A Story You Made Possible
One summer, the Valley’s heat nearly killed Stevie. She had fallen asleep on burning concrete with no shade and no water, and when the police...
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Before She Drove the Hope Coach, She Needed One
Because of your gifts, Case Managers like Andrea meet our neighbors right where they are with water, supplies, and hope.Andrea starts every morning with devotions...
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BY THE NUMBERS
What the Heat Gun Doesn’t Tell You
Every bottle of water in the Valley this summer started with you. Your gifts save lives.
A heat gun on Valley asphalt reads well into the triple digits. The number doesn’t tell you what it takes to keep someone off it.
Last year, our Street Outreach team of more than 50 people, working out of 38 Hope Coach vehicles, made 66,920 contacts on the streets. Every one of those contacts was a chance to hand someone a bottle of water, sit with them, listen, and ask what the next step might look like.
Reports show heat-related deaths in the Valley have fallen for two years running. That’s encouraging news, and your support keeps the Mission in the fight, helping our Street Outreach teams find neighbors in the heat and walk them toward safety.
Every one of those deaths is preventable. Every bottle of water, every contact, every Hope Tote hygiene kit, and every rescue is your gift answering that.
166° on the asphalt. The heat isn’t letting up, and neither are we. We’ll be out there today. Help us reach more neighbors.
A Story You Made Possible
One summer, the Valley’s heat nearly killed Stevie. She had fallen asleep on burning concrete with no shade and no water, and when the police found her, they couldn’t get her eyes to open.
“They thought I was on drugs,” she says. “I was just having a heat stroke.”
Stevie had been struggling for years. Addiction had pulled her under and cost her nearly everything: her home, her family’s trust, and time with the children she loved.
For Stevie, getting through a triple-digit afternoon was her main worry. She slept by day when it was safer and kept moving so the police wouldn’t have a reason to bother her. Water was never a given, and a day without it could pull her under fast.
“It was very lonely,” she says. “I didn’t feel like anybody cared. It was a daily battle to get through every day.”
By the time Stevie had her son, she had found sobriety and was determined to give him a safe life. The boy’s father, though, had grown verbally abusive, and Stevie wasn’t willing to wait and find out how far it would go. She got the two of them out, stayed with family for a few days, and came to the Mission.
At the Mission, Stevie and her son found the safety she had been looking for, thanks to you.
Walls came down, and a woman who had spent years being judged on the streets was met with dignity instead. She stepped into Ministry Training, which equips participants with practical experience in Christ-centered outreach, rescue, and recovery ministry, and soon graduated the program.
Now Stevie’s learning to listen, to support the women around her, and to counsel people who are right where she once was. She asked to be in this work. She wanted to give back after everything she had been given, and to walk with the women coming in the way others once walked with her.
Along the way, she has found her faith again, with more time in prayer and Scripture than she has had in years. Her son is with her every day. He folds his hands for prayer and lifts them up when the music plays at daycare.
Because of the Mission, she has never had to choose between keeping her son and keeping herself safe. The two of them get to stay together while she builds the life she wants for him.
You did this. You built room for a mother who has survived addiction, the streets, and cancer, and still refused to give up. None of this happens without you.
Asked what she would say to the people whose gifts make the Mission possible, Stevie says:
“You never know how much it can change a person’s day. A bottle of water might save someone from passing out. A ride, a meal, or even a moment of someone caring can carry them through. It matters.”
The bottle of water you sent out during a triple-digit afternoon is reaching the next mother walking through these doors with her child, the heat at her back. She and her son are safe tonight.
Because of you.
Partner Spotlight:
One Church. More Water on the Streets.
Your gifts go further when partners like CCV step up alongside them.
Last summer, Christ Church of the Valley (CCV) was getting ready to run a water-bottle drive for our Code:Red campaign. Then their Director of Missions, Mike Anderson, did the math.
Instead of running the water drive, CCV blessed the Mission with $25,000. At bulk pricing, that gift put far more water on the Valley’s hottest streets than a community drive could have.
The partnership between CCV and the Mission goes back many years. What’s changed lately is the depth: hands-on serving alongside the team, more church members serving on Phoenix Rescue Mission’s campuses, examples of faith made visible.
“The Bible tells us that faith without works is dead,” Mike says. “This is an opportunity to put faith into action.”
Partnerships like this one, paired with your gifts, are why Code:Red keeps reaching people before the heat does.
From Ken: Because of You
April 10th was a hard day in the Valley. That’s the day the heat took its first life of 2026. An elderly man, gone before summer even started.
The heat doesn’t get the last word here, and the bottle of water you provide is the proof. You won’t see what it does from where you sit, but it does something every single time. A bottle of water begins everything that follows: the first conversation, the start of trust, and the road that walks a person home.
“I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink” (Matthew 25:35, NIV). I’m convinced Jesus saw you doing exactly that this summer. Thank you for saving lives through your support.
God Bless,
Ken Brissa
Chief Executive Officer