David Wyand, Partner at RMG
Organization: Helping Up Mission
Role within Organization: Secretary, Board of Directors
Number of Years/Months Involved: 8 Years
Why do you volunteer your time specifically with this organization?
It’s a faith-based organization, and it meets a need that is really important in the city and surrounding areas.
Does this organization affect Baltimore as a whole?
Yes, Helping Up Mission is right in the middle of the efforts to address the opioid epidemic. Helping Up provides a year-long spiritual recovery program for approximately 500 men, with other supportive programs for the men after they graduate (they can stay for another year, and then can go into ¾ housing). Helping Up also provides emergency overnight beds for the homeless.
What is your favorite memory of working with this organization?
Every time we go to a board meeting, one of the guys who is in the program tells his story. We get to hear where he has been, how he has gotten to where he is, and what HUM means to him. These stories of how Helping Up has changed lives make it all worth it.
If you could do one thing to change the organization for the better, what would it be?
Open a program for women. We are already working toward making that a reality.
