Today we’d like to introduce you to Jai Crabbe-Gorrell.
Hi Jai, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
The heart behind D.O.P.E., which stands for Doing Our Part Eclectically, was planted in me long before the organization officially began in 2014. When I was about eight years old, my aunt would take members of our church into the community to feed people experiencing homelessness around the holidays. Ironically, one of the places where D.O.P.E. serves today is one of the same locations where I served as a child. It feels like God brought me full circle and allowed a childhood experience to grow into something much bigger.
Years later, homelessness became personal. As a young single mother, my children and I lived in a homeless shelter. I understand what it feels like to need help while still trying to remain strong for your children. I later worked in homeless shelters and witnessed some of the darker sides of the system. I saw people treated like numbers, families whose needs went far beyond a meal, and individuals expected to rebuild their lives without enough support. Those experiences fueled my desire to create something that would meet immediate needs while also helping people move toward long-term stability.
D.O.P.E. officially began after my family and I completed a fast together. We were sacrificing, praying, and becoming more intentional about our faith. When the fast ended, we decided that our faith needed to be followed by action, so we went out and served our community. We did not begin with a large budget, a building, or major sponsors. We began with what we had, a willingness to serve, and a commitment to keep showing up.
Since then, I have experienced significant personal growth. I am now a married woman, a college graduate, and a nonprofit leader who has continued to pursue goals that once seemed out of reach. These accomplishments are meaningful to me because they reflect the same resilience I hope to encourage in the people and families D.O.P.E. serves. My story is not defined only by the challenges I have faced, but also by the growth, healing, faith, and progress that followed.
D.O.P.E. has also responded during times when families faced urgent financial hardship. When food stamps, EBT, and SNAP benefits were cut off or delayed, we filled U-Hauls with fresh groceries and essential supplies and delivered them to low-income communities. We have served vehicle loads filled with food, household necessities, hygiene products, clothing, children’s items, and even items that families may consider wants rather than basic needs. We believe people deserve more than survival. They deserve comfort, dignity, joy, and the opportunity to choose something for themselves.
Today, D.O.P.E. provides consistent outreach throughout Philadelphia. On Saturday evenings in Center City, we may serve between 75 and 150 of our unhoused friends. Many of our regulars are known by name. When we arrive to serve, our friends are already there waiting for us. That is the importance of consistency: they know they can count on us in the rain, sleet, hail, or sunshine. Our presence communicates that we are not going anywhere and that they matter to us.
In Germantown, our Friday distributions support approximately 25 to 50 households, and we’ve also organized outreaches in Kensington. Through our programs, we reach around 100 children each month. We provide hot meals, groceries, clothing, hygiene products, household necessities, children’s items, and connections to helpful resources.
We intentionally call the people we serve our “homeless friends” or “unhoused friends” because their housing situation is only one part of their story. They are people with names, families, gifts, goals, and experiences. Many of them have become familiar faces to us because D.O.P.E. is not only present during holidays or when it is convenient. We return consistently, build relationships, listen to people, and learn what they actually need. Sometimes the greatest impact begins with making someone feel seen, remembered, and valued.
Our larger vision is to offer wraparound services through a community center where people can access showers, laundry facilities, clothing, case management, mental health and recovery support, workforce development, technology, youth programming, and other resources in one welcoming place. A meal can help someone get through the night, but lasting change often requires support in several areas at once.
This work is deeply personal to me. I have been the child serving a meal, the young mother living in a shelter, the employee working inside the shelter system, and now the married college graduate and leader working to improve how people are served. I do not serve from a distance. I serve from experience, faith, growth, and the belief that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and given a real opportunity to rebuild.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
A smooth road? Not at all. We have faced more than a few challenges along the way.
One of the first major obstacles was losing our original serving location at Love Park when the city shut it down for renovations. We moved to Dilworth Park, but eventually we were told we had to leave because our crowds had become too large and were distracting from the space being used for visitors. This was before Dilworth became the attraction it is today. The plus side was that we were provided with the location where we currently serve, Thomas Paine Plaza at the Municipal Services Building. In the end, a beautiful compromise was made.
Then life hit me personally. In 2020, I was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, pulmonary hypertension, atrial fibrillation, and mitral regurgitation. I spent much of 2020 through 2022 in and out of the hospital. While I was pregnant with my youngest daughter, I was hospitalized for three straight months. She was born at only 24 weeks and spent more than 270 consecutive days in the NICU across three different hospitals. I was fighting for my health while watching my baby fight for her life. It was a lot.
But D.O.P.E. never stopped. Even when I could not physically show up the way I wanted to, my husband, our team, and our volunteers kept everything moving. That meant more to me than I can put into words.
More recently, I stepped into a major caregiving role for my father. His wife and my siblings all contributed to his life and care, and I am grateful for that. I was there through hospital visits, his transition into rehabilitation, where he lived for almost two years, and then hospice for about three weeks.
It was hard. I mean, really hard. Honestly, hard does not even feel like a big enough word for it. I miss my dad deeply.
Through all of this, I have still been a wife, a mother, a student, and the leader of D.O.P.E. Some days I handle it better than others. I am still juggling, but the beautiful part is that I am not juggling alone. I have an amazing husband, a dependable team, and volunteers who truly care about this mission.
That has been one of my greatest lessons. D.O.P.E. may have started with my family and me, but it was never supposed to rest on my shoulders alone. When life gets heavy, the people around me help carry the work, and together we keep showing up.
We’ve been impressed with D.O.P.E. – Doing our part eclectically, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
For the organization’s name, capitalize each word as: D.O.P.E. (Doing Our Part Eclectically)
D.O.P.E., which stands for Doing Our Part Eclectically, is a Philadelphia-based nonprofit organization founded in 2014. The name describes how we serve. We do our part in many different ways because every person and every community does not have the same needs. Sometimes that means providing a hot meal. Other times it means arriving with groceries, clothing, hygiene products, household supplies, children’s items, or connecting someone to a resource that can help them move forward.
Our Saturday evening outreach in Center City serves approximately 75 to 150 of our homeless and unhoused friends. In Germantown, our Friday distributions support about 25 to 50 households, and we also organize outreach in Kensington. Through our programs, we reach around 100 children each month. When food stamp benefits were cut off or delayed, we filled U-Hauls with fresh groceries and essential supplies and took them directly into low-income communities. We try to pay attention to what is happening around us and respond where the need is greatest.
What sets D.O.P.E. apart is our consistency and the relationships we build. Many of our friends know us by name, and we know them by name. When we arrive to serve, they are often already there waiting for us because they know we are coming. We serve in the rain, sleet, hail, or sunshine. We do not only appear during the holidays, take pictures, and disappear. We keep coming back.
We also believe dignity includes more than giving people the bare minimum. We provide necessities, but we also include items that some may consider wants. People deserve comfort, joy, choices, and something that makes them feel special. A person should not lose the right to experience those things because they are homeless or struggling financially.
What makes me most proud is that D.O.P.E. has become known as an organization people can count on. We listen before assuming we know what someone needs, and we treat the people we serve as friends, not numbers. Our long-term vision is to create a community center that offers wraparound services such as showers, laundry facilities, clothing, case management, mental health and recovery support, workforce development, technology access, youth programs, and other resources in one welcoming place.
I lead D.O.P.E. as its founder and executive director while also being a wife, mother, and full-time graduate student. It is a lot to balance, but my education is helping me become a stronger leader and build the organization with an even greater level of knowledge and intention. Ultimately, I want people to know that D.O.P.E. is about more than handing out resources. It is about showing up, building trust, restoring dignity, and reminding people that they have not been forgotten.
What are your plans for the future?
Our plans for the future of D.O.P.E. are big, but they are rooted in needs we have personally experienced and continue to see in our communities.
We want to open a shelter and community center that feels completely different from many of the environments people encounter when they need help. We want it to be clean, welcoming, beautiful, and centered on dignity. It should not feel institutional or like people are being punished because they need support. We want families and our unhoused friends to walk through the doors and know they are genuinely safe, respected, and cared for.
The community center would bring wraparound services together in one place. That includes showers, laundry facilities, clothing, meals, case management, mental health and recovery services, technology access, mentorship, youth programs, and help navigating community resources. People are often sent to several different places to receive assistance, which can be overwhelming when they are already in crisis. Our goal is to make support easier to access.
We also want D.O.P.E. to offer training programs that prepare people for employment and greater independence. That could include workforce readiness, life skills, financial education, technology training, professional certifications, and connections to employers. We do not only want to help someone survive today. We want to help remove the barriers keeping them from building the life they want.
Another major part of our vision is high-quality, low-income childcare. So many parents want to work, attend school, or complete training, but they cannot move forward because safe and affordable childcare is out of reach. We understand how serious that barrier can be. Childcare should not be the reason someone has to choose between caring for their child and creating a better future for their family.
Most importantly, we want to create true safe spaces. Not places that simply use the word “safe,” but environments where children, parents, and individuals can actually feel protected physically, emotionally, and spiritually. We want people to be able to breathe, think, heal, and plan their next steps without feeling judged.
Ultimately, we see D.O.P.E. growing from an outreach organization into a place where people can find immediate relief, long-term support, practical opportunities, and a real sense of community under one roof.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.doingourparteclectically.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dopepeopledoingdopethings?stkn=ZmlhZjB2eTQwZ29s&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/DOPEpeopleDoingDOPEThings
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/fyP8HVJAbT4?is=Qpbuuxqg_hL0I1Vp
