PEMBROKE — The National Board for Certified Counselors Foundation recently selected Natasha Jones Kinto for the NBCC Minority Fellowship Program-Addictions Counselors.

As an NBCC MFP-AC fellow, Kinto will receive funding and training to support her education and facilitate her addictions counseling service to underserved minority youth ages 16 to 25.

“I am humbled and excited,” said Kinto, a Pembroke resident. “This is really going to help as far as my work with children in the community. It’s going to give me some edification and credibility.”

The NBCC MFP-AC is made possible by a grant awarded to NBCC by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in September 2014. The foundation is contracted by NBCC to administer the NBCC MFP-AC, as well as training and collaboration activities that are open to all nationally certified counselors. The goal of the program is to reduce health disparities and improve behavioral health care outcomes for racially and ethnically diverse populations by increasing the available number of culturally competent behavioral health professionals.

Kinto and 29 other master’s-level addiction counseling students will each receive up to $11,000. Kinto is both a student and 2009 graduate of The University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

After earning her undergraduate degree, she began working for UNCP. Kinto is a student support specialist for the Department of Social Work. She is on track to receive her master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling in May 2017.

Kinto plans to provide counseling services to American Indian youth in North Carolina. She wants to help prevent drug use among adolescents within her tribal community and to provide them with healthy alternatives to using alcohol and other drugs.

With the fellowship from the NBCC Foundation, Kinto will have access to a network of mentors as well as educational and advocacy events that are not usually found in rural areas. Kinto will be able to continue her training to address the stigma of addiction and barriers to recovery in her Native American community.

“I am real excited about having access to a network of mentors providing me with additional support in the community,” she said.

Kinto has three sons: Peter, a 2015 UNCP graduate; Andrew, who is attending the Art Institute in Durham; and Nathan, a student at the NASCAR University Technical Institute in Charlotte.

Natasha Jones Kinto
https://www.robesonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/web1_Natasha-Kinto.jpgNatasha Jones Kinto

Staff Report