FCA Welcomes Kellee Barrett as AVP for Residential Services

A Clinical Social Work/Therapist and longtime advocate for at risk adults and children, Barrett will oversee FCA’s four residences. FCA’s Nassau Haven Emergency Youth Shelter and its Walkabout Youth Transitional and Independent Residence Program, serve runaway and homeless youth. The agency’s Lakeview House and West Nassau residences provide Office of Mental Health (OMH)-licensed housing for youth and adults with mental health conditions.

“We are greatly pleased to welcome a leader of Kellee’s experience and substance to our Residential programs,” said FCA President and CEO Jeffrey L. Reynolds, PhD. “As a solution-oriented professional who takes a holistic approach to every individual situation, she will be a strong asset to our those who rely on us for housing and services as well as FCA as a whole.”

Barrett comes to FCA after more than a dozen years at the Center Against Domestic Violence (CADV), an innovative New York City based domestic violence prevention and support organization. There, Barrett assisted and empowered people of all ages in need of support, refuge and counseling, from heads of households to single people, parents of domestic violence victims and children affected by domestic unrest. In 2018, CADV merged with Urban Resource Institute (URI), the largest provider of domestic violence shelter services in the country. URI’s domestic violence shelter was the first in the metro region to allow survivors to bring their pets.

Barrett continued her work helping survivors understand the dynamics of healthy and unhealthy relationships, and provided guidance on how to talk to children and the affect domestic violence has on children in both the short and long term and assisted survivors on securing safe and affordable housing. Her work in the shelter included assisting those with substance abuse issues, mental health issues, homelessness, and trafficking just to name a few. Barrett’s prior experience also includes working with the Salvation Army’s therapeutic foster care program, where she worked with the children to help them reconnect with, and have a relationship with their birth parents.

Additionally, Barrett was a collaborative member of a research team at The McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research at New York University that developed an evidence-based treatment model called the "4R's and 2S's for Strengthening Families." The family treatment model addressed Rules, Responsibilities, Respectful Communication, and Relationships (4R’s) and Stress and Social Support (2S’s).

A graduate of Audrey Cohen College, now the Metropolitan College of New York, Barrett earned her Master of Science for Social Work at Columbia University’s School of Social Work.

She lives in Elmont, Queens.

About FCA

FCA is a not-for-profit agency helping more than 35,000 Long Islanders each year. For nearly 140 years, the organization has worked to protect and strengthen vulnerable children, seniors, families, and communities on Long Island.

FCA believes in the potential of Long Island - a place where no child, senior, family or community is left to struggle alone with barriers to health care, education, employment, or economic prosperity. Long Island continues to be one of the greatest places in the world to live and raise a family for many; FCA exists to ensure that be the case for all.

For more information about FCA, visit FCALI.org.