2022 Year in Review: September to November milestones

As 2022 winds down, it’s only natural to look back at the year behind us, see how far we’ve come, what we’ve accomplished, and what lies ahead. At our Annual Meeting in December, NCHT staff presented a Year in Review report to our Board of Directors. We wanted to share this presentation with our community and nonprofit partners in a series of year-in-review blogs.

September

September continued to be a very busy month for NCHT, as the Trust funded a position at Mercer House for a case manager to assist clients who are returning to the community following a crisis situation, treatment, or incarceration. The need for this position was identified through the work of the Natrona County Sequential Intercept Model (SIM) team. This team is made up of local stakeholders representing behavioral health providers, law enforcement, social services, and nonprofit sectors, and has been meeting regularly throughout the year to identify and resolve mental and behavioral health service gaps in the county.

Kristy Oster was hired to fill the position. Oster was most recently the district manager for the Wyoming Department of Corrections.

October

October brought an exciting partnership between NCHT and the Youth Empowerment Council, as they began meeting in a process called participatory grantmaking (PGM). This process puts the funding decision-making authority into the hands of those who are closest to the issues. YEC will continue to meet into 2023, facilitated by Senior Director of Programs and Community Engagement Ray Pacheco,  and will seek to identify and fund resources to support youth mental health in Natrona County, ultimately awarding $240,000 in grants.

November

The Trust embarked on a leadership transition on November 1 as Beth Worthen became the new CEO following the resignation of Meredith Benton.

After serving as CEO since August of 2021, Benton chose to return to her home state of Tennessee to be closer to her family support system. She continues to work for NCHT through the leadership transition until the end of 2022.

Beth, who previously served as the Trust’s board chair, most recently held the position of Executive Director of the Natrona County Library Foundation since 2008.

Watch for more year-in-review posts throughout the rest of December on our website and Facebook page.