BRIAN KELLY PHOTOGRAPHY & FILM

From my “Detroit Portraits” project, this is Dr. Chad Audi, President of the Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries (DRMM), a non-profit organization with an $18,000,000 annual budget.

I photographed Dr. Audi inside one of their emergency shelters. This particular room shelters 78 men. But on any given day DRMM serves roughly 1500 of Detroit’s homeless and attempts to get their lives back on a positive track.

Dr. Audi is originally from Lebanon and gained respect in the community by forming strategic partnerships and finding innovative and cost-effective solutions to meet the needs of homeless Detroiters, as well as those overcoming addictions in a spiritually supportive environment that inspires people around possibility-oriented outcomes.

DRMM is an inspiring, if not overwhelming, place to visit. It’s an organization battling on the front lines of Detroit’s economic collapse and addresses the collateral damage that has occurred in the lives of many Detroiters that have found themselves for a variety of reasons off the rails and off the grid. DRMM has been incredibly successful in transforming lives and giving their clients the technical skills and training to become employable and highly productive.