The volunteers on the ground serve as the lifeblood of every nonprofit organization.
As a national nonprofit, Back on My Feet oversees 16 locations across the United States. Each city program is composed of multiple teams from different recovery center partnerships, adding up to dozens of teams around the country. Thanks to volunteers and local staffers within that expansive network, we have been able to serve 1,000+ nationwide members per year. Feedback from the heart of those networks is vital, guiding us on how to best positively impact the lives of our members. And perhaps no volunteer knows their community better than Derel, a mainstay Circle Up leader in West Baltimore.
Back in 2017, Derel, who owns a barbershop in Baltimore, was a Circle Up leader with one of the city’s four teams, furthering Back on My Feet’s mission to help those recovering from homelessness and addiction. He set quite the example: By 2017, Derel had become a regular marathoner. He had finished shedding some 100 pounds through fitness, including Circle Up runs, and adopting healthier eating habits. He had become an invaluable part of Back on My Feet’s sustained success in Baltimore: After more than 15 years in the city, Back on My Feet has now served roughly 1,500 homeless or at-risk individuals there and assisted more than 500 of them in finding jobs. “What I want people to know about homelessness, substance abuse, or mental health difficulties is that these issues can strike anyone at any time,” Derel says. “It’s necessary to understand that not everyone who’s homeless has a mental health issue or a substance abuse issue.”
But Derel felt he could be doing more to serve those rebuilding their lives — and he thought Back on My Feet could help. Derel had his eye on the working-class neighborhood of Penn North, a predominantly minority community in West Baltimore and an underserved piece of the city. After speaking with Back on My Feet program staff, Derel soon began spearheading an expansion initiative, helping to identify a residential recovery center in the area with which to partner. Thanks to his efforts, the Baltimore chapter of Back on My Feet expanded in September 2017, including the new team, Penn North. “This was a chance to engage with this community, to teach health and wellness,” Derel says. “The reason I helped start team Penn North was because Back on My Feet brings resources to help uplift communities. And I said, ‘I know just the community.’”
Derel also knows something about rebuilding his own life. He’s a graduate of an addiction recovery program himself, and his ongoing contributions to Back on My Feet are a way of giving back to others what he says he found in the program. That’s particularly true for a man who says he’s no stranger to the difficult parts of Baltimore. “I was once wounded in a gun-involved incident and shot three times,” he says. “I was in a wheelchair for a time and then in a walker. The doctor said it was possible I would never walk again. But during my rehabilitation process, the specialist got me walking on a treadmill and then brought me to my very first Back on My Feet Circle Up.”
Over the past six years, Penn North has evolved into the first co-ed team in Baltimore and is known for closing out each week with Soul Train Friday. At Derel’s suggestion, the team began offering diversity, equity, and inclusion guidance for volunteers, which has become a universal part of the onboarding process for Back on My Feet. That training dovetails with Back on My Feet’s commitment to building community through celebrating differences and diversity rather than allowing them to become barriers to success. “My intention is to remind people that we have more similarities than we have differences,” Derel says. “One mistake, one miscalculation, one bad choice, and roles can be reversed instantly. Anyone can fall into the very same shoes. How would you want to be treated if those circumstances fell upon you?”
Derel’s influence in Charm City has been nothing short of extraordinary. Members embrace his warmth and enthusiasm, and he, in turn, says he feels reinvigorated every time he sees a member cross a literal or metaphorical finish line — particularly those who then see larger prizes on the horizon. “If you can put in the discipline and dedication to train for a marathon, you can put in an hour or two a day to train for anything, from getting a degree to purchasing a home,” Derel says. “Running is akin to achieving your goals.”
