RESCUE MISSION OF SALT LAKE

The Rescue Mission's ultimate goal is to get homeless men, women and children off the streets and into sober, self-sufficient living. Within that larger goal in mind, our short-term goals are to 1) preserve homeless person's lives by providing food, clothing and shelter to prevent hunger, illness and death from living outdoors; 2) create relationships with homeless persons to gain trust so that longer-term solutions can be implemented; 3) teach sobriety and life skills; 4) connect homeless persons to healthy and supportive communities; 5) enable homeless persons to find long-term employment and save money; and 6) provide temporary transitional housing to formerly homeless persons who are learning to live in sobriety. The Rescue Mission also seeks to prevent homelessness by providing Family Food Boxes and clothing to low-income and struggling families so that their limited funds can be used to pay rent and utilities.

The Rescue Mission's goal is to get homeless men, women and children off the streets and into sober, self-sufficient living. Our Emergency Services program keeps homeless people alive and safe, but it also allows us to establish relationships with our homeless neighbors, so that they trust our intentions enough to ask for longer-lasting help. This longer-lasting help is our year-long Addiction Recovery program, which combines life skills classes, one-on-one counseling and work therapy to help homeless men and women understand why they use alcohol and drugs, find healthier alternatives to dealing with physical or emotional pain, and learn skills to help them obtain and keep employment, manage finances, set relationship boundaries, maintain a healthy lifestyle, seek out supportive communities and generally adapt to living in society. As a last step to self-sufficiency, we offer a Transitional Housing program to men and women who are ready for more independence, but still struggle with money management, minimum wage jobs, low education and letting go of unhealthy relationships. Our transitional housing is intended to support recovery program graduates for 1-2 years with low rent, sober living requirements and a connection to other individuals in recovery.

The Rescue Mission of Salt Lake owns four facilities for providing services to homeless men and women.

Our main facility at 463 South 400 West contains a commercial kitchen to provide three daily meals and sack lunches to the homeless of Salt Lake City, a food pantry to provide Family Food Boxes, a dormitory for sheltering homeless men, restrooms and showers for homeless men, a separate living area for men in the New Life recovery program (including separate bedrooms and bathrooms), a room for storing donated clothing, a chapel (also used for classes and AA meetings), a room for storing personal possessions and office space. This facility houses the offices of six counselors, two of whom manage the facility overnight, and can sleep up to 150 men every night.

Our Women's Center at 1165 S State Street is a family-style recovery home that can sleep up to 14 women and women with children. There is a dormitory, private bedrooms, several bathrooms, a kitchen, a living space in which classes are conducted and a yard with a playground for children. This facility also contains offices for two counselors and an adjacent apartment for a married couple that oversees the Women's Center at night and over the weekends.

Our transitional homes for men (the Terri Timmerman Freedom House) at 666 S Glendale Street contains four bedrooms and two bathrooms and for women (Willowood) 818 E Willowood Ave contains 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms for men and women who have completed the recovery program, but still want the accountability of a sober-living facility. Freedom House's capacity is six men, and Willowood's capacity is 4 women, which includes a staff member in charge of overseeing the property.

We have provided emergency homeless services and a free addiction recovery program for over 44 years, expanding our services to include an addiction recovery program for women and transitional housing for men. We work with many state agencies to provide an incarceration diversion program, giving offenders with drug-related charges the option of completing their recovery with a service provider like us. Approximately 25% of our clients come from one of these partner agencies, saving Salt Lake County over $310,000 per year.

Here are some of our goals for the future :

1. In the Rescue Mission's efforts to meet the needs of hurting people and the greater community, we are positioning the Rescue Mission to expand facilities and services. We would like to increase the total number of men we can serve per night from 150 to 250, offering 150-200 emergency shelter beds and 50-100 inpatient recovery program beds. We would like to increase the total number of women and women with children we can serve per night from 14 to at least 100, offering 50-100 emergency beds and 25-50 inpatient recovery program beds.

2. The Rescue Mission would like to develop a social enterprise program that trains and employs participants in the recovery program. This would give our clients vital work experience and a source of income while diversifying the Rescue Mission's revenue sources, reinvesting any profit back into the recovery program.

3. The Rescue Mission is seeking ways to expand our services to communities outside of Salt Lake City in order to prevent people experiencing homelessness from relocating to Salt Lake City and allowing them to get help as close to home as possible.

4. The Rescue Mission would like to create an outreach team of counselors who meet with people experiencing homelessness on the street, assess their needs and encourage them to use our free services. If an offer of shelter is declined, they hand out supplies such as blankets, food and beverages.