By Abby Hoover, Managing Editor

After 28 years at Bishop Sullivan Center, Director and President Tom Turner is retiring on October 1.

The center, located at 6435 E. Truman Rd., is known for its ElderCool program, which provides air conditioners to low-income seniors, employment services, and providing a variety of assistance with food and other essentials.

Turner began his career of service as a Catholic priest. After his first assignment in Gladstone, Mo., he was transferred in 1987 to co-pastor four parishes around Northeast Kansas City. In 1991 the parishes consolidated into Our Lady of Peace on Bennington Ave., where Turner stayed until 1992.

Bishop Sullivan Center, previously known as Cooperative Social Services, was opened in 1972 by local Catholic churches, offering a food pantry, outreach to senior citizens and financial assistance to its community.

“When I left the priesthood after that year, the woman who was running that retired and so I applied and got the job,” Turner said. “I started here in ‘93, though I’ve been in Northeast since ‘87, which is like 34 years that I’ve worked and lived here.”

He plans to remain in Pendleton Heights while he enjoys his retirement, and has been a witness to how the Historic Northeast has changed over the past three decades. 

“Maybe it’s just that I feel more a part of the community,” Turner said. “I don’t drive in and leave at the end of the day. I’m here.”

When he first came to Northeast in 1987, the houses reminded him of the neighborhood where he grew up near 57th and Woodland Avenue.

“There was a nostalgia to it for me, it’s like, ‘I’m home, I know this,’ because without even knowing the people, the housing stock alone communicated a familiarity to me,” Turner said.

As he grew to know the people in his new community, he began to recognize them as being down-to-earth and unpretentious. After all these years, it’s the people that make him feel comfortable in the neighborhood, a place he can’t ever envision leaving.

After Turner retires on October 1, he plans to relax and enjoy being a new grandfather, and helping out where he can.

The Bishop Sullivan staff doesn’t have much turnover, and they’re being left in the capable hands of the center’s new Director Michelle Carlstedt, who Turner said has an extensive background with various nonprofits.

“I think they feel committed, too,” Turner said of his staff. “Because I’ve been here so long, I’m sure change is tough for a lot of people. But they’re good people so they’ll adapt.”

In Turner’s years serving Northeast he’s made a few observations, the first being the growth of the Hispanic community. When he came to the congregations in 1987, there were no masses in Spanish. Now, there’s more in Spanish than English.

“At the Hispanic masses you’ll see lots of young families, lots of little kids, whereas the Anglo congregations tend to skew older,” Turner said. “It’s all these trade-offs in life, but I think it’s brought some new vitality into the neighborhood with the young families.”

He also appreciates how the shift in demographics has changed the neighborhoods, like the variety of Mexican restaurants and small businesses on Independence Avenue, or the events PH Coffee hosts in his neighborhood.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way many nonprofits interact with clients, putting more distance between them, but for Bishop Sullivan, it did not necessarily mean more people seeking assistance.

“Before the pandemic, we might average 35 to 50 families a day coming to our food pantry,” Turner said. “Now it’s 15 to 20 families.”

He thinks it’s a combination of many factors, things like increased government assistance like stimulus checks and unemployment, and advanced child tax credits.

“We’re getting to  keep more of our money,” Turner said. “The other effect is because unemployment rates are so low right now, wages have gone up at the lower level… They’re not as dependent on a social service agency for food. I think that’s good.”

Despite the low unemployment rate, Bishop Sullivan is in the heart of the metro’s second poorest ZIP code, with a median household income of $20,699. Turner has come to realize many of his neighbors are just one unexpected health issue away from losing everything.

“Then they’re living paycheck to paycheck and now they can’t pay the light bill,” Turner said. “I think there’s a lot of that, people who are trying to do the best they can, they hit a bump in the road and just need a little help getting over that.” 

Turner has been inspired most by the agency’s donors. In July 1999, Kansas City was hit by a record-breaking heat wave, causing 20 heat-related deaths in senior citizens. At the end of that summer Turner was talking to Bishop Sullivan supporter and retired lawyer Jim Humphrey.

“I said, ‘Jim, this is terrible. The air conditioners aren’t much, you would think Medicare should cover this. It’s life saving. I think we should write a letter to the governor,’” Turner said. “He had a great line. He said, ‘Why would we ask the government to do the Lord’s work?’”

Humphrey donated $10,000 that next summer, purchasing the first 100 units. In the summer of 2000 they installed 483 air conditioners, and they’ve continued the program every summer since.

Now, the window units cost around $150, and many of the seniors are living on less than $800 of Social Security income per month, Turner said. Bishop Sullivan volunteers provide the unit and install it.

“And we put 100 bucks in their electric account, too,” Turner said. “We don’t want them to incur an expense running it.”

Everything the staff does is a team effort, and Turner doesn’t take any of the credit. No matter what else is going on in the world, Bishop Sullivan supports its community. Though it’s a Catholic organization, they don’t proselytize. Anyone is welcome to their services.

“Our faith informs what we do, it’s not so much imposing that on the recipients,” Turner said. “In fact, my experience has been, in general, I have found people who do struggle economically already have a very deep faith. Maybe it’s that struggle itself that has forged their faith in ways that people who are comfortable are not pushed to turn to God.”

He said if anything, he’s been inspired by folks that visit Bishop Sullivan when they articulate their faith more than the other way around.

When Turner first began at Bishop Sullivan, their services were limited. He asked clients, if he could find the money, would they want a budgeting expert, a counselor or a career counselor. The response was overwhelmingly in favor of someone to help them find work. Now, more than 30 years later, the center’s career services help people refine their resumes, dress for their jobs and find work that fits their skills.

“I think people feel good when they’re working,” Turner said. “They take pride in themselves and it feels good.”

Turner said once someone gets a good job, many of the other services are no longer needed.

“Folks who come here typically are very stressed,” Turner said. “Not being able to pay your bills or not having food, that’s stressful. When you’re stressed you don’t always make good choices.”

He hopes that by bringing some relief, that they can make better choices and haven’t had to make a bad choice out of desperation.

“The perception is that a whole neighborhood is crime-ridden when it’s not,” Turner said. “The good folks grossly outnumber the bad actors. I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. You don’t know what you’re missing over here.”

Next year will be the center’s 50th anniversary and Turner often thinks of what Northeast would be like if Bishop Sullivan hadn’t been here, comparing it to “It’s a Wonderful Life.” But because they are, Turner hopes Bishop Sullivan will keep following the needs of the community.

“If there is a need in the community that is unmet, to look for that, be aware of that, listen for it, and then address it,” Turner said. “I hope Bishop Sullivan Center is always attentive to the need. If the need changes, change with the need.”