People news: Unity House of Cayuga County hires Phelps

AUBURN, N.Y. — Unity House of Cayuga County, Inc. announced that Nyka Phelps has recently joined the agency as the new director of the PROSperity outpatient mental-health program.

In her new role, which she began in July, Phelps is responsible for direct clinical oversight and monitoring of all operations for Unity House’s Personalized Recovery Oriented Services (PROS) program, located at 146 North St. in Auburn. She supervises six employees while managing budgetary components; program goals, policies and procedures of PROS; and the HCBS/CORE peer empowerment programs that the agency administers.

“As we welcome Nyka to PROS and we recover from limited services during the public health crisis, I’m excited to see how she grows and diversifies our classes and services,” Darlene Podolak, Unity House chief operating officer, said in a release.

Phelps holds a master’s degree in social work from Syracuse University, and is a licensed master social worker and licensed clinical social worker. She most recently was a psychiatric social worker at an inpatient unit at St. Joseph’s Health in Syracuse. Previously, she worked in family- and school-based psychiatry and therapy is Oswego County.

Unity House of Cayuga County is a nonprofit that provides transitional and permanent housing, respite, rehabilitative, and employment services for individuals with mental illness, developmental disabilities, and/or substance use disorders from which they are recovering. The agency says it serves more than 1,000 adults a day in seven Central New York counties.