NAHANT — Founder of Mission for Hope Leighton O’Connor appeared at the Nahant Village Church’s community breakfast on Friday morning to discuss his mission to help those struggling with poverty.
Mission for Hope is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit committed to providing care and raising awareness about the homelessness crisis throughout the United States, according to the mission statement on its website. O’Connor started the organization in 2018, and since then, it’s grown into a thriving organization with volunteers uniting in their jeeps to bring food and supplies to others across the country.
The organization has been to 46 major cities in the United States, and though the group’s ambitions are big, the call to action was simple: establish a date and time in the city they’d be visiting, and other local volunteers would arrive in their donation-filled Jeeps. Since it has taken off, the organization has visited areas where homelessness is most prevalent, such as Alaska, San Diego, San Francisco, Skid Row in Los Angeles, and Miami.
O’Connor began his presentation by reading scripture to the crowd, where he recited Jeremiah 29:11: “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.’”
He then thanked the community members for their help with donations collected through a clothing drive back in April, when residents gave the organization so much that O’Connor’s storage unit was completely filled with donations and the organization had to rent a van to deliver all the supplies.
“We had fifteen bins of clothing,” he said. “I really appreciate the donations.”
O’Connor then backtracked, elaborating on how the organization came to be.
“Back in 2018, I was interning at Calvary Christian Church, and phasing out my ad agency, which I ran for 15 years. … I was driving this old pick-up truck, brought to my mechanic, who told me it was too expensive to fix. … Then, I got a jeep, and loved it,” O’Connor said. “I started following people who ‘overland,’ which means they live in their vehicles off-grid … and God put it in my heart to do homeless outreach in 30 cities.”
Once he started preparing for the work ahead, O’Connor took test trips with his Jeep to places like Memphis, Tennessee and Canada — where he hammered out the technical details of what equipment was needed to carry food and supplies on the road. According to O’Connor, it was six months of preparation, contacting Jeep-owners in each city he’d visit, where they’d meet up and bring donations for those in need.
“I’d meet them at church or outside Walmart, and we had jeeps filled up with stuff, and we had a volunteer who would ship me things from my storage unit. … I had a leader who would organize donations. When I’d get to the city, we’d meet and gather on Saturday and go out and distribute items,” he said. “It was a crazy blessing to be able to do that for 6 months.”
Aside from cruising around the country and helping countless communities, another way O’Connor helped spread word of his mission was by utilizing social media.
“One of the things I also got known for was cooking on the back of my jeep… I’d cook steaks, chicken, all kinds of things,” he said. “And I’d create videos on TikTok, and people would say, ‘Look at this pastor in the woods, cooking in his jeep,’ and they’d follow me. … It’d help get people on board about what I’m doing.”
Then, O’Connor spoke on misconceptions surrounding poverty and homelessness.
“A lot of people don’t understand why people are homeless. Some people think they’re lazy, but that’s not the case. A lot of people think they’re addicts, but they’re not. … Their mental illness goes untreated, and they self-medicate using drugs and end up addicted. … They’re not getting the programs where they can be helped,” he said.
Aside from Mission For Hope’s efforts to connect with volunteers throughout the country to serve others, his other organization, Good Hope, Inc., is steadily working to help build a water well in Uganda after raising $11,000 from the “Running and Walking Well 5k” event in June.
Proceeds from past races have been used to dig wells in Kenya, Tanzania, Gahanna, and Morocco, according to O’Connor.
