Starting small to give people a new beginning

When Gabe Guerrieri opened Genesis Counseling 36 years ago in a Collingswood storefront, the agency had a single counselor: Gabe Guerrieri.

A lot has changed since 1979. Genesis Counseling Centers now has four South Jersey locations, 70 employees, and mental health or addiction treatment programs serving 6,000 people each year.

And Guerrieri, 74, stepped aside a year ago for a new executive director, Barry Bailey, a 28-year Genesis veteran who rose through the ranks.

"Gabe built this from the ground up," says Bailey, 55. "It has evolved a lot."

As the organization prepares to honor its founder Thursday at the Valleybrook Country Club in Blackwood, Guerrieri and Bailey agree that the core of what Genesis does hasn't changed.

"People fall into a hole," Guerrieri says. "They come here to get themselves out."

Says Bailey, "We need to make sure that when people are somewhat broken, they receive the care and concern they need."

I meet the founder, who lives in Deptford, at the nonprofit's headquarters on Haddon Avenue in Collingswood, where he continues to see clients.

"People wonder why I'm still here. But counseling is my passion," says the grandfather of three.

"When clients wrestle their demon to the ground, and come up with an answer and start to grow, that's my high."

"Gabe has touched many lives through his individual counseling and in the unique agency he inspired," says Tony Messina, who chairs the Genesis Board of Trustees. "We need to ensure it will endure as long as there are people who need help."

Guerrieri grew up the oldest of six children in a blue-collar Catholic family in Egg Harbor City, and was ordained a priest in the Diocese of Camden in 1967.

After five years he left the priesthood, got married, and began a career in mental health that eventually landed him on the staff at inpatient mental health programs in Philadelphia.

Disillusioned by what he described as a focus on filling beds rather than meeting needs, Guerrieri decided to open his own counseling business.

"The agency . . . had been forming in my mind for many years," he says. "I chose the name Genesis for the biblical reference to 'In the beginning.' I wanted the agency to be a place where people could come for a new beginning."

Genesis grew slowly until 1984 - when it began to provide substance-abuse counseling in public and parochial schools in Camden County.

"We just took off," says Guerrieri, who later helped create New Jersey's first drug court in Camden County.

"We've influenced a lot of people to make their choice not be a drug," he adds.

Genesis also has opened Second Chance, a treatment program within the Camden County Jail for inmates who have substance-abuse issues. And it has a major presence on the Virtua campus in Camden; Guerrieri credits Bailey with persuading him to commit to greatly expanding services in the city.

"I said to Gabe, 'We need to open an office in Camden,' " recalls Bailey, who grew up in Bridgeton and lives in Marlton. "He said, 'Let's make it happen.'

"One of the things that kept me here was Gabe's flexibility," Bailey adds. "If someone had an idea, he listened to it."

The new executive director wants to raise the agency's public profile and says remaining "financially viable" is the biggest challenge for Genesis.

"We may be in the helping-people business, but we are in business," Bailey says. "We need financial stability to provide the level of service Gabe envisioned when he started the organization."

The transition has been a challenge for both men.

Guerrieri acknowledges it has not been easy for him to give up the reins.

"It's been very, very difficult for him to step aside and let someone else take charge, because he is a take-charge kind of person," Bailey says.

"Barry will do a great job," Guerrieri says.

Adds Bailey, "I told him, 'I'm doing what I'm sure you would have done. Because you taught me.' "