Listening First
Being unheard as a child taught him that attention is the first form of care.
Volunteer Staff Team
About Our Founder
Mitchell Austin founded Chosen Vessels Fostering Chosen Pathways Inc out of a life spent listening to people others overlooked. This is the story of the experiences and values that shaped our mission.
I am not what has happened to me. I am who I choose to become.
Give a man a fish, he eats for a day; teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime.
Embracing the heart strengthens the soul.
In his own journey
His Story
Early years
A loss that shaped a listener
Mitchell Austin was five years old, a few months from starting kindergarten, when his mother died — twelve days after giving birth. As the middle child of five, he learned early what it feels like to be overlooked: present in the room, but not always heard. That experience never hardened him. Instead, it became the root of a lifelong conviction that every person deserves to be included, and every person deserves to be listened to closely.
Growing up
Raised on old-fashioned values
He was raised by a strict, old-fashioned grandmother who held firmly to traditional values, and much of his childhood was spent in the company of adults far older than he was. Mitchell began working at the age of seven, cutting grass. As a teenager he worked through the summer months, kept the house clean, learned to cook and helped others. He purchased his own school clothes and personal essentials, and shared his earnings with his grandmother. He loved going to church and rode the church bus every Sunday. Listening more than he spoke, he developed a maturity and perspective well ahead of his years.
A family of service
Military influence and respect
His father was a veteran who served in two wars. Because his father was in the military, an additional influence took shape that was deeply significant for a child who had also lost his mother. Mitchell spent summer months and some holidays living on military installations, where he experienced a world of diversity and culture. That exposure — and that respect for service — is a direct reason his work has always made room for veterans: men and women whose sacrifice deserves practical, dignified support long after the uniform comes off.
Five decades of care and serving
Helping and serving became a habit, then a calling
From a young age he helped care for the children coming up behind him, and just as naturally he assisted the adults ahead of him. Serving seniors — meeting daily needs, offering companionship, standing with their companion care providers — became a passion that has never faded. Across close to fifty years of companion care and serving, he has trained, coached and mentored people from small children through fully grown adults, and walked alongside veterans and seniors as well. In his twenties Mitchell became a state licensed barber and a state licensed instructor, trained by an older gentleman who owned the school; Mr. and Mrs. Louis (Mary) C. Brown of Brown's Barber College adopted him as their Godson. Still anchored in old-fashioned values and taught to serve his community, Mitchell provided haircuts to the unhoused, helped feed the less fortunate, and offered haircuts to people in hospitals and nursing facilities. Mitchell also serviced the deceased from time to time — all in keeping with a life of companion care and service to others. Mitchell has provided consulting services as well, and as a former real estate appraiser, home inspector and mold inspector, he always took the time to inform and educate his clients well beyond the job description. He has also offered project manager services for small businesses, independent contractors and learning institutions. He has also trained, coached and mentored many veterans: some old enough to be his parents, and others his age or younger.
Today
Personal experience becoming purposeful service
The pathways of Chosen Vessels Fostering Chosen Pathways were not designed from a distance. They grew out of experiences Mitchell personally lived through — loss, being unheard, learning to listen, carrying responsibility for others, and discovering that resilience is something a community builds together. That is why this organization exists: so that individuals, families and neighbors facing hardship encounter someone who genuinely hears them and helps them find a pathway forward. Along the way he has also trained retirees who were finally fulfilling one of their long-held dreams or desires.
What He Carries into this mission
Inclusion
No one should be left out of the conversation, the room, or the opportunity.
Companion Care & Serving
Close to fifty years of companion care and serving others — younger, older, and everyone between.
Honoring Service VET-ROES
Experiencing the military lifestyle as a child and as a teenager, under an active duty soldier who served more than three decades and later as a veteran. Mitchell began training, coaching and mentoring veterans at an early age — many of them old enough to be his parents — and earned him the respect of his elders while still young.
Walk this pathway with us
The story continues through the people who choose to serve alongside us — as volunteers, partners, sponsors and neighbors.