Her Job Is a True Labor of Love

As a buyer for the Broadway and Robinson’s for 30 years, Dorris Dann learned business management.

Six years after retiring, she’s still using that expertise.

But now her clients are the homeless and working poor at Our Saviour Center in El Monte, a community outreach program where Dann is executive director.

“She brought all her skills and her really canny management sense from the marketplace,” says Denis M. O’Pray, rector of the Episcopal Church of Our Saviour in San Gabriel, sponsor of the center.

“She got these young kids from college, 21 or 22 years old (as staff members) and taught them management by objectives, how to make a six-month plan, a 12-month plan, a three-year plan and how to build a budget. They’re running the most fabulous programs.”

When Dann took over the center two weeks after she retired in 1987, it provided only food and limited shelter. Under her leadership, it has added services including medical care, tutoring and recreation programs for youth, computer training and employment assistance. The center is open five days and two nights a week in a converted rectory, a garage and two trailers in a parking lot behind Immanuel Episcopal Church in El Monte.

Dann oversees three full-time and three part-time workers plus 175 volunteers. But she downplays her role in serving 5,600 clients who used the center 33,000 times last year.

“I would hate to have you think that I’m the only person that has done any of this,” she says. “There are a terrific number of people who take on projects. Mostly what I do is try to get people who’ll work on them.”

Most of the programs are aimed toward low-income working people.

“There’s a common perception that only the homeless are hungry,” she says. “But a lot of our families make $12,500 per year. If you’re paying $800 a month for rent, even if you’re splitting with someone, it’s very difficult.”

On a recent Thursday, Benita Lopez, 48, came to the center for flour, butter and peanut butter. A widow raising four children, she said that without the center she would have minimal food until her welfare check arrived five days later.

“When we don’t have any more income, this is the place,” she said.

Dann’s goal is to tap the hidden talents in the community with a variety of programs.

“We’d like to be as comprehensive a place as possible. You should be able to access the things you need to become the most independent and creative person you can, especially the children.”

Dann, a member of Church of Our Saviour for most of her life, pursues this goal with an annual budget of $400,000, half from the church, the rest from foundations.

“I thought it would be a small or part-time retirement job,” says the San Gabriel resident.

“It’s proved to be anything but. But it’s no great deprivation. I really love it.”

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This column tells the stories of the unsung heroes of Southern California, people of all ages and vocations and avocations, whose dedication as volunteers or on the job makes life better for the people they encounter. The column is published every other Monday. Reader suggestions are welcome and may be sent to the Local Hero Editor, View section, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles 90053.