Five Years
Moving Forward

Five years ago, Daniel Savage joined the staff at Matthew’s Hope. He was out of work, with his wife, Emily, and son, Leo, to take care of. He needed a job and, with the country just coming out of COVID, good work was hard to find. “I was talking with Pastor Scott one day. I’d known him for a couple years, but had no idea what he did. So, I asked him. He said, I run a Homeless Ministry. You should come on out and let’s talk. That kind of blew my mind. Not really the answer I was expecting. So, I went to Matthew’s Hope to check them out. That was five years ago.”

Daniel’s held a variety of positions at Matthew’s Hope in those five years. He started out as a “sweater sorter,” worked his way up to Junior Operations Manager, and two years ago was promoted to Advocate. But truth be told, Daniel is a little uncomfortable with titles. “I was really kind of like their go-to guy. I used to handle all the vehicles in-house. Anything around the facilities, really, that needed doing, I helped with that. Then, one day I sat in as a temporary advocate with Shannon Diaz. Their last advocate had moved on, and she needed some help. That was about two years ago—and it changed everything.”

An advocate is a person who works with people in the Matthew’s Hope Moving Forward Program. The advocate’s job is to help those people move forward with their lives. To get them back to a life of sustainability, whether it is help with finances, skills training, job hunting, or car buying. “There’s no handbook for getting your life back together. We’re here to help them the best ways we can. To keep them accountable. Not to do the work for them.”

Daniel loves his job. Everything about it, his coworkers, the people in the Program who put their lives in his hands. “I mean, the people I work with are tremendous: Shelley, Shannon, Nurse Linda, Kim, Mother Teresa is one of the most amazing people I’ve met in my life, Sarah, Taylor, Angie, Nate—mental health counselor, Meyer.”

There is one thing he’d change, if he could…

“They call me an advocate. That’s my title. But I’d rather be called a Purveyor of Hope. What I do here is more about being empathetic and a good human being. To understand where people may be in their lives. When I help them succeed and move on to a meaningful, sustainable life—I succeed. Their successes are my successes.

“One thing I started doing that I love is, I dress up as a wizard—Old Wizard Willy, the reading wiz—I go over to our Montessori school and I read to the preschool kids with my long gray beard, purple and silver-stars wizard robe, and wizard wand.

“Today, I am at the happiest point I’ve ever been in my life. Between having an amazing wife, and an incredible son who makes parenting so easy. I love coming in to work and going home to my family. No other job could give back to me the way this one does. To allow me to drive home at night and feel as rewarded as I do now.”

We asked Daniel what he thinks the secret to Matthew’s Hope might be. His answer was deceptively simple: being a kind, caring, compassionate, good  human being. That sounds like the perfect definition of a purveyor of hope to us!