PAINESVILLE, Ohio — The volunteer group Sub Zero Mission is taking its mission of veterans helping veterans to the next level.
This Veterans Day, the Painesville-based non-profit is launching its 'Homeless Veteran Re-empowerment Program,' which will streamline services for homeless veterans in Northeast Ohio and across the state.
RELATED: Sub Zero Mission launching new program to help unhoused veterans across the state
The winter is a busy season for the volunteers at Sub Zero Mission, who have been handing out warm clothes and items to homeless veterans across Northeast Ohio since 2009.
Former Marine and Director of Marketing and Communications, James Hido, said their mission is now expanding beyond material things. Their new Homeless Veterans Re-empowerment Program will connect homeless veterans to mental health and addiction resources, job and housing opportunities, and counseling services.
“Ultimately, what we are doing is as we identify those veterans on the streets, we are going to give them that ask, 'Do you want a second chance at life?'” said Hido.
On top of all that, Sub Zero Mission has created a database streamlining a place to keep records of the unhoused veterans they’re helping and have made connections with, which will be accessible to other area unhoused organizations.
“The importance behind it, is if we don’t have that then it seems like we continue to keep trying to reinvent the wheel and we are not solving the underlying issue and problem that those individuals may be facing,” Hido said.
Fellow Marine vet and Sub Zero Mission Director of Veteran Affairs Tim Hickey has put his heart and soul into developing the program over the last 18 months.
“We are not giving handouts, we are giving hand ups,” said Hickey. “When we find a homeless veteran on the street, we are not going to just give them their winter hats coats, gloves, sleeping bags, we are going to take them with us. We have a saying overseas, no man left behind, but when we get back here, it’s like everybody is separated. You’re separated from all your brothers and sisters all across the country and a lot of veterans feel alone.”
However, there’s an even deeper layer as to why Hido and Hickey care so deeply about their latest mission. The program launch also honors their fellow Marine and Sub Zero volunteer Sergeant Joshua Fanti. Fanti died by suicide in 2023.
“Josh was such a good person," Hickey said. "He contributed to his community as a firefighter, a Marine, volunteering his time here, but he had a broken soul inside. We have to make sure we are picking up on that and we are doing something more to avoid something like that. Although we lost Josh, he’s going to be standing for us saving a lot of people.”
Sub Zero Mission will have boots on the ground starting this December, rolling out its new program, and they have plans to take the program to other cities across the state, like Columbus and Cincinnati.
Monday at 4 p.m. is a ribbon cutting for the new program Sub Zero Missions Painesville headquarters. The public is welcome to attend.
