Good Samaritan House names executive director
GRANITE CITY – The Good Samaritan House, the largest women and children’s shelter in the St Louis Metro East region, has named Latosha Davis, MSW, as executive director.
Started in 1998 by a local ministerial alliance, GSH has been home to more than 5,000 women and children experiencing homelessness. Today, GSH serves as a temporary home to more than 250 women and children annually. With the average stay lasting three months, 80 percent of graduating GSH moms leave the program with employment, safe affordable housing, new life skills, as well as, the hope and support needed to end homelessness for their families forever.
“We are on-mission all-day, every day, serving the most vulnerable members of our communities and access to safe affordable housing is crucial when it comes to the success of the women and children that we serve” says Davis, who came aboard May 22. The GSH board of directors attribute the success of the organization to the outpouring of support from external stakeholders, caring community members and churches.
“It is this support that has made it possible for GSH to weather the challenges of the Illinois budget crisis and federal grant reductions we’ve experienced in recent years,” said Mark Donavon, GSH Board president.
Davis will help cultivate relationships with key external stakeholders, local churches, government agencies, corporate partners and individual donors. She graduated from Illinois State University with a Master’s Degree in Social Work and is a recent graduate and Fellow of the elite, St Louis Business Diversity Initiative. Davis spent her career working in mental health, substance abuse, housing and other health related matters.
“I am looking forward to continuing to serve and partner with the area’s nonprofit organizations, local churches and other supporters of our mission as we continue to do this very necessary work. I am committed to the mission and consider it to be a privilege to be a part of GSH’s history in our community and its bright future,” she said.
For more information on GSH’s annual golf tournament, its upcoming 20th-year celebration or it mission to end homelessness, visit www.goodsamaritanhouse.org or call (618) 876-0607.
— From the Illinois Business Journal
