Why Heaven Sent Exists.
This organization began with more than an idea. It began with service, hardship, faith, family and a promise that somebody else's worst day should never be ignored simply because helping them is difficult.
Before There Was an Organization, There Was a Family Trying to Make It Through.
There was a season when my own family was struggling. The bills were bigger than the paycheck. The refrigerator was too quiet. My family needed help, and like any husband and father, I reached out.
I called agencies, churches and programs — anyone I thought might stand in the gap. Too often, the answer was that there were no funds available right then.
They may not have meant to be cruel. But when a family is living through a crisis, emergencies do not wait for the next funding cycle.
Standing there with the phone in my hand, I realized that if this could happen to us, it was happening to countless other people who did not know who to call — or who no longer had the strength to keep asking.
Joe and Kim Ryan's experience did not become a marketing story. It became a commitment.
I Have Seen Disaster From Both Sides.
I Have Been the Responder.
I have spent decades working around disaster response, emergency services, communications, mass care and communities where people's lives changed without warning.
I Have Been the Family Waiting.
I also know what it feels like to need help, make the calls, search for an answer and wonder whether anybody is going to show up.
Life taught me why.
The Experience Behind Heaven Sent Did Not Begin With Heaven Sent.
Joseph “Joe” Ryan's background spans military service, emergency communications, disaster response, search and rescue, fire service, emergency medical response, mass care, technology, instruction and nonprofit leadership.
U.S. Navy Combat Veteran
Military service became one of the early foundations of a life centered on responsibility, preparedness, teamwork and service to others.
REACT of Schuylkill County
Joe served as a Founding Director of REACT of Schuylkill County, adding emergency communications and community-response leadership to his public-service experience.
Amateur Radio & PEMA Planning
A General Class amateur radio operator, Joe's background includes emergency communications and helping develop an auxiliary communications plan for the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.
Search & Rescue
Joe served as a Search and Rescue Manager with Middle Creek Search and Rescue, adding field coordination and search-and-rescue operations to his emergency-response experience.
Volunteer Fire Service & EMT
Joe served as a volunteer firefighter with Good Intent Fire Company No. 551 in New Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and served as an Emergency Medical Technician.
American Red Cross
Joe's Red Cross experience included Staff Services management, Disaster Services Technology management, in-kind donations, disaster-services coordination at the Schuylkill County Chapter, instruction and service as a Job Director on four disaster-response operations.
Emergency Feeding & Kitchen Instruction
Joe's background also includes mass-care kitchen instruction, food-safety training and experience supporting organized feeding during emergency and community-relief operations.
FEMA-Related Training & Experience
Joe's disaster background includes extensive FEMA-related training and experience across multiple areas of emergency and disaster operations.
MDR Disaster Relief & Veterans Outreach
Joe later founded and led MDR Disaster Relief & Veterans Outreach, continuing work involving disaster relief, Veterans outreach and community response.
Heaven Sent
The experience of responding to disasters and the experience of personally needing help eventually came together in Heaven Sent Community Services & Veterans Assistance.
Help Should Preserve a Person's Dignity.
Heaven Sent was built around a simple belief: the person receiving help deserves the same respect we would want for ourselves and our own families. Help should be safe, clean, useful, appropriate and dignity-preserving.
People are not disposal points for whatever happens to be left over. What we distribute should be worthy of the people receiving it.
We do not want to promise what we cannot deliver. We explain what we can do and work responsibly toward the next step.
Documentation matters, but the human being sitting across from us matters more than reducing that person to a case number.
When another qualified organization is the appropriate resource, we work to connect people rather than pretending Heaven Sent must do everything itself.
A referral is not always the end of the problem. When appropriate and within our role, we help identify barriers and the next responsible step.
The purpose of the work is not to make the organization look important. The purpose is to help the person in front of us move toward greater stability.
The Softer Side of the Heaven Sent Promise.
Heaven Sent deals with serious problems — homelessness, Veterans in crisis, families under pressure, seniors and people with disabilities, and communities recovering from disaster. But serious work should never make us forget the small things that help a person feel safe, seen and human again.
Mop and Manie represent that part of our mission. They are reminders that a teddy bear, a soft manatee, a clean blanket, a kind word or a familiar face can matter when somebody's world has been turned upside down. They carry the warmth of Heaven Sent into the practical work we do.
As Heaven Sent grows, Mop and Manie will remain part of the heart behind our Comfort Kits, family and child support, disaster outreach and the planned Safe Harbor community — helping make difficult places feel a little less frightening and a little more like somebody cares.
“No one should be reduced to the worst day of their life.”
A Veteran sleeping in a vehicle is still a Veteran. A family living in a motel is still a family. A person with a disability is still a person with dreams, skills, dignity and something to contribute.
Heaven Sent Brought Experienced People Together.
Heaven Sent's capacity does not rest on one person's résumé. Its leadership brings experience from disaster response, military service, emergency management, healthcare and nursing, public health, Veterans services, homelessness, business management, intelligence, pastoral care, education and direct community service.
Joseph “Joe” Ryan
Joe brings more than 25 years of experience involving disaster response, military and community service, emergency communications, Red Cross disaster services, search and rescue, fire service, EMT experience, mass care, technology, instruction and nonprofit leadership.
Office: (407) 279-0520
Cell: (717) 623-0164
Email: joepres@heaven-sent-veterans-outreach.org
Tim Lehman
Tim brings emergency-management and public-service experience including PEMA, search and rescue, service in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army, and emergency medical services. Tim is also a currently licensed EMT.
His background adds emergency-management, field-response, preparedness and emergency-services capability to the team.
Phone: (689) 262-6691 ext. 102
Email: timdisasterrelief1@heaven-sent-veterans-outreach.org
Darrell Whited
Darrell brings extensive Veteran-service, training, community-service and leadership experience. His history includes years of work supporting Veterans and communities, including experience through Vets Working.
Darrell and Teresa's work through Vets Working reaches back to 2014, bringing another independent line of Veteran and community-service experience to Heaven Sent.
Phone: (689) 262-6524 ext. 103
Email: commandercorner@heaven-sent-veterans-outreach.org
Teresa Whited
Teresa brings advanced nursing education, public-health experience, instructional experience, faith-based community service and years of service associated with Vets Working.
Her background contributes a valuable health-informed, educational and human-services perspective to the leadership team while specialized clinical services remain with appropriately qualified providers.
Phone: (689) 262-6519 ext. 104
Email: teresawdirectoroffaithpastor@heaven-sent-veterans-outreach.org
Norm
Norm brings U.S. Army counterintelligence experience together with substantial private-sector management experience, including experience operating four businesses.
His background contributes business, organizational, operational and planning perspective to Heaven Sent's leadership capacity.
Read Norm's BiographyPaul Kinebrew
Paul contributes direct experience and perspective to Heaven Sent's work with people experiencing homelessness, helping keep outreach and casework connected to the realities people face while trying to move from crisis toward stability.
Phone: (689) 262-6720 ext. 105
Email: paulk@heaven-sent-veterans-outreach.org
Different Roads.
One Mission.
Heaven Sent did not assemble people with identical résumés. It brought together people whose different roads of service created complementary capabilities. That matters because homelessness, disability, Veterans services, family crisis, employment, disaster preparedness and long-term stability do not exist in separate little boxes in a person's life.
Safe Harbor
A planned integrated approach to housing, workforce development, community support, disaster readiness and long-term stability.
Safe Harbor gives people a place to move forward.
What If People Did Not Have to Chase Help From One Disconnected Door to Another?
Years of disaster response and community service led to a larger question: could more of the pieces people need to move forward be connected through one coordinated community?
That question became the Safe Harbor vision — a planned development intended to connect housing and stabilization with workforce development, accessibility, community resources, preparedness and partnerships.
Sometimes a Mission Is Better Heard Than Read.
This video is part of the Heaven Sent story and gives visitors another way to understand the people, experiences and promise behind the mission.
We May Not Have Every Answer. But We Will Never Forget There Is a Person Behind the Question.
To every Veteran, senior, person with a disability, homeless neighbor, disaster survivor and family who feels like there is nowhere else to turn: we will treat you with dignity. We will tell you the truth. We will not promise what we cannot deliver. And when there is a responsible path toward help, we will work to find it.
People Helping People — Because We All Matter.
U.S. Navy Combat Veteran
Heaven Sent Community Services & Veterans Assistance
Office:
(407) 279-0520
Cell:
(717) 623-0164
joepres@heaven-sent-veterans-outreach.org