News release
WATERTOWN, NY — Credo Community Center for the Treatment of Addiction and Transitional Living Services of Northern New York, both based in Watertown, have announced their plans to consolidate the two organizations into one new entity.
Officials for both agencies anticipate completing the merger process by Jan. 1, 2024. The two leadership teams have informed their employees that no one will be laid off due to the consolidation and that every individual has a place going forward under this arrangement. In fact, the new entity will continue to increase its staff to adequately carry out the lifesaving work these organizations have been focusing on for several decades.
John Wilson, Credo’s executive director, will serve as chief executive officer of the new entity. Maureen Cean, TLS’s executive director, will become the organization’s chief operating officer.
“This opportunity is very exciting. Working with clients with co-occurring disorders can be very challenging,” Cean said. “The TLS staff is eager to move forward with comprehensive care for mental health and substance use disorders housed together under one roof.”
“We are pleased to announce the marriage of Credo and TLS into what we want to call the premier provider of behavioral health and housing services in Jefferson, Lewis and St Lawrence counties,” Wilson said. “The coming together of our two organizations is not one due to financial despair but about the people we serve and the people we employ. It is imperative to have no wrong door to care, and we aim to provide that!”
Both Credo and TLS have well-established roots in Northern New York, and both recently commemorated landmark anniversaries.
Founded in 1977, TLS celebrated its 45th anniversary last year. It provides outpatient and residential treatment services for individuals with serious mental illnesses, serving youths and adults in a variety of residential and community-based settings. TLS’s primary goal is to assist people to live in the least restrictive setting possible. It serves clients in Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties. And Credo is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, having been founded in 1973. It provides addiction treatment and counseling services to individuals, groups, families, adults, adolescents and children whose lives have been adversely affected by substance use disorder. Serving clients in the tri-county region, the agency has grown and developed to meet the changing needs of its clients, the community and society.
Credo and TLS have been collaborating more closely for the past few years and started working under an affiliation agreement in April 2022. The leadership teams of both agencies are excited about the possibilities this consolidation will afford them and the benefits it will offer to their clients.