounded by a family of entrepreneurs, Cascio grew up talking business around the kitchen table and founded a teleconferencing business in 1990. He later became involved in other technological companies that sold data and voice infrastructure to businesses around Kansas City.

During the 1990s Cascio served on the Don Bosco Centers Board of Directors and now is ready to take Don Bosco Centers in a new direction.

Cascio wants to refocus on the organization’s three pillars, youth, family and seniors, and take a more holistic approach. Instead of keeping the three pillars separate, he wants to offer more activities to allow a variety of age groups to interact with each other.

Don Bosco’s administrative offices, youth center and family support center will move into the former charter high school to streamline resources for the public and save Don Bosco money.

For the youth center, the after-school program will be expanded and include a more structured environment featuring activities like nutrition education, art, music and athletics. Programming will also be increased for seniors.

Family support will see an expansion of its food and clothes pantry and will focus more on employment education, along with financial stability education.

Don Bosco will allow the community to use its gym and other amenities at the former charter high school to host classes like yoga, dance, boy scouts and girl scouts and other activities.

Asked what’s challenging about his position, Cascio said the struggling economy and how government and corporate grants are dwindling.

“At the time dollars are being cut back, we’re seeing more people needing help. Our numbers are phenomenal,” he said. “People who would have never thought they’d utilize Don Bosco’s services are needing them now.

“We’re in a different environment than probably the organization has ever been in 70 years…

“It’s a little daunting sometimes, but you just have to take little steps. If you take little steps one at a time, you move forward.”

Despite the challenges of the current economy, Cascio said his goal is to ensure Don Bosco remains sustainable and lasts at least another 70 years.

“We want to make sure we’re serving the Northeast community and make sure we’re providing the services and programming that the Northeast community wants and needs.”

To provide that tailored programming, Don Bosco will focus on community outreach by talking to neighborhood presidents, attending neighborhood association meetings, meeting with the local chamber of commerce and utilizing social media like Facebook and Twitter.

“We want to create that relationship and level of trust to where they (community) also feel like they can come talk to us about the issues they have and their needs as well,” Cascio said. “We want to be connected and dialed in to the community.”