GOVERNOR BREWER JOINS WITH THE PHOENIX RESCUE MISSION TO CELEBRATE
ITS 60 YEARS OF PROVIDING HOPE TO THE HOMELESS

November is National Homeless Month so it was the perfect time to recognize the Phoenix Rescue Mission for 60 years of service to the homeless and working poor in the Greater Phoenix area.

Jerry Sandvig, President Emeritus; Governor Jan Brewer and Reverand Jay A. Cory cut the Birthday cake.

This is an exciting time for the Phoenix Rescue Mission. This year, we celebrate our 60 year anniversary in the business of transforming lives. 60 years of serving people and changing the lives of the hungry and homeless.  We are proud to honor that history while also celebrating 60 more years.

On November 13, 2012, Governor Jan Brewer honored the Mission’s many years of service to the community with a proclaimation declaring it officially Phoenix Rescue Mission Day.  So touched by her support of the Mission and her committment to volunteerism, we had a little surprise in store for her. 

Ethan Jewell presents the Governor with a special, commerative blanket.

Ethan Jewell, a 9-year-old student who attends Barbara Robey Elementary School in Litchfield Park, Ariz., presented the Governor with a special embroidered blanket to commemorate the event. Ethan has held a blanket drive  for the Mission the past two years resulting in 700 blankets.  Ethan is again holding a drive. For more on the Governor’s visit and Ethan, see the article in the West Valley View.

 Let me tell you a bit about our history.  The Phoenix Rescue Mission was started in 1952 by six local business men who noticed a large number of drifters by the railroad tracks in downtown Phoenix. The term homeless had yet to be coined. They also saw migrants workers sleeping in fields  with little to eat. They were inspired to take the living gospel to the city and feed the hungry.   The need was so great, that soon Phoenix Gospel Rescue Mission was born. The founders chipped in and bought a house  -  it was in the exact location where Chase Field Stands today.

In 1952, they served 40 meals a day and held a nightly chapel service.

10 years later the mission had expanded services to include overnight shelter and had an annual budget of $4,000.  In the 1970’s, a drug and alcohol recovery program was added and served many men returning from the Vietnam War.  In the 1980’s when the unemployment rate hit 12 percent here in Arizona, the Mission answered by forming the “Dial-A-Worker” program for the homeless and those in a desperate economic situation.  This program was recognized with a letter of commendation from President Ronald Reagan.

Ten short year ago, the Mission had 8 staff members who ran the 90 bed shelter, served about 150 meals a day and provided showers and clothing to those in need. The nightly worship services continued, and different churches shared God’s love with those staying at the Mission. We enjoyed church and community volunteers much like they did in 1952.

Then in 2003 the Mission took a leap of faith. Tired of watching women with children walk out the doors on to the streets after the nightly meal, mission leadership conceived the Changing Lives Center for women and children. It would be a sanctuary for women who were homeless or at-risk of homelessness due to their life-controling addictions. Additionally, services would be offered to their children and the family unit would be preserved. 

Today we have 60 staff members and a 9 million dollar budget. The Changing Lives Center is celebrating one year of service to women and children. This 150 bed facility is a stones throw from the  Capitol,  and will allow Phoenix Rescue Mission to meet the changing face of homelessness in Arizona.

We’ ve expanded the men’s recovery program over the years to help more men, giving those in the emergency shelter a pathway to recovery.  Our men’s programs offer 150 beds in total and are solution-minded, designed to end homelessness for each person enrolled.

These are exciting moments in the history of the Mission.  But we have plenty more in store. We just finished our stragetic plan and in the next five years would like to increase our capacity to 700 beds. But more important than the numbers are the countless lives that have been changed because the founding members of the Phoenix Rescue Mission dared to make a difference. It takes an awful lot of courage to go where you are unwanted and speak to the unloved.  But they did what was difficult, they laid the ground work so we could continue serving the least, lost and last today.  

To another 60 years,

Reverand Jay A. Cory
President and CEO