NCH Director Named Change Maker

Photo From the Change.org blog under End Homelessness: Changemaker

Donovan Featured on Best Homeless Blog in Country

He only was hired four and a half months ago, and he has already become a Changemaker. Neil Donovan, new Director of the National Coalition for the Homeless has been named by the folks at Change.org as a leading voice for social justice in America. Full disclosure: I am on the executive committee of the National Coalition, so I am one of the people who hired Mr. Donovan. There is no truth to the rumor that our only goal was to pick someone with the same name as the new HUD Secretary. While he is new to NCH, he has many years of experience with the National Alliance to End Homelesssness and he did some work on Rural homelessness in Ohio. Obama gets the Nobel Peace Prize in his first year, and Neil Donovan is named Changemaker in his first year of office. Both awards are well deserved for a lifetime of work and the promise of moving a huge agenda forward. Neil is a deep thinker and has worked closely with homeless people in Boston as his anti-poverty career began. This job at NCH is tough for anyone, because of the long history of the organization with basically 18 strong personalities who are all leaders in their states or local communities serving on this one board. So far, Neil has done a good job in balancing the agendas of civil rights, economic justice, housing and health care among all these passionate board members.

Donovan is able to bring some movement forward out of the chaos of "Blueprints for Roadmaps and Plans to End Solutions..." floating around the country. Part of the dirty secret with being a director of a non-profit is that you have to figure out how to keep your work on the big picture when in fact you are swimming in an ocean of bureaucracy and red tape. So far, Neil has kept all the plates spinning while trying to nudge his way onto the giant national stage.

For those who worry that one of the founders of homeless advocacy and one of the giants in community organizing has been put on a shelf in the dark basement of the National Coalition's office, you can rest easy at night. Michael Stoops went back to his true passions of community organizing and pushing for civil rights for those experiencing homelessness as an employee at NCH. Yes, Michael's office is in the basement of NCH, but that was his choice from a couple of years back. No one sent him to the basement. Besides great ideas do come out of the basement so stop making fun of basements. I believe that the internet was created in Al Gore's basement and the Beatles were created in Stuart Sutcliffe's basement.

Continued success to Neil Donovan of NCH.

Brian
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