Executive director to leave post Aug. 1
By: Jane Karlicek
The executive director of Corner House — Princeton’s nonprofit, community-based counseling center for teens, young adults and their families — is stepping down, effective Aug. 1.
Mitchell Douglas is leaving after two-and-a-half years at Corner House to start a company, Coretech, to help people with chronic mental illness and brain traumas live long term in the community. The company, which Mr. Douglas is starting with some colleagues, will be based in NewYork.
“It was a very unexpected but unique opportunity,” Mr. Douglas said. “I couldn’t resist such an interesting new challenge.”
But he will miss Corner House, he said.
“Corner House has been a great experience for me,” he said. “We have developed a really strong relationship with the community and many people have benefited from our services. There are great things here that I’ll be leaving behind.”
Since it is another three months until Mr. Douglas leaves, he hopes to help out during the transition, he said. A search committee has been formed to find a new executive director and “the search has begun,” Mr. Douglas said. The committee is comprised of members from the Princeton Alcohol and Drug Alliance, which oversees the Corner House, and the Corner House Foundation, which offers fund-raising, support and expertise for the counseling center.
“We’ve been able to do a lot of things in the past two-and-a-half years,” Mr. Douglas said. “We’ve expanded our budget by 20 percent in response to new programming opportunities and needs.”
There have also been new initiatives introduced at the elementary school level, he said. One such initiative is Students and Teachers Approaching Resolution Together, or START, a program that “aims to involve parents, teachers, staff and students in learning ways to develop a ‘peaceful classroom,’” Mr. Douglas said. START has been introduced in all four Princeton elementary schools, he added.
Mr. Douglas said the accomplishments of Corner House are “nothing I can take credit for alone.
“We have continued the great services and reputation Corner House has had (for the past 28 years),” Mr. Douglas said. “We’ve tried some new ways in treatment and prevention and we’ve tried other ways of getting kids to develop positive lives.”
Mr. Douglas is a social worker by profession and has been involved in the field for more than 20 years, he said.
Mr. Douglas came to Corner House from the Skylight Center on Staten Island, N.Y. The Skylight Center provides psychiatric rehabilitation services to people recovering from mental illness.
Mr. Douglas said helping people was instilled in him.
“I was a child of the late 60s,” he said. “I have certain kinds of personal values where I really want my work to be meaningful to me and have a lasting effect on the community. I want to change things in a tangible way that’s a benefit to others.”
Despite his new company being located in Manhattan, Mr. Douglas said he will maintain his residence in Montgomery Township with his wife and three kids, who are going on 7, 8 and 10 years old.