Orlando Magazine, 50 Most Powerful People, July 2019

Philanthropy & Community Voices

JOEL HUNTER, Faith Community Organizer, Founder and Chairman of Community Resource Network - "In the two years since Hunter founded the nonprofit Community Resource Network, more than 250 civic groups and faith organizations have joined and 600 volunteers have been trained to better help homeless and needy families. The longtime pastor at Northland Church, who left his post in 2017, also served as a spiritual adviser to President Barack Obama and was board chairman of the Central Florida Commission on Homelessness from 2016 to 2018. “Poverty and homelessness is not simply due to a lack of resources. It is ultimately due to lack of relationships,” he says. Hunter served on Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings’ transition team and is a member of the program and education committee for the onePULSE Foundation. In addition, he is the top liaison for Central Florida faith communities on Project Opioid; a member of Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma’s statewide task Force on the opioid crisis; and chairman of the Faith Alliance Against Human Trafficking. He also founded Simple.Help, a free movement providing residents with easy steps to make a difference in their communities."