#PeopleofNEI: Donovan, staying downtown to serve

Northeast Indiana is evolving. These are the people shaping its future. #PeopleofNEI

This week’s feature:

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Donovan is the President/CEO of The Rescue Mission. He moved to Fort Wayne 36 years ago from Kingston, Jamaica. Today, he broke ground with residents and community leaders on the new downtown Fort Wayne Rescue Mission facility. Donovan speaks about his love for others and his motivation to stay involved. “The reason why I do what I do is because my brother and my family were impacted by homelessness and mental illness. My brother, Robert, passed away 15 years ago. I do this because I love seeing people moving into self-sufficiency and seeing their God-given potential. For the last three years, we have been working with the city and the community to build a bigger building. This is a gift to the poor and the homeless in our community. It is a community effort that is way beyond The Rescue Mission. For the next year, we will be involved in construction and looking to the community for assistance with our capital campaign. It’s all about the community. Our plan is to move and celebrate in September, 2020. The Rescue Mission serves all people but 80 to 90 percent are mentally ill. We bring an individual in and we connect them with agencies to provide stability and then move them into our programs. We have been downtown since 1903 and we are staying downtown because that is where the services are for the homeless. We are building a place of safety, a sanctuary for them. We help move people from hopelessness to being able to dream again and become self-sufficient in our community.” #PeopleofNEI

A post shared by Input Fort Wayne (@inputfortwayne) on Apr 9, 2019 at 9:26am PDT

#PeopleofNEI: Donovan, staying downtown to serve

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