Everything we do
Our Chosen Pathways
Our Chosen Pathways and purposes are rooted in lived experiences — those of people affected directly and indirectly — and guide the human services we share and foster.
Chosen Pathways
DADS-R-US
Every father deserves a room where he can be honest. Provides support group meetings, discussions and resources that empower, encourage and support dads — fathers learning from fathers, showing up for their children, and finding strength they did not know they still had. Your gift builds the circle that keeps a dad present, steady and engaged in his family's life.
Oreo's Paws
Some comfort arrives on four paws. Oreo is a service animal and emotional support animal, commissioned through Our Journey of Hope Cancer Care Ministry (OJOH). He travels to embrace individuals with special needs, including autism, lupus, A.D.D. and A.D.H.D., as well as high-functioning adults with learning challenges. His visits also bring companionship to people receiving hospice care; individuals with disabilities, Alzheimer's disease or dementia; veterans; and those living with PTSD, anxiety, depression or grief. He visits schools and nursing facilities, supports companion care providers, and offers comfort to anyone he chooses to serve. Where words fall short, Oreo simply stays — and families remember that visit long after he leaves. Your gift keeps Oreo on the road, bringing calm to the rooms that need it most.
Joshua's Journey
A pathway for children affected by prenatal exposure to drugs or alcohol, and for children who have experienced the death of their mother in their earliest years. Joshua's Journey walks with these children and their caregiving families through the long road that follows — assisting with the physical, mental and emotional challenges associated with these experiences through developmental resources, therapeutic and medical referrals, grief support, school and behavioral support, mentoring, and steady encouragement for the guardians raising them. The focus of this pathway is to make sure no child carries the weight of how their journey began without a community walking beside them.
Cancer Care
Walking with families through diagnosis, treatment and everything after. Provides a variety of resources tailored to meet the needs of survivors, their families and companion care providers — practical help with daily needs, encouragement during treatment, connection to services, and steady companionship for the people carrying the load. Your gift makes sure no one faces cancer without support in their corner.
Hattie B. Dorsey Housing Initiative Legacy
Honoring a legacy of housing justice by helping families move from uncertainty to stability. Fostering affordable housing resources, sustainability, financial literacy, financial planning, seminars and empowerment — so families not only find a place to live, but build the knowledge and confidence to keep it and grow from it. Your gift helps turn a roof over someone's head into a foundation for generations.
Nia is Purpose
Purpose-centered support for children, youth and families living with A.D.D., A.D.H.D., lupus, and other mental or physical conditions that affect day-to-day activities. We create safe, fun and informative spaces to connect, with resources, mentoring, coaching and ongoing support that meet real needs — including peer grief support guided by a credentialed adult. Your gift helps a young person be understood, celebrated and equipped to walk in their purpose.
Love 4 Vet-roes
Serving those who served us — because camaraderie is medicine. Love 4 Vet-roes fosters resources tailored to our VET-ROES' needs, including housing, transportation, mental health assistance and ongoing support, delivered with dignity, respect and follow-through. The pathway also fosters adaptive and recreational athletics, peer connection and wellness through sports leagues, tournaments, fitness training and team events, including community tournaments and family game days. Together, these experiences rebuild strength, purpose, and the bonds of brotherhood and sisterhood after service. Your gift helps a veteran come home to stability and lasting care, return to a team, get back in motion, and reconnect with people who understand — support that lasts well beyond a thank-you.
Groomed 4 Excellence
Confidence is a doorway. Groomed 4 Excellence fosters grooming experiences that enhance mental and emotional well-being and physical appearance, alongside barbering coaching and mentoring. We prepare individuals to walk into interviews, classrooms, courtrooms and new beginnings feeling seen and ready. Your gift helps someone look in the mirror and recognize their own excellence.
Academy for Parents
A place for parents to be poured back into. Fostering adult mentoring, coaching, support and resources for parents who placed their families' needs before their own — practical guidance for the everyday pressures of raising a family, encouragement from people who listen without judgment, and connection to the help they need to keep going. Your gift gives a parent a coach in their corner, a plan they can follow, and the confidence that they are not doing this alone.
Shepherd House
A door that stays open when others close. Fostering safe spaces for at-risk youth; battered women; sex trafficking and human trafficking victims; veterans; families in crisis; people reentering society; those affected by alcohol and substance misuse; and rape victims — offering shelter, safety, dignity and a path forward without judgment. Your gift keeps the light on for someone with nowhere else to turn tonight.
NEXT Gen - Gen Z
The people of this generation are not hard to reach — they are waiting to be heard. Creating safe spaces for these individuals to express themselves, helping them identify and cultivate their gifts, talents and skills, and assisting them with practical, available resources that best suit their needs. Your gift gives a young person a place to belong, an adult who believes them, and a first real look at what their future can hold.
Gwen Austin*Tree 23 Legacy
A legacy carried forward on the court and in the heart. Creative and fun basketball coaching, life skills coaching, interactive and social skills building, and mentoring support young girls and teenage females. Group support, individual support and resources are available for girls experiencing or affected by the death of a parent, grandparent or guardian, and for girls growing up without positive female role models. Here a girl can grieve, grow, laugh and lead in the same season. Your gift gives her a team, a mentor and a safe place to keep becoming who she is meant to be.
Jason's Call
No family should search alone. When someone goes missing, the first hours matter most. Jason's Call aids, informs and supports the search for missing persons and their recovery, standing alongside families, officers in uniform and media partners. We help families organize searches, connect with officers and media, coordinate accurate information, flyers and alerts, and mobilize search and volunteer support so a case is never forgotten. Throughout the waiting, families receive practical care — meals, transportation, prayer, grief and trauma support, and a companion who answers the phone at any hour — along with encouragement to hold on to hope. We remain beside them through recovery and whatever comes next. Your gift puts a steady team beside a family in the hardest hours of their lives and keeps this line open, so the next call is met with action instead of silence.
W.I.E. (Why)
Wisdom — Ingenuity — Evolver. A fun, active and creative space where people of all ages share conversations, exchange ideas, and learn by teaching one another what they know. Through curiosity, shared wisdom and ingenuity, participants deepen their understanding and grow together as evolvers. Your gift keeps the evolvers continually learning from one another and creating with one another.
Statement of Purpose Pathways
Workforce Readiness
Work is a pathway out, and we prepare people to walk it. Workforce readiness covers technical skills, blue-collar trades, job readiness, interview preparation and guidance through certificate, diploma and degree programs — paired with coaching and mentoring that keep people encouraged once the training begins. We also assist corporate America in training the community to prepare for employment opportunities by developing the work skills and life skills that strengthen a person's place in their family, community and the corporate world, and we connect people to utility assistance, housing essentials and transportation so a new job is not lost to an old obstacle. Your gift turns readiness into a paycheck that lasts.
Equity, Diversity & Inclusion
Everyone deserves a fair seat at the table. We provide resources that promote equity, diversity, inclusion, fairness, opportunity, engagement, justice and culture — advancing and bridging gaps between individuals, families, communities, public and private organizations, institutions, businesses and learning facilities. Where doors have been closed by circumstance rather than ability, we open them, make introductions and stay until the relationship holds. Your gift builds the bridge that lets a whole community cross.
Coaching, Mentoring & Reentry
People change fastest when someone believes in them out loud. We provide training, life coaching, inspirational coaching and leadership development, mentoring, workforce development, reentry services and ongoing support — walking with individuals long after the first meeting, through the setbacks and the wins. Your gift puts a steady mentor beside someone who has been going it alone.
Family & Economic Growth
Strong families build strong communities. We meet the needs of our communities with resources that encourage family, community, social and economic growth, financial literacy and small business startups — budgeting and credit coaching, savings habits that hold, and practical guidance for neighbors launching their first business or working as independent contractors. Growth is taught in plain language, at kitchen-table pace, until confidence replaces fear. Your gift turns a household that is barely holding on into one that is building something.
Financial, Housing & Transportation Resources
Most crises are one missing resource away from being solved. We provide information and access to available resources, including financial resources, temporary housing, homeownership guidance, transportation and networking resources — walking alongside families as they make calls, complete applications and keep appointments, so the right door is not only found but opened. Your gift keeps a family housed, moving and connected while they get back on their feet.
Anti-Trafficking
Freedom is worth fighting for. We provide resources and support in the fight to combat sex trafficking and human trafficking — awareness and education so communities can recognize the signs, safe connection points for survivors, and trauma-informed referrals for housing, counseling and long-term restoration. Your gift helps bring someone out and keeps them from being taken back.
Justice Support
Fairness should not depend on who you are or where you live. We aid, inform and support the fight against law enforcement injustices, including inmate injustices — helping individuals and families understand their options, document what happened, find credible support and be heard by the people who can act. Your gift makes sure someone facing the system is not facing it alone.
Domestic & Family Violence Support
Safety first, healing next. We stand against domestic and intimate partner violence, including child and elder abuse, and create a safe haven for victims — safety planning, immediate essentials, connection to shelter and counseling, and ongoing companionship as survivors rebuild a life on their own terms. Your gift gives a survivor a safe place tonight and a plan for tomorrow.
Anger Management
Anger is often pain that was never given anywhere to go. We provide mentorship, resources and programs for anger management — group sessions, one-on-one accountability and practical tools for triggers, communication and self-control that protect jobs, marriages and relationships with children. Your gift helps someone break a cycle before it costs them the people they love.
Fatherhood & Crisis Support
Fathers carry more than they say out loud. We provide support for various areas of crisis, including married, single and unemployed fathers — support groups where dads speak honestly, coaching through job loss, custody strain and financial pressure, and mentoring that helps a father stay present and steady in his children's lives. Your gift keeps a dad in the picture when everything is pushing him out of it.
Wellness Circle
A circle of care offering mental, physical, spiritual and emotional wellness resources and support. Guided movement, cognitive exercises, holistic practices, meditation and moments of stillness help individuals nurture well-being, build resilience and move toward a healthier future. Your gift keeps this circle open to every neighbor who needs it.
Grief Support
Grief does not keep a schedule, and no one should carry it alone. We offer compassionate grief support that meets individuals and families exactly where they are in their grief journey, with support groups where people who understand sit in the same room, one-on-one encouragement, and resources that enable healing at each person's own pace. Your gift keeps a chair open for someone facing the hardest season of their life.
Hurts, Hang-Ups & Habits
A judgment-free place to be honest and begin again. We provide help for hurts, hang-ups, unfavorable habits and addictions through ongoing support groups, mentoring, accountability and connection to recovery resources — meeting people where they are and walking with them as they rebuild. Your gift gives someone a safe room, a steady circle and a real pathway forward.
SHEPHERD MART
Dignity first, always. SHEPHERD MART provides food, clothes, home essentials, school essentials and body essentials to those in need throughout our communities — shopped for and received with respect, never shame. Your gift stocks the shelves that carry a family through the week.
Seniors, Disabilities & Companion Care Providers
Honoring those who have given so much, and the people who care for them. We provide resources for seniors to meet their daily needs, resources that assist individuals with disabilities, including physical disabilities, and practical support and encouragement for the companion care providers who serve them day after day — because caring for a caregiver keeps the whole household standing. Your gift helps a senior stay independent and a companion care provider keep going.
Scholarships, Youth & Adults
Cost should never end a calling. We provide scholarship resources and programs for at-risk youth, young adults, young parents and adults returning to education, training or certification later in life — with guidance through applications, encouragement along the way and connection to the resources that keep them enrolled. Your gift turns a closed door into a classroom seat.
Offenders & Incarcerated Individuals
Everyone deserves a pathway forward. We provide resources and support for offenders and incarcerated individuals and their families — reentry preparation, mentoring, encouragement during incarceration and practical connection to work, housing and community once they come home. Your gift helps someone return not to the same cycle, but to a plan and to people who believe in them.
Neurodiversity & Mental Health Conditions
Understanding changes everything. We provide resources for individuals, families and facilities coping with A.D.H.D., A.D.D., autism, PTSD, bipolar disorder, dementia and Alzheimer's disease — including connection to credentialed individuals and facilities, and service animal and emotional support animal adoption resources. Families are met with patience, information and companionship instead of confusion. Your gift helps a family find answers, care and calm.
Community Outreach
An informed community can see a clearer path forward. We share information about available support through in-person conversations that raise awareness of community resources. We may publish, print and circulate educational periodicals or materials that share stories, highlight opportunities and offer encouragement to people who may never walk through our doors. Your gift helps connect neighbors with timely information, meaningful conversations and resources for their next steps.
Transportation
A ride is often the difference between a missed opportunity and a changed life. Our transportation pathway operates box trucks, vans, cars, buses and pickup trucks used to accommodate families, communities, individuals and personnel, as well as the organization's day-to-day operations — moving people to appointments, interviews, classrooms and safe places, and moving goods to the neighbors who need them. Your gift keeps the wheels turning for everyone we serve.