NNews December 2023

7 December 2023 D espite having very different careers, ChristopherWomack, PhD, MBA, MS, MA, and Barrett Young, MA, CADC, Chief Executive Officer, RescueMission of Trenton, have several important things in common: They share a passion for helping individuals being released from incarceration by ensuring access tomental health and substance use services, and creating paths for their successful reintegration into society, including education and career opportunities. Now, Dr. Womack and Young have another meaningful commonality. They are the newest members of the New Jersey Mental Health Institute New NJMHI Board Members Aim to Create More Opportunities for Former Inmates (NJMHI) Board of Trustees and are eager to explore new opportunities to serve former inmates through NJMHI initiatives. Both Young and Dr. Womack commented on the diversity and expertise among the NJMHI Board members, and they certainly add to these strengths. While they have contributed tremendously toward mutual goals through their own professional roles and personal endeavors, they embrace the opportunity to learn how they can support NJMHI’s existing projects and help develop new ones to achieve their personal missions and NJMHI’s goals. NJAMHAA established NJMHI in 2000 as a charitable organization with themission to promote quality mental health and substance use services through training, technical assistance, research, and policy development. Over the years, NJMHI initiatives have focused on creating opportunities for diverse, often underserved populations, such as communities of color and various ethnic groups and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer/ questioning population. Dr. Womack and Young’s determination to increase former inmates’ chances of success and meaningful lives following their sentences certainly align with NJMHI’s mission. (continued on page 8)