Supervisor Spotlight – Tina McCarty-Neveu

For Tina McCarty-Neveu, program director of Supportive Living, a career in recovery seemed almost predestined. She first participated in a peer-support program in high school where she learned what addiction is like from people her age. This piqued her curiosity, and she next took classes on addiction at Erie Community College. Thankfully, she instantly fell in love, “This speaks to me,” she remembers thinking. She then earned her bachelor’s form Buff State in Social Work. “Everything just clicked,” she said. From there, she served in many different positions in the field of recovery.

Tina has only been with Cazenovia Recovery for a few months, but her kind demeanor and can-do attitude helped her to fit right in. “Everyone is very welcoming and supportive,” she noted. Tina thrives as part of a team and she believes that camaraderie makes for a much more effective work environment. “What we do is so difficult and we need to support each other.”

What’s absolutely clear, however, is how much Tina and her Supportive Living staff care for their residents. Recently, a resident had serious heart issues and had to go to the hospital for treatment. He isn’t from the area and had no family to rely on for transportation or support. Tina’s Supportive Living staff stepped up and proved how much they care by taking the resident to the hospital. They even stayed with him until his procedure was complete. Currently, the resident is doing great, and he’s expressed his gratitude to Tina more than a couple of times by telling her “how much the support means.”

In the future, Tina hopes to expand services in our Erie County Supportive Living program to serve more women, especially women with children. She also hopes that her program will become even stronger advocates for their residents when dealing with financial services. In the meantime, however, Tina still gets the “tinglies” when helping someone out. One of her favorite parts of the job is seeing the excitement of new residents, which she describes as “invigorating.” Clearly, Tina and our Supportive Living staff bring something special to their work. The enthusiasm they exhibit is a major reason why Cazenovia Recovery is able to change the lives of so many people.