Our Mission ~ Staff Bios ~ Consortium History  

The Connecticut Women's Consortium is the resource in Connecticut for women's behavioral health.

We are an independent nonprofit agency in New Haven with a history of strong collaborations with many of Connecticut's community, academic and health care institutions on issues of women's mental health, substance use disorders, addiction, domestic violence and trauma.

The Connecticut Women's Consortium offers education and training about the complex lives and competing needs of women and their families to health care providers, clinicians, educators, social service agencies, and the media. We advocate on behalf of women at the Capitol, speaking with policymakers, analyzing policy, and serving on statewide task forces and initiatives that address a wide array of women's issues.

Although The Connecticut Women's Consortium is not a direct service provider, we can identify the population we represent as all of Connecticut's women, across their life spans, who are struggling with mental health and substance use disorders, interpersonal violence, access to respectful and consistent health care, and the stigma associated with these concerns. Women most in need of services are poor, parenting, at risk of homelessness, and without resources for health care, education, and job opportunities.

The Connecticut Women's Consortium respects the strength and resilience of these women, and advocates for services that are gender specific, trauma sensitive, and culturally competent from trained providers and clinicians. We strive to make women's behavioral health highly visible by culling the newest and most promising research from the most respected sources and presenting it factually in policy briefs, articles, opinion editorials, and conference workshops.

Our Mission

The mission of The Connecticut Women's Consortium is to improve behavioral health care for women and their children.

We are guided by three principles in pursuing our mission. We believe that:

1. The work needed to improve women's health care must address social, economic, environmental, physical, political, and legal policies and services, as well as mental health and treatment for substance use disorders;
   
   
2. The consortium model encourages diversity and meaningful participation by consumers and depends on mutual respect, trust and collaboration;
   
   
3. The results of our work should be widely shared to promote positive changes in policy and practice.

Women's Behavioral Health

Most women in Connecticut lead full and stressful lives.  Many women's lives are complicated by issues of childhood or adolescent trauma, or domestic violence.  Many women are bringing up their children alone, some are working but still poor, and some battle depression.  Others smoke too much, gamble too much, drink or take drugs too much. 

Women, regardless of their problems, do not stop taking care of others who need help with their own sets of problems.  Often women do not seek help when they need it, not because they don't recognize a problem or desperately want care or treatment, but because they put the needs of their families first. 

Fighting Stigma

The Connecticut Women's Consortium believes that stigma that women face when they do seek help or treatment for a behavioral health problem complicates and compromises the quality of health care they receive.

Women are expected to be exemplary wives and mothers.  Many women in Connecticut who lead less than perfect lives because of addiction, domestic violence or depression, for example, suffer shame and humiliation, and the stigma surrounding parenting women often discourages them to ask for the help they need to recover.

Many women you know struggle with their own mental health and with substance use disorders, and they may be struggling alone.  The Connecticut Women's Consortium wants to make people aware that this should not be the case.  We believe that recovery works, that families should stay intact whenever possible, and that healthy women help hold families together.  We want all women to know that there are many services available in Connecticut. Many clinicians and providers understand that good treatment should be gender specific and trauma- sensitive.  We also want to identify gaps in services and barriers to treatment so that we can advocate for what women in Connecticut truly need to get their lives on track. 

 

The CT Women's Consortium Staff

Cinda Cash, MHSA is the Executive Director. Prior to assuming the Executive Director position, she was the Director of Community and Provider Relations at The CT Women's Consortium. As the former Executive Director of Alcohol Services Organization of South Central Connecticut, Inc., she oversaw the funding and staffing of the incorporated, private, nonprofit organization that provided prevention, intervention, education, treatment and research services. She serves on a variety of boards in the Greater New Haven area, including the South Central Behavioral Health Network and the Columbus House Shelter.  As an adjunct faculty member of Manchester and Gateway Community Colleges, she has taught public health issues and substance abuse counseling to prospective drug and alcohol counselors. Ms. Cash earned her BA in Child Development from Connecticut College and her MHSA from Antioch New England in Organization and Management.  She also completed the Certificate Program in Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's) from New York University.

 

Carol Huckaby, MACP, is the Director of Consultation and Technical Assistance.  Ms. Huckaby was previously employed as the Director of Program Operations for the Connecticut Council of Family Service Agencies where she was responsible for a 6 million dollar budget and supervised some 70 employees across the state, including regional coordinators, clinicians, case managers and administrative staff, and served more than 3500 former welfare recipients.   She has more than 30 years of experience in training, customer relations, and management in corporate and nonprofit organizations.  Past positions include Director of Technical Training for an urban job-training program, Director of Operations for a Medicaid outreach, Domestic Violence Counselor, Store Manager, and several other management positions.  Ms Huckaby completed her Masters’ degree in Community Psychology at the University of New Haven and is an adjunct professor at Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, CT. 

Maria F. Ramos, M.Ed. (Counseling Psychology) is the Women's Behavioral Health Consultant for The CT Women's Consortium. Ms. Ramos has over 15 years of experience in Mental Health and Case Management. Her overall responsibility in her current position is to ensure that women and families who need substance use disorders treatment get timely access to a range of appropriate services. This position also requires her to identify the problem areas of behavior health needs for women in the south-central region. Her past experience includes program planning and management, case management training, issues of child abuse and neglect, and the development of a curriculum for educating African- American and Latino youth on HIV prevention.

Gloria Epps, Office Manager.

Our history

In 1990, New Haven led the nation in infant mortality rates.

Representatives from over 60 statewide agencies convened to determine what policy and program changes were required to improve the health of families and children. The Consortium for Substance Abusing Women and Their Children was founded to address this need in the New Haven area.

In 1999, thanks to the support and leadership of Connecticut's Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS), The Connecticut Women's Consortium, improving behavioral health care for women and their children, was established as an independent nonprofit organization. Building on its nine-year history working in New Haven, The Consortium has expanded its commitment statewide to ensure that women with all behavioral health disorders, primarily parenting women, receive appropriate services and advocacy.