'She's my mom': Former social worker starts her own tiny nonprofit to help teens

There was something about the lost look in eyes of the petite 15-year-old in the back of the room.

Of course, most of the teens who showed up for the church's anti-gang program had some sort of struggles.

But something compelled church volunteer Danielle Brown to go sit with that girl in the back.

"Why are you here?" Brown asked.

"Court ordered," the teen said.

"What's your drug of choice?"

"Heroin and [opioid pain pill] percocet."

"How did we get to heroin?" Brown asked.

The answer stunned Brown: The teen said her mom got her hooked on heroin, then sold her to have sex with men to get money to buy more heroin for both of them, Brown said.

"That broke my heart," she said.

And it set Brown on a course to dedicating her life to helping teens, one or two or three at a time, through a homemade, tiny Nashville nonprofit Brown created.

Brown takes some broken, older teens into her house for as long as two months at a time when they need a place to live. She connects dozens of other teens to agencies and other big-hearted folks to get them housing, medicine, mental health treatment, food, clothes and whatever else they might need to live independently.

18 surgeries to beat cancer

And Brown does so with empathy and compassion, several teens told The Tennessean.

"I just have a thing for her that she's my mom," 18-year-old Julianna Hobbs said. "She's always been there."

Brown also does it with persistence: "I get stuff done," she said, nodding her head for emphasis.

Brown comes by empathy and persistence naturally. She herself had difficulty in her late teens.

Her mom yanked her out of college in her first year because she struggled getting good grades.

As an adult, Brown needed persistence to beat cancer, going through 18 surgeries, including a double mastectomy and a hysterectomy, to do so.

Then again, she always had empathy for others. A central Illinois native, Brown started studying audiology at Tennessee State University because her baby nephew had speech delays caused by hearing loss in one ear.

She switched to counseling after that experience volunteering with teens in a North Nashville church. "In that moment," she said, "I knew I was stepping into my calling and not just a profession."

Brown worked for state agencies and private nonprofits before her battle with cancer. After that fight, Brown started her own nonprofit, U Matter Helping Hands Ministry, which let her identify and help the older teens she saw falling through cracks in service networks.

Brown raised about $150,000 last year, which she said is enough to help a few dozen teens, in her hands-on way. Sometimes she helps those teens. Sometimes she makes "blessing bags" with supplies for those experiencing homelessness. Cancer patients going through chemotherapy also get Brown's "blessing bags."

She loves the freedom to serve whom she feels called to serve, and she loves the freedom to do it her way. For Brown, that caring one-on-one approach is more effective than services from big government agencies or multi-million-dollar nonprofits.

"All it takes is one person to show people they can make waves," she said. "My goal is to be able to empower young people that they have a purpose in this world. No matter what obstacle, you can overcome anything."

Do you know any service warriors in Middle Tennessee. Reach Brad Schmitt at brad@tennessean.com or 615-259-8384 or on Twitter @bradschmitt.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Meet the ex-social worker who lets troubled teens live in her house