Going on a Journey

from Eric Dusenbury

For close to 30 years Druid Hills Presbyterian Church has operated a men’s night shelter out of McIver Hall. In 2010 the church created the Shelter Transition Task Force to discern whether the shelter was fulfilling its mission and, if not, what should be done to better meet the needs of homeless men in our community. The task force completed its work in 2011 when the shelter was set up as a separate non-profit with its own board and a paid full-time executive director; BreNita McCord.

As BreNita evaluated the organization she came to the conclusion that the name of the organization should change. The name Druid Hills Night Shelter tied the organization to a particular church and also expressed a limit to the type of services that are offered. She proposed and the board agreed on the name Journey.

We all felt the name Journey better expresses the organizations mission: to encourage, empower and establish men who have experienced homelessness on their journey to self-reliance through employment, education, housing and counseling. These men will be taking a journey to self-sufficiency and our organization will be walking with them trying to provide the support they will need.

Even though Journey has been set up as a separate non-profit, it still needs support from Druid Hills Presbyterian Church to meet its goals. This is especially true during the early years as the board and BreNita work to ensure the organization has the resources it needs. And, as expected, DHPC is providing a lot of support to Journey. In addition to the use of McIver Hall, DHPC provides office space for BreNita, contributes $20,000 a year to Journey’s budget, serves some dinners, and has members on the board. This includes Eric Dusenbury serving as president and Belle Miller McMaster serving as secretary. Larry Owens, Emmet Bondurant, and Ely Abbott also serve on the board in various capacities.

While DHPC continues to support Journey, Journey is working to reduce the amount of support needed from DHPC. Journey has set up its own bank account and bookkeeping responsibilities for Journey will be contracted separately. Journey is now paying 85% of the utility costs and 85% of the maintenance cost for items internal to McIver. Journey is not paying 100% because McIver is still used by a couple other DHPC missions. Lastly, Journey is working hard to identify additional financial support from our partner organizations, government agencies, and individuals.

Those of you who heard former shelter guest, and current Journey board member, Brian Biehly speak in church on November 6 realize what a positive impact the shelter has on the men who stay there. We would love to have your support for this mission during its time of transition and beyond. Please feel free to ask Eric, Belle, Larry, Emmet, or Ely any questions about Journey or about how you might get involved.