Kellie

Kellie with two children

Kellie is nothing if not blunt.

“If it weren’t for Hour Children,” she says, “foster care would have taken my youngest daughter Savannah, my older daughter Brittanie -- and the rest of my family -- still wouldn’t be speaking to me. I’d probably be smoking crack and selling my ass on a street corner somewhere.”

Kellie says this matter-of-factly, sitting behind her desk at Hour Children’s main office in Queens. Four years ago, Kellie was addicted to crack, incarcerated at Rikers Island and pregnant with her second daughter, Savannah. She had been, she said, “in and out of Rikers a billion times.”

But you could never guess any of that now. These days, Kellie coordinates Hour Friend in Deed, Hour Children’s mentoring program for children with incarcerated parents. She has reunited with her family, regained custody of her older daughter Brittanie and found a stable apartment. Hers is a classic story of redemption, made possible by supportive housing.

In 2007, following an arrest on drug charges, she spent 60 days in Rikers Island, where she gave birth to Savannah. The experience sparked a series of major changes.

“I was embarrassed,” she says. “Not for me, but for my daughter. Every time I went to the nursery, there were mothers and fathers there, and I would come to see Savannah in an orange jumpsuit and shackles. And she was beautiful and she was healthy. I was getting high until I was seven months pregnant, so there was a good chance that she wouldn’t be healthy. So the fact that I gave birth to this beautiful, healthy baby, and here I was locked up — it was terrible. It was traumatizing. But it probably scared me straight.”

Upon leaving prison, Kellie moved into one of Hour Children’s supportive housing residences; Hour Children provides housing and services to incarcerated (or formerly incarcerated) mothers and their children.

Hour Children’s Working Women program -- funded until recently by the Supported Housing for Families and Young Adults (SHFYA) program -- got Kellie a job as the assistant coordinator for Hour Friend in Deed and helped her pursue a GED. The diploma led to a promotion to program coordinator. Following that, Kellie and Savannah were able to move into their own apartment.

Kellie attributes her successes to Hour Children, her daughters and her own personal motivation.

“I worked very hard to be where I am today,” she says. “And I want to show the new girls that I’m living proof that if you want to do this, it comes very easy. But you have to want it. Hour Children just gives you the opportunity to make it possible.”

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