Farewell to pastor who brought web development to Camden teens

In 2000, Hopeworks 'N Camden launched a website design class for city teenagers in a room with five PCs and a single server.

"People didn't know what we were doing," recalls Father Jeff Putthoff, who founded the forward-thinking, entrepreneurial program.

"We didn't know what we were doing!"

That learning curve is history: In 15 years, Hopeworks has assisted 3,000 young people, 380 of whom have enrolled in college.

Many also have been placed in paid internships through Hopeworks' Web design company, GIS (Geographic Information Systems) firm, and other enterprises.

Hopeworks companies currently have 16 projects underway for clients in South Jersey and elsewhere, says Putthoff, a high-octane Jesuit priest who still carries the accent of his native Missouri.

"These are real businesses that create revenue," he says.

Putthoff came to the city from Cambridge, Mass., in 1997 to be the assistant pastor of North Camden's Holy Name Church; he finished at Hopeworks on June 1, leaving to complete a master's degree ("my fourth," he notes) in organizational dynamics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Leaving has been difficult, but "it's a chance for me to do some other things," Putthoff, 50, says. "I'm so grateful for the 18 years I've had in Camden."

His successor as executive director is Dan Rhoton, who's also got energy to burn - as I learn when I meet the two men at Hopeworks' action-packed headquarters near Fifth and State Streets.

"This is where the youth are doing the basics of Web-page design and development," says Rhoton, pointing to a first-floor room jammed with young men and women at desktop PCs.

Upstairs, Rhoton explains, is the realm of the GIS team, whose members are earning money by working with professionals from New Jersey American Water.

Hopeworks has a $34,000 contract to assist in the electronic mapping of hydrants, pipes, pumps, valves, and other components of the utility's system in the Cramer Hill section of the city.

"It's an opportunity to provide these kids with some real-world experience," says Peter A. Eschbach, director of communications at New Jersey American.

Likewise, GO2, a technology company with an office in Barrington, plans to hire several Hopeworks students, vice president Ethan Millrood says.

The firm provides voice and data services for businesses, and the interns will assist with "cabling and service installation, and developing coding for websites," Millrood says. "It's tough to find people who know how to do this well, and are good at it."

From the beginning, notes Putthoff, Hopeworks sought to expose Camden kids to educational, vocational, and personal growth opportunities often limited by their circumstances.

And as research has increasingly shed light on how struggling families, chaotic households, and dysfunctional communities can have a lasting traumatic effect on the brains of young children, Hopeworks also has evolved.

It hosted two "Trauma Summits," attracting professionals who deal with issues - including poor school performance and substance abuse - believed to be linked to childhoods like those many of the Hopeworks kids have experienced.

"Rather than making excuses, we need to look at the effect of this trauma on kids in Camden," says Rhoton, 40, who's the father of 7-year-old twin girls. "We need to face it."

Hopeworks has "formation" classes to help youngsters devise, execute, and persevere in plans to, say, complete high school. It also offers a home, nicknamed "the Crib," for young people who need a stable place to live.

The house is just down the block from the training center; a second facility, for pregnant or parenting young people, also may be added, Rhoton says.

After three years at Hopeworks and less than two months as executive director, he sees his role as that of a steward.

"The seed's been sown and the tree is growing," he says. "My job is to make sure it continues to grow."