Today we’d like to introduce you to Hanna Getachew-Kreusser
Hi Hanna, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I was born into a long line of humanitarians, including my father, Col. Getachew-Kreusser who died in a plane crash along with Congressman Mickey Leland and 14 others, on a volunteer mission in Ethiopia when I was 22.
Originally from Ethiopia, I’ve lived as an immigrant in three different countries before I was 21. First Nigeria, then India, and finally the United States, where I moved to Saint Peter, Minnesota to attend Gustavus Adolphus College. From there I began my 30-year career in health and human services in the Twin Cities.
Today, I am the mother of three amazing young people, co-founded a nonprofit, led several human service initiatives in the Twin Cities, and now work as the Executive Director of Face to Face Health and Counseling in East Saint Paul.
At Face to Face, we are more than a nonprofit providing youth with personalized, comprehensive healthcare, which connects youth and their families to support with all areas affecting their physical and mental health (including housing, education, employment, and social connection). We also work with young people and their communities to change the complex systems that were not designed for them to be healthy.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I have personally faced many of the challenges, barriers, and traumas the young people at Face to Face are navigating. Our society’s complex systems were not designed with our health in mind. Whether that’s been because I’m an immigrant, black, a woman, or mother, I’ve known first-hand the exhaustion and hopelessness that can leave a person at a loss for what to do. That hopelessness led my brother to take his own life at age 39, 12 days before his 40th birthday, when the toxic stress of trying to survive systemic issues in a foreign country as a black man overtook him.
I have had many more life challenges than I have the space to list, and yet I rise. While I acknowledge my loving family and community as essential in building my resilience, I am in awe of the many young people we serve who have developed that same powerful, resilience with so little support.
The youth we support at Face to Face Health and Counseling go through similar and related traumas every day. They are all losing loved ones to gun violence, addiction, untreated physical and mental health conditions, and so many more preventable causes of death. But like the Ethiopian proverb says, “When spiders unite, they can tie down a lion.”
Every day at Face to Face I witness the power of our community coming together to support children and their families as they work toward advancing their own health and economic equity while we support them with access to resources and opportunities.
The young people we are privileged to know, many of them navigating multiple complex barriers like homelessness, substance use, systemic racism, bigotry against diverse gender expressions and sexual identities, and much more, have already survived so much by the time we meet them at our clinic, day shelter, or out in the community. They are incredibly resilient, smart, and filled with the ability and potential to lead healthy lives if they are just given access to resources and opportunities.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Face to Face Health and Counseling, Inc.?
If you want to understand what this looks like at Face to Face, it’s helpful to meet some of the young people we support. Just last week we heard from Marcus, a young man who told us he was sleeping in a hallway when he first heard about Face to Face. He was relieved to hear about our day shelter, SafeZone, so he could get two hot meals, food to take with him, and access to showers and laundry, which really helped while he interviewed for jobs.
He started to work with our navigators through one-on-one coaching, as part of our Employment and Education program (which many organizations call workforce development). He completed a paid internship with Face to Face then went on to complete a paid job training program with a partner organization.
Since then, he’s been employed for 12 months, has a home (an apartment he’s sharing with a roommate), and when he recently checked in with us, he was excited to share he passed his driver’s license exam! He was determined to pass even after a failed first attempt, so he could meet his goal of working in the construction industry and travel to job sites in his own car. Despite all the hardships he’s faced, he keeps going as he’s so close to realizing his dream of securing a job in the construction industry – something he thought would always be out of reach for him.
He went on to share that now that he has stable housing, food, and income to meet his basic needs, he wants to start improving his physical and mental health. That is why housing is healthcare. Food security is healthcare. Employment is healthcare.
Along with our network of 75+ community partners, we walk alongside 3,200+ youth in crisis situations every year as they complete their personal goals like stable housing, food security, and livable wage employment. Completing these goals allows them to start addressing health and wellness goals like treating physical and mental health conditions.
That’s why Face to Face started as a volunteer-run, walk-in crisis counseling and reproductive health clinic for youth in 1972, but we’ve grown over those 50+ years to provide comprehensive health services that address all areas affecting their health (housing, education and employment, youth justice, and community in addition to medical care and mental health care).
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
The Face to Face community is able to support a young person like Marcus because we are a network of people working together to see that all young people have the opportunity to realize their full potential. Everyone can get involved in supporting children and young families in our community, including you.
Whether that’s through volunteering, donating, connecting us with your network, or spreading the word, by investing in young people now, we prevent more complex and costly challenges later in their lives. Supporting kids today is an investment in a healthier, more resilient community tomorrow.
We conducted a comprehensive social impact study that revealed a powerful insight: for every dollar invested in delivering Face to Face services, at least $3.38 in social value is created. That means your donation creates a tripling effect as the benefits ripple through the community when youth receive critical support at pivotal moments in their lives. This work is effective primarily due to the wraparound model of serving youth. Having services impacting multiple areas of young people’s lives be available in one location eliminates barriers and builds solid relations and communities where young people can go from just surviving to thriving.
Donate now at face2face.org/donate and while you’re there, learn more about what we do in the community and email us about the ways you’re interested in joining us (development@face2face.org).
Contact Info:
- Website: https://face2face.org
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/face2faceorg
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/face2faceorg
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/face2faceorg
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@face2faceorg
- Other: https://tiktok.com/@face2faceorg
