Neighbor to Neighbor Guardians — Our Story
Aging in place shouldn't depend on who you have.
There's a moment that comes for almost every family: the porch step loosens. The gutters overflow. The yard gets away from you. The handrail wobbles. None of it seems urgent — until the day it's the reason someone can no longer stay in the home they've loved for forty years.
For many seniors, the difference between staying and leaving isn't health. It's a ladder no one should be climbing, a repair no one can afford, and a phone with no one to call.
Neighbor to Neighbor Guardians exists to be that call.
We provide free home and yard repairs and maintenance for low-income seniors — the practical, physical work that keeps a house safe, dignified, and livable. Loose railings and unsteady steps. Leaky faucets and failing fixtures. Overgrown yards and clogged gutters. Small fixes, done well, that add up to something much larger: another season, another year, another chapter at home.
Because home is not just an address. It's the kitchen where the family gathered. The window with the right light. The neighborhood where people know your name. Leaving it should never be the price of a repair you can't reach or can't afford.
Founded on gratitude
Neighbor to Neighbor Guardians was founded by brothers Dr. Shawn Haywood and Shannon Parisot. Caring for their own mother showed them how much steadiness a family can provide — and how many seniors face those same years without anyone to lean on. That gratitude became an obligation, and the obligation became this work.
We believe growing older should not mean giving up your independence, your safety, or your home. And we believe that in a good neighborhood, no one handles it alone.
Every senior deserves a guardian. Be one who loves big.
Volunteer. Refer a neighbor. Give what you can.
Shannon Parisot — Co-Founder
Development, Fundraising & Operations
Shannon Parisot has been lending a hand his whole life. Long before there was a nonprofit to name it, he was the one who showed up — with a truck, a toolbox, and the patience to do the job right.
He is always looking for a way to serve, and he doesn't wait to be asked. He'll pick up a stray and stay with it until it has a home. He'll load the groceries for a mom with her hands full and a toddler on her hip. He'll hold the door, carry the heavy end, and stay until the job is finished. Nothing is too small to be worth doing, and no one is a stranger for long.
As owner of The Brevard Handyman, he's spent his career fixing what's broken and steadying what's worn — and he brings that same craftsmanship, and that same readiness, to every senior's home Neighbor to Neighbor Guardians serves.
He is Dr. Shawn Haywood's big brother, and he was born for this work.
Dr. Shawn Haywood —
Co-Founder & Executive Director
Dr. Shawn Haywood's calling is simple: to love and to serve.
That calling shows up at home, where her mother lives in the family's lower level apartment which Shannon built out and the work of caring for her is woven into ordinary days. It shows up in her business, Living for Love, where he walks alongside couples rebuilding trust and healing betrayal after infidelity — sitting with people in the hardest stretch of their story and helping them find their way back to each other.
She is the author of Living for Love and speaks widely on love in all its forms: love within a family, love as a spiritual connection, and the hard, hopeful work of repairing love between couples.
And it shows up here, too — in the recognition that the steadiness her own family is able to give is exactly what so many seniors are living without.
Neighbor to Neighbor Guardians is that same calling.
Leah Rubio — Operations Manager
Every organization that runs well has someone like Leah Rubio behind it.
Leah is the one who sees the tangle and quietly turns it into a system — organizing what's scattered, building the process that makes the next hundred times easier, and keeping the details from falling through. She has worked alongside Living for Love for years, and in that time she has made Shawn's work life seamless: the calendar handled, the follow-through covered, the load lifted before she has to ask.
She is a giver by nature. A devoted wife and mother, she brings the same care to her work that she brings to her family — always ready to step in, always looking for the way to make things easier for the people around her.
Neighbor to Neighbor Guardians runs on that same steadiness. Leah keeps the wheels turning so the help gets where it's needed.
Emily
Stacey
Chris