More than a century ago, the Trenton community was faced with the crucial need to help residents struggling with homelessness and hunger. It started with a shelter that opened its doors, day and night, to those seeking refuge.
There were no criteria, just two simple questions: “What’s your name?” and “Are you hungry?” The shelter was more than just a safe haven — it was a symbol of hope. Today, the Rescue Mission of Trenton is dedicated to serving the same cause for all individuals in need across Mercer County. More than just hope, the mission helps find potential and opportunity.
Over the years, individuals have not just provided food and shelter, but also shown the path towards a better future. In just the last year, the nonprofit has served 4,636 individuals, 193,290 meals, and provided 106 forms of housing.
For more than half of its existence, the Rescue Mission had been led by CEO and president Mary Gay Abbott-Young. With her contribution, alongside the help of volunteers, staff, board and donors, the Rescue Mission has become an anchor for the community. Over the years, it has addressed the needs of clients and expanded resources in eight key sectors, from the Behavioral Health Center to Vocational Development to the latest endeavor, the New Direction program.
Abbott-Young, who embodied the spirit of the Rescue Mission in her work for nearly a half-century, officially retired from the organization effective June 30. With her retirement, she stepped down from her role as president.
In 2021, she handed off the position of CEO to her son, Barrett Young. The president’s job is oversight of all fundraising and grant/contract management, while the CEO has oversight of all development work and agency operations.
The Rescue Mission is holding a “Retirement Celebration For Mary Gay Abbott-Young” on Thursday, September 12, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Cooper’s Riverview, 50 Riverview Plaza, Trenton. Anyone interested in joining the celebration can go to www.eventbrite.com/e/retirement-celebration-for-mary-gay-abbott-young-tickets-925254449967
Tickets are $50, and attendance is free for clients and Rescue Mission staff.
Abbott-Young started at the Rescue Mission as a program coordinator in 1978, after serving as a social worker in VISTA, then a counselor in a detoxification center. She rose to become CEO — a position she held from 1986 until 2021.
According to a profile in the New York Times, Abbott-Young grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Pittsburgh. Her parents never graduated from high school, but they stressed the importance of education to their children.
Abbot-Young earned a bachelor’s degree in social work and a master’s in education from Temple University. Her goal was to work at a job that dealt with poverty and substance abuse issues, and she came across a job posting at the Rescue Mission, which was relatively close to where she was living.
“It was the right place for me to be, and as it turns out, I was the right person for the Rescue Mission,” Abbott-Young said in an interview with Community News Service in July, after her retirement.
Abbott-Young talked about the challenges that came with running a non-profit like the Rescue Mission. Having seen the struggles clients have faced with substance abuse and behavioral health issues — such as relapse — and losing individuals to addiction, the key is never losing hope, and to never stop giving that same hope to clients to be excited and optimistic about their future.
“It’s fantastic work to be able to take someone in off the street, get them in, give them a bed to sleep in, get them a meal, allow them to get a shower, allow them to have access to clothing, all those kinds of things are wonderful,” Abbott-Young said. “To go to the next step and begin the process with them, of trying to involve them in the network that would be able to help them find permanent housing — it’s fantastic work.”
The business model of the organization has seen significant advancements in services with the change of licenseing standards, business operation standards, and advancements in behavioral health solutions. Frequent interaction with the government has driven positive change by necessity.
As the nonprofit competed for — and was awarded government contracts — new and innovative ways to help were granted. The Medication Assisted Treatment program, for example, changed how the Rescue Mission has been able to effectively assist individuals with serious addiction problems to begin their recovery process.
Despite the challenges and uncertainty brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, staff still provided around-the-clock care. With safety measures executed by now-CEO Barrett Young, doors remained open, with food clothing and social services available, and hundreds of people coming into the shelter each night. The organization partnered to open a unit for people who were COVID positive. Staff were masked, adhering to social distancing guidelines once enforced by the CDC.
Having stepped in as CEO at the height of the pandemic, Young’s first initiative was to heighten the safety and protection of staff and clients through an unsettling time. Coming out of the pandemic, he was then able to focus on continuing the legacy that his mother had built at the Rescue Mission. Continuing to provide these outstanding services while expanding to meet the needs of the community was and remains his top priority.
“It used to be like, mental health was over here, and substance abuse was over here, and the two never intersected. Whereas now, the whole focus is on how you treat the full person. And I think that that’s a wonderful shift in this industry,” Barrett Young said.
Looking at the future, Barrett Young said he aims to help keep the Rescue Mission around for another hundred years. The New Direction program in development focuses on working with individuals to transform their mindset to live to their fullest potential and have higher optimism about their future.
“What it does is it says ‘here’s a way to look at work and to look at yourself in a whole new way.’ You are not a loser; you are not something that can be thrown away. You are a person of value. The person of value who can have a better future is really the business of the rescue mission,” Barrett Young said.
Barrett Young has been surrounded with social work his whole life. Growing up in the environment of the rescue mission, he watched how tirelessly his mother worked to help those suffering in unimaginable ways.
The CEO explains the overarching despair that people suffer from when they come to the Rescue Mission, which he has seen since he was a child, and how it has given him a passion to help others.
He addresses the need to see people not for what they’ve become because of their circumstance, but who they have the potential to be.
“Everybody in their life has done the little worksheet that asks, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’” Young said. “I’ve never in the history of the world have seen someone write, ‘I want to be homeless,’ or ‘I want to be a drug addict,’ or have mental health issues. Nobody aspires for that. I don’t believe that they deserve that. They deserve better, but they need help.”
Young attributes much of this philosophy to Mary Gay’s proven reputation as a leader in the community, and dedication to fighting for the people she serves.
“The number of times that I’ve seen her interact with the individuals who walked in that had little to nothing. And I mean like, it was raining, and I didn’t even have a coat. She would take her own coat off and give it to somebody. And that’s one of the things that I have instilled in the staff since I’ve worked here. And it’s part of the fabric of the rescue mission,” Barrett Young said.
Abbott-Young recently received a Lifetime Transformational Leadership Award from the N.J. Association of Mental Health and Addiction Agencies and was honored by the Princeton Mercer Regional Chamber with a Women of Achievement Award.
In a letter to Abbott-Young, State Senator Shirley Turner wrote, “You have not only taught those you serve to believe in themselves — you have taught our community to believe in those you serve.”
Reflecting on these words, Abbott-Young stated that the Mercer County community played a significant role in the success of the Rescue Mission, and that they have done their part promoting services to people in need.
“We hear of communities that are trying to criminalize homelessness. And so, my role in this community has been to provide the services that the homeless clients need,” she said. “But I have also been very fortunate to do that in a community that recognizes the problem and to lesser or greater extent wants to be part of the solution.”
“If we believe that they deserve different opportunities, then we should fight for them. And she lived that every day,” Barrett Young said. “And when she retires, she’s not going to stop fighting for those people. It’s just in her core.”
Rescue Mission of Trenton, 98 Carroll Street, Trenton. www.rescuemissionoftrenton.org.
