About Barry
As the founder and CEO of Compassion Strategies and CCT Strategies LLC, Barry brings decades of nonprofit leadership knowledge and experience to assist organizations and individuals strive to make a greater more strategic impact in their organizations and on the communities where they reside. Compassion Strategies and CCT Strategies LLC equips ministries, organizations, agencies and individuals to discover and strategically refine their mission and develop comprehensive systems to support sustainable evidence based outcomes for vulnerable populations.
Prior to starting Compassion Strategies and CCT Strategies LLC, Barry served as the Executive Director of Topeka Rescue Mission Ministries from April of 1986 through April 2022. During his time with TRM nearly 60,000 different homeless men, women and children were provided shelter, millions of meals were provided to the hungry and a wide array of programs and initiatives were developed to provide help and hope to those trapped in the cycle of poverty. Beginning his journey as the only full-time staff member in 1986, Barry developed multiple ministry divisions, growing the strategically evolving organization to include 80 full time staff members and over 1,000 volunteers each month. Throughout the years, Barry oversaw the development of two new shelters for the homeless, a distribution services center along with a multi-functional warehouse focused on providing support to impoverished neighbors. Additionally, as the number of children and families needing services increased, a children and adult education center called the Children’s Palace, was built. All this development was achieved without the aid of government funds. Throughout the years Barry developed and led numerous community initiatives ranging from, neighborhood stabilization efforts (NET-Reach), a successful crime reduction effort called The Safest Capital City initiative, a city-wide character initiative called the Topeka City of Character, a youth leadership development ministry called Doxazo, and was the spearhead for Freedom Now USA, an anti-human trafficking awareness and intervention system. He expanded outreach programs for the unsheltered to include a multi-agency collaborative effort to enhance reaching vulnerable unsheltered neighbors called MAP (Mobile Access Partnership), initiated a multi-county pandemic food relief system titled, “Operation Food Secure” (OFS), serving over 110,000 individuals in 10 north east Kansas counties in need of food. Additionally, Barry opened the opportunity for the development of education and job readiness programs for the homeless, facilitated the development of a successful homeless rehousing program and paved the way for the adoption of a ministry wide trauma intervention initiative, helping frontline ministry workers better understand trauma and how to bring healing and hope to the broken.
In 2012 Barry authored the book, “In Darkness, a Light Still Shines,” based on his experiences during his first 26 years in ministry. Barry has received numerous awards and recognitions, including United States Presidential letters, the Coffeyville Community College Distinguished Alumni Award, the Washburn University Alumni Association, Alumni Fellow Award and an honorary doctorate from Washburn University. Barry has served as keynote speaker for many organizations, schools and business throughout Kansas, including serving as master of ceremonies for numerous events including the Kansas Hall of Fame. Barry represented the Topeka Rescue Mission receiving the Citygate award from the Citygate Network, an association of 300 rescue ministries in North America for TRM’s exemplary service to the homeless and hungry. In 2018 Barry spearheaded the development of a gubernatorial proclamation and resolutions from both the Kansas House and Senate to declare war on human trafficking in the state of Kansas. Recently Barry was honored with the “Lifetime Achievement Award” from the Kansas Statewide Homeless Coalition. Currently Barry is the host of two weekly podcasts addressing the issues of homelessness locally and nationally. “Our Community, Our Mission”, a podcast of the Topeka Rescue Mission in Topeka Kansas and “Collaborative Solutions”, a podcast from the city of Lawrence Kansas.
Through all areas of service, Barry has dedicated his life to advocating for the needs of the homeless, impoverished and vulnerable populations, while working to continually better the overall Topeka/Shawnee County Community, state of Kansas and beyond. After 36 years as executive director of TRM, Barry stepped down from the executive director position in order to develop Compassion Strategies, a network of compassionate organizations, leaders and community members working together to discover ways to end chronic homelessness.