Our Founder​​

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​Hand in Hand was founded by David Douglas, a former Eustis postal carrier who saw a need to help the homeless in our community. He formed a ministry at his church, theCross Mt. Dora, called Hand in Hand to help the underserved. After spending countless hours working with people on the streets, he soon realized that most were experiencing some type of addiction. Recognizing this, the focus quickly shifted to spreading awareness about and working with those in addiction.

Dave Douglas
Founder

David has been a resident of Lake County for 39 years. He is a retired Letter Carrier after 35 years of service. David also served as a Firefighter/EMT for Lake County. He is a trained Stephen Minister and loves going on mission trips. This has taken him to places like Haiti, Guatemala and Kenya, Africa. These mission trips have made a big impact in changing his life to a life of service. David is a father to 5 and a grandfather to 4. David has served on the Board of Directors for Lake County volunteer firefighters as their director. He has also served as finance director for Faith Lutheran Church in Eustis. Other board positions have been Executive Director for Central Florida Cross Network and Director for theCross of Central Florida. David is the founder of Hand in Hand Lake County and has a big heart for serving the “least of these.” He is also author of the G.R.I.T. program which is applied at Hand in Hand’s addiction recovery facilities. David has been married to his wife Sherrie for over 30 years and enjoys his church family, the beach and riding his motorcycle.