By Krystle J Bailey
When Atlantic County Sheriff Eric Scheffler took office in 2017, he began his mission to create a healthier community by providing residents with access to information and support. The Hope Exists Foundation was created to aid in the efforts of the Hope One Mobile Outreach Project, an initiative that helps Atlantic County individuals in crisis access the resources available to them.
“When I became Sherriff, I understood that creating safe communities could only be done by creating healthy communities,” explains Scheffler. “That meant creating access.”
Since he has been in office, Sheriff Scheffler and his team have helped over 4,000 individuals in the county get the treatment that they need for a second chance at life. Scheffler believes that creating access is about more than giving someone a phone number to call in hopes that they will find their way into treatment. The Hope One team takes it a step further, working with individuals to make phone calls, offer transportation, and get them properly connected to services from recovery centers to food resources, healthcare access, employment services, mental health support, and more.
The Hope One Mobile Outreach unit meets individuals where they are and offers them a helping hand. Scheffler explains that when someone is in crisis, expecting them to dial a number, hit the right buttons, say the right things, then find their way to a treatment center can be a tall mountain to climb. Hope One exists to eliminate those barriers and help members of the community achieve a healthy, thriving life that has the potential to spread a ripple of healing to their family members, friends, and neighbors.
“If we leave someone out and don’t create access, we create a chain of unhealthy people,” explains Scheffler. “If your family member is in crisis, so are you. Helping one person relieves the pressure off the whole family.”
In addition to serving community members in need, Scheffler has addressed the needs within his own agency by creating an atmosphere for law enforcement officers that supports their mental well-being, including a Jiu-Jitsu program, workout spaces, and breakout rooms. Atlantic County officers are provided with ten hours of defensive tactic training per year, significantly higher than many agencies throughout the country. Combined with access to resiliency programs by the FBI National Academy for PTSD, there hasn’t been an excessive force complaint under Scheffler’s watch in over two years.
“This is home for us,” says the lifelong Atlantic County resident. “I believe in helping humans to create healthier communities. I’ve always been taught that we are supposed to help each other.”
The services and support offered through the Hope One Mobile Outreach program and Scheffler’s office are seemingly endless and come at no cost to the taxpayer. All services are supported by The Hope Exists Foundation, a 501c3. This includes the Sherriff Gormley Scholarship Award that honors the late Gerard Gormley, Atlantic County Sherriff, who served for more than 20 years. The scholarship recognizes the men and women of the agency and their children.
Working parallel with the outreach services, Scheffler is an advocate for the lifesaving resource Narcan and the eradication of the lethal doses of Fentanyl that have been increasingly found in counterfeit drugs. In a recent press conference with U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, Scheffler joined two local mothers and Atlantic County Prosecutor William Reynolds in support of the bi-partisan Fend Off Fentanyl Bill.
“We’re trying our best to create healthy environments, including healthier officers, families, and communities,” explains Scheffler about his role as Sherriff. “I don’t find myself unique, I just find myself in a unique position to serve. If it weren’t needed, I wouldn’t be doing it.”
In his 29th year as a law enforcement official, Sheriff Eric Scheffler says, “I keep doing this because it’s important, and I think there’s more to do.”
