Aaron and Janell Lane felt the call and finally decided to listen.

As a husband and wife who worked full-time in various sectors of corporate America, they continually felt the pull to work together and do something that would better their community.

They both grew up in southeast Fort Wayne and have been married for 11 years.

“We were very passionate about coming back home after we left college. We ventured out, lived a little bit, and tried to see what was out there for us,” Aaron said. “We feel like God intentionally called us back here to Fort Wayne to serve and uplift and empower our community.”

They co-founded Courageous Healing in 2014 as a for-profit organization. However, it was just something they were doing on the side.

It became a non-profit in 2019, but the turning point for them turning their project into a full-blown operation was the pandemic, the death of George Floyd, and the civil unrest that followed.

During that time, Aaron and Janell were on the phone every day. Janell would be helping individuals process the collective trauma of COVID, while Aaron would be talking with executive directors and CEOs about putting out diversity statements or figuring out ways to help their minority employees.

“With that, Courageous Healing became something that we no longer could do on the side. It fully enveloped us, and then became something that pursued us,” Aaron said.

The couple didn’t set out to be entrepreneurs. They saw a problem and used their skill sets to come together to fix it.

“I think when we see something, an issue that exists in front of us, we feel responsible to do something,” Janell said. “I think that’s kind of how this was birthed. It was a frustration of just watching something needing to be done and knowing how it needed to be done and being maybe a little bit disappointed with the ways that we were seeing it be handled.”

Courageous Healing opened its doors to its facility on Anthony Boulevard in May 2021 and has grown exponentially.

While in the interview Janell pulled up a report that she ran a few days prior and read the numbers aloud to Aaron for the first time. It said that since Courageous Healing opened their building four years ago, they had served nearly 1,000 individuals in 1-on-1 sessions with an average of 8.5 visits per client. That doesn’t include family services, group sessions, or speaking engagements.

Aaron was stunned hearing those numbers for the first time.

“A lot of the sentiment is ‘I love the atmosphere. I love coming here. I feel seen when I’m here, not just by my therapist, but by the front office staff.’ That’s important to us,” Janell said.

Eighty-five percent of Courageous Healing’s clients are minorities, but they serve everyone with a 90 percent retention rate of people who come back after their second appointment.

Nearly four years in, they have a total of 12 therapists, who are of color and are a mix of men and women, including bilingual therapists. Additionally, they have licensed social workers and licensed mental health counselors, two clinical supervisors, and a support team of individuals who make sure the client experience is up to their standard. They also have worked with many outside contractors, many of which are minorities.

“It wasn’t like we discriminate against any other vendors, but we know so many people from the community who have been waiting for opportunities to have business contracts,” Janell said. “And for us, we’re not going to bypass people we know who do quality work and maybe don’t have access to some of the network or relationships for large companies and organizations.”

Courageous Healing is a success, not only because it has grown to a point where they are in talks of expansion. It’s a success because it exists.

“I think success for us is when we walk into the building every day,” Aaron said.

The goals were small at first.

“Is it possible to provide these services to people in a way that they can afford it? If we can do that, that’s a win,” Janell said.

Every day they step out of their offices and look at this thing that is working. Whether it’s a positive session that just finished or an engaging conversation happening on the side, those are the winning moments.

There is no doubt Courageous Healing has answered the call.

Editor Note: This is the first part of a two-part series on Courageous Healing. Stay tuned to the NEI Blog for part two.