Donna Fortier has a fondness for turtles. To the CEO and founder of Mobile Hope, a non-profit focused on helping 18-to-24-year-old homeless kids build productive lives, they are a symbol of how it must feel to be entirely without resources and on your own.
“It carries its home on its back and has a hard shell for all the judgment and B.S. that our kids have to deal with,” she explains. For Mobile Hope’s caseworkers, it takes time and unrelenting care to penetrate that shell and restore the hope of young people whose families are absent or unwilling to house them. To remind them they’re no longer alone, every kid’s journey at Mobile Hope begins with the gift of a turtle bracelet—it may be just a few beads and string, but it's a tangible reminder that someone cares.
Then again, a turtle may just be Donna’s own spirit guide. Eight years ago, she was weighing whether to leave her job as Director of Community Affairs and Mobile Health Services for Inova Loudoun Hospital to tend full-time to the needs of homeless youth, for a salary that didn’t exist. Those needs, she discovered to her shock, went far beyond health care. As her decision approached, she asked for a sign.
“Show me a turtle,” she said. For the next four months, from “Go Turtles” license plates to box turtle road rescues, it was as if turtles were, literally, crawling out of the bush and into her path. “You didn’t have to hit me in the head with a hammer,” she said and took the leap.
The “home on your back” analogy is, unfortunately, fitting for Mobile Hope as well. There’s the obvious—its colorfully painted mobile home parked outside its offices near the airport makes eight monthly stops around the county dispensing hot meals, clothes, diapers and other items to the needy. More poignantly, the organization has moved seven times in eight years. It began in Donna’s office at Inova and moved to an empty doctor’s office; an empty room at Cornwall Hospital; a storage locker; the place across from Healthworks, for about a year, and moved back to a storage locker. Then it went to the Village of Leesburg next to Travinia Italian Kitchen, which generously gave them space, and settled in a Sycolin Road location for about a year and a half. It is now in a second-floor office above a school for gymnastics.
“This is our longest lease, but it’s not conducive to our needs," says Donna.
Like her youth, Donna dreams of a permanent home for a life skills training center for the county’s young adult homeless population. It would have a residential housing component for ages 18-24.
"We have looked at so many places, but we are not easy to place," Donna says. “If all the stars aligned and millions of dollars fell out of the sky, [the facility] would be a one-stop shop for these kids so they could not only live there but be trained and certified in skills that would provide them with productive lives and the means to participate fully in a community where they’re now mostly invisible and unacknowledged."
Twenty-two hundred—this is the number of homeless kids identified by the Loudoun County School System last year. In the richest county in the country, how can this be? Where are they?
“They’re expert at hiding,” Donna explains. They sleep on the rooftops of local businesses, in the park or couch-surf with friends’ families. Even the latter can’t provide the life skills training they need to break the dependency on social services that, in many cases, is the only life lesson imparted by their parents. That’s Mobile Hope’s job.
“Whatever you’d do for your own kids, that’s what we do for these kids,” says Donna. That includes loving them unconditionally.
Take Kwame A., who is confined to a wheelchair (purchased by Mobile Hope), for example. Kwame lived for football. He’d made varsity and was doing well in school. But when his parents kicked him out at age 16 along with his older brother, he fell behind in his classes and was kicked off the team. He then transferred to Douglass, a school for alternative education in Leesburg, got arrested and spent time in the adult detention center. A month after his release, in August 2017, he was shot in the back. In the hospital, he fought for life, paralyzed and on life support, and was told he’d never walk again. Following a subsequent abdominal surgery, a relapse and painful rehab, his physical therapist now thinks with leg braces (also purchased by Mobile Hope) that maybe by the time you’re reading this article, he’ll be using a walker or trying to walk on his own.
There are other signs of healing. The 20-year-old is working online using his skills as an artist to learn how to be a graphic designer. He’s working on his resume and trying to find stable housing compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. He’ll be featured in an art show this summer with a local artist that is tutoring him. And, he’s thinking hard about his future.
“I don’t know my purpose in life; I’m still trying to figure it out," says Kwame. The one thing that keeps him going? “Donna telling me she loves me," he says. "Because, me, personally, I never really cared about me. That was what was wrong with me for a long time.” One look at the high-wattage smile, and you can tell that, at least, has changed.
How You Can Help
Most importantly, Donna says, “Don’t judge [homeless youth] for who you think they are. Get to know them, ask them their names or ask them what they may need.” Her response is probably loaded with the awareness that, if Mobile Hope sees 40-50 kids a month, there must be hundreds it doesn’t see.
As for donations, Donna says, “Our biggest needed item (aside from financial support) is food and gift cards in small denominations.” Produce is fine, because they also teach the kids to cook, but other food like breakfast bars, 100% juice boxes, canned tuna or chicken, hearty soups, PB&J, pasta and rice, canned food, snacks or gift cards can either help feed hungry kids or help out a family that is allowing them to stay with them. New clothing—especially new socks, underwear and t-shirts for boys of all sizes are needed. Duffle bags, tents, personal hygiene items, cleaning items and school supplies this month and next are also gratefully appreciated.
Mobile Hope's Youth Employment Services YES program works to get the kids ready for full-time jobs. Local businesses provide internships, apprenticeships and one-on-one mentoring to help ready them for the workforce.
Consider volunteering. “Whatever your passion is, spend a day or two with us," Donna says. Adults willing to share their professions, befriend kids, fold clothes for an hour or just cook a meal are always welcome.
You can also get involved with Handcuffs to Hope. “This program actively works to reduce recidivism and help these returning citizens with a new chance," says Donna.
Lastly, donate to build a permanent center. "This is a legacy that will live on forever to give these kids a stable place to start and a strong foundation to move on,” says Donna.