McRoy Honored with Hall of Fame Award

Minnesota's Youth Intervention Program Association (YIPA) inducted Brittany's Place, Senior Program Manager, Mary McRoy into their Hall of Fame on December 6, 2019.  
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Launched in 1999, the Youth Intervention Program Association Hall of Fame recognizes professionals who make extraordinary contributions to their field. Among the thousands of youth workers in Minnesota, only 86 have achieved this recognition and status in the Youth Intervention Field. McRoy joins an elite group of Minnesota social service professionals working in the field of Youth Intervention, providing early intervention programs for youth and their families.​

With a career spanning twenty-five years, McRoy received the Friends of Youth Leadership Award for her exceptional leadership and tireless commitment to helping youth overcome barriers of poverty and racism. At Brittany’s Place, McRoy sees to it that the girls who the victims of the worst possible trauma have a safe place to stay and trauma-informed services to help heal physical and emotional wounds.

The FBI has identified the Twin Cities as one of the nation’s largest centers for sex trafficking of youth. Now in its fifth year of operation, Brittany’s Place provides shelter, services, and programming to over 100 girls each year, with half coming from the metro area and the remaining half from around the state.

Under McRoy’s leadership, Brittany’s Place has evolved from a program ready to be shuttered because of high costs to one of financial stability. Implementing cultural change including staffing and programming, McRoy proudly reports the program is now serving more youth and delivering better outcomes.

“I’m deeply honored to receive this award. It’s a capstone of my career,” said Mary McRoy. “I’m also grateful to those who encouraged me to continue to take on new challenges,” she added.

“Being inducted into the Hall of Fame is a big deal,” said Paul Meunier, Executive Director of the Youth Intervention Programs Associations (YIPA). “We know that everyone who devotes their career to helping vulnerable youth is a superstar, but Hall of Fame members stand out as exceptional people we should try to emulate.”

Brittany’s Place is a program of 180 Degrees, a multi-cultural social service agency founded in 1971. McRoy is 180 Degrees’ second team member to be inducted into the Youth Intervention Hall of Fame, joining 180 Degrees’ Chief Executive Officer Dan Pfarr.
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FOR MORE INFO: CONTACT: Janet Hallaway janet.hallaway@180degrees.org