“Fake Joy: Substance Abuse and Young People’s Thirst for Wholeness”

Dr. Joyce Mercer and Rev. Charles Edward Atkins, Jr.  deliver a lecture entitled, “Fake Joy: Substance Abuse and Young People’s Thirst for Wholeness.” In this lecture, we look at substance abuse as offering false joy to youth. We share a strengths-based model for working with incarcerated youth that can be engaged with young people in other settings, that supports their genuine quest for joy against the seductive false joy of substance abuse. Dr. Mercer is a scholar-researcher, teacher, writer, retreat leader, and professor of Pastoral Care and Practical Theology at Yale Divinity School. Charles Edward Atkins, Jr.’s work focuses on religious practice in incarcerated communities. Charles is an ordained minister who currently works as a full-time Chaplain with the N.J. Department of Corrections at the Garden State Youth Correctional Facility.