We recived this very sad news from our friend Leslie Stivale from Triple C Housing. We will miss Ms. Ambruso.
Dorothy Ambruso, a trailblazer in community mental-health and supportive housing, died early Tuesday morning at Somerset Hospital. Born in Hershey, Pennsylvania, she moved to New Jersey as a teenager, residing in Middlesex, Morris and Somerset Counties. Dorothy Ambruso made it her life’s work to promote and develop quality housing for individuals afflicted with serious and persistent mental illness. Dorothy was a leader in developing transitional programs for the mentally ill, which enabled them to become successful members of the community.
Ms. Ambruso lived her life contributing to the deinstitutionalization movement within the State of NJ, and did so without fanfare. She genuinely sought to improve the quality of life and living standards for former patients returning to their communities. With undaunted effort, exceptional determination and little fanfare she achieved great success.
Determined to make a difference, she led in the founding of CCCPA (now known as Triple C Housing), a non-profit supportive housing organization dedicated to improving the lives of people afflicted with mental illness, and to offer support to their families and friends. She was the President of the organization for 10 years. Ms. Ambruso also founded and volunteered with CCCPA Alliance for the Mentally Ill (now known as the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill-Middlesex Chapter), dovetailing her efforts to involve family in the recovery of their offspring, and to contribute to their wellness.
In 2000, CCCPA split into what is now Triple C Housing and NAMI Middlesex, which is the support group for families. Dorothy was devoted to NAMI to the day she died. She believed that families of the mentally ill needed to form a bond of mutual support.
Serving in the capacities as a founding board member, president and then CEO of Triple C Housing, Ms. Ambruso was the first to develop consumer operated Supportive Housing within Middlesex County in consultation with Monarch Housing Associates, garnering the support of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and the NJ State Division of Mental Health Services.
Always one to take the bull by the horns, she never stopped to think about whether or not to pursue another opportunity to develop housing; she pressed on knowing the tremendous need that existed within the State.
In the 1980’s, Ms. Ambruso helped psychiatric patients return to, and remain in, their communities before it became a popular goal of the mental-health community to place individuals in residential care settings and more so, in supportive housing, to ensure people lived with dignity. She developed Supportive Housing and saw it as responsibility to fulfill the basic needs of our most vulnerable citizens, and to lift up their lives. Dorothy made an enormous difference in the lives of people with disabilities. Her leadership and achievements were recognized at conferences by former New Jersey Governor Christine Whitman and former First Lady Rosyln Carter.
In addition, she served as president and vice-president of Senior Citizens of Hillsborough.
She is survived by three sons: Edward, Raymond and Ralph Barry; four sisters: Cathy Nauta, Doris Hand, Joan Banks and Louise Roe; five grandchildren and three great grandchildren. She will be missed by all and remembered in “A Celebration of Dorothy by Friends and Family” which will be held at the Hillsborough Funeral Home on Rt. 206 South on Friday, June 20 from 7-9 PM. A funeral mass will be held at Mary Mother of God Roman Catholic Church on Triangle Road in Hillsborough on Saturday, June 21 at 9:30 AM. Internment will be in the Neshanic Cemetery immediately after the service. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to NAMI Middlesex, 316 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick.
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