Every year since 1950, the Citizen of the Year award has been given to honor an outstanding member of our community. Recipients of the award are nominated by the community and demonstrate creativity, vision, leadership, and citizenship. Their services include creating programs and activities that positively impact the welfare of the residents and businesses in Somerset County.
This year, in 2021, we honored Peg Wright as Somerset County’s 70th Citizen of the Year.
We are pleased to announce that our 70th Citizen of the Year is Peg Wright!
Peg started CGE in 1998 in a house in Somerville providing services to 12 expectant mothers annually. Ten years later, CGE built two residential facilities in Somerset, one for pregnant or parenting adults and their children needing long-term treatment for substance abuse and mental disorders and the second for pregnant and parenting adolescents with mental health disorders. Peg now oversees The Center for Great Expectations’ full continuum of relationally-based program that includes the prevention methodology of The Institute; Residential Treatment Centers for women and adolescents; Katy’s Place, an on-site child development center; the Roots to Recovery outpatient center; Permanent Supportive Housing; and START, a free one-of-a-kind in-home and telehealth program for pregnant or parenting clients and their infants. Informed by CGE’s foundational Trauma C.A.R.E.© model and evidence-based approaches, CGE provides client-centered treatment for the best possible outcomes for both parent and child, including early relational health, to break the cycle of intergenerational trauma, substance use and homelessness. CGE now serves close to 600 women, men, and children annually with a team of over 120 full-and part-time employees supported by a dedicated group of volunteers.
Wright has earned the New Jersey State Governor’s Award for Public Service, named Citizen of the Year by the New Jersey Psychology Association and Top 25 Leading Women Entrepreneurs and Intrapreneurs by New Jersey Monthly, and NJBIZ Top 50 Women in Business.
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