Christine graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor’s degree in Honor’s Psychology in 2007 and a master’s degree in Social work in 2009. While in college, she worked as a research assistant specializing in data collection and analysis methods with marginalized populations. Christine has worked as a nonprofit director for the past seven years and as a clinical therapist for over ten years in Connecticut nonprofits supporting children, teenagers, families, and adult caregivers. Christine is currently developing, implementing, and evaluating a recovery team grant pilot, which provides free outreach, case management, peer support, and sober activities to young people with substance use concerns. She developed and is one of the chairs of The South-Central Network of Care’s Substance Use Resource Guide Entity (SURGE). The SURGE is a grassroots coalition of community members concerned that the needs of young people using substances are not met to strive to connect them to comprehensive resources and supports.
Capstone Project: Helping Parents Help Teens: A Program to Reduce Recidivism in Substance-Using Teens: Connecticut juvenile justice reforms have protected teens from harsh consequences even when they continue to use substances while on probation. Since results for using substances can motivate change, this shift has had the unanticipated result of decreasing the number of kids connected to treatment through the legal system. Many Connecticut state-funded teen substance use programs use evidence-based practices for this population are underutilized. Teens who use their families are suffering silently in their communities and are not connected to the support they need to change.
Since graduating, Christine has helped her programs navigate a quick transition to providing treatment, sober support groups, and activities virtually.
The leadership program helped me develop even stronger passion and skills to tackle youth justice issues, particularly around race and diversion. I was strongly influenced by the voice of several young women residing at York Correctional Facility who shared that they wished they had developed a better relationship with their families as teenagers and believed this might have diverted them from prison. After graduation, I began implementing my capstone project to enhance family support for parents with teenagers using substances. The goal was to bring parents together to reduce stigma, give the family behavioral tools to help engage the teen in treatment early, and enhance family self-care. We are currently developing ways to connect parents to these supports virtually.