Melvin Swain

Melvin Swain serves as Director of Outreach House I in Ridgewood, Queens where he manages staff, programming, and compliance, and oversees daily operations for the 30-bed drug and alcohol treatment program for adolescents.

Swain has nearly 20 years of experience in the substance abuse treatment and prevention field, working with diverse chemically dependent populations, including high risk adolescents and adults with co-occurring mental health diagnoses. He joined Outreach in 2007 as a substance abuse counselor and orientation counselor at Outreach House I and later managed both that facility and Outreach House II in Brentwood as Assistant House Manager. Swain advanced to the position of Assistant Director/Clinical Coordinator at Outreach House I and in July 2018, was named Program Director.

Certified as a Licensed Master Social Worker and Credentialed Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Counselor, Swain received the 2018 Susan Schreiber Grassroots Award from the Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Providers of New York State. While at Outreach, he maintains connection with his alma mater, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, where as an Adjunct Professor in the Psychology Department, he lectures on aspects of alcoholism and substance use disorder diagnosis, techniques of substance abuse counseling and understanding addiction research, and on advanced topics in chemical dependency.

Swain received his Master of Social Work from the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Services, his Bachelor of Arts in Forensic Psychology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, his Associate Degree in Chemical Dependency Counseling from Suffolk County Community College. He is also SIFI-certified as a field instructor to supervise social work interns.