AL SCHELL/Courier-Post Patrick Kelly (left), director of community development for Fleet Bank discusses the Baldwin's Run housing project in Camden with Bill Whelan, executive director for the St. Joseph's Carpenters Society.

Patrick Kelly has the unique position of helping to rebuild communities that have been torn apart by lack of employment, illegal drugs and extreme poverty.

Kelly is director of community development in New Jersey and Pennsylvania for Fleet Bank. His primary responsibility is to identify millions of dollars in investment opportunities for the bank's compliance with the Community Reinvestment Act.

"We serve as a catalyst to communities to promote the bank's products and services to low- and moderate-income folks," said Kelly, 43, of Medford. "We work with nonprofit, community-based organizations that promote affordable housing and rental units, day care, and provide education and job training."

The Community Reinvestment Act was enacted by Congress in 1977 to encourage federally insured banks and thrifts to meet the credit needs of their entire community, including low- and moderate-income residents.

One of the recent projects Kelly targeted Fleet Bank to subsidize is the new Baldwin's Run community on Beideman and Westfield avenues in East Camden, also known as the Cramer Hill section of Camden. The housing development consists of close to 200 homes on a 24-acre site.

Working with the St. Joseph's Carpenters Society, the bank - along with other corporate sponsors - subsidizes educational programs that teach housing candidates how to be responsible homeowners. Among other things, the programs teach homeowners to develop wealth through equity in their homes.

"We teach them asset-building through real estate ownership," said Bill Whelan, executive director of St. Joseph's Carpenters Society. "They learn how personal finance works through better discipline, owning a home, maintaining a home and working with neighbors to help improve their neighborhood."

Baldwin's Run is on the site of the former Westfield Acres, a public housing building built in the 1930s, which had fallen into serious disrepair and was blighted with major problems related to drugs and crime.

For Kelly, who previously served in the same capacity for Summit Bancorp overseeing activities in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut, the profession is very rewarding.

"I was taken by the fact that we're able to help folks who never thought they could afford a home," said Kelly. "When I go to mortgage closings, it's overwhelming, because most of the people never thought they could do it. They didn't know there was a way to do it."