Jennifer Johnson taught second graders in Fort Wayne Community Schools for 15 years before leaving this year to work with a nonprofit, but she'll still be helping children.

Johnson's management role with The Cooper House Allen County will bring her face-to-face with some of the city's most vulnerable.

The Cooper House has rented a duplex in the 3300 block of Kendale Drive to provide a temporary safe space for children who are displaced from what they know as home due to emergency removals the state's Department of Children Services initiates.

Johnson sees her new job as a calling, even though she admits to missing the classroom teaching she's done for years, initially at Bloomingdale and then Croninger elementary schools.

"I believe thriving families equal a thriving community," Johnso

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