New Annual Report – The Journey Home

Our new Annual Report reveals the incredible life change that happens through compassionate support of friends like you.

Dozens of men and women now once suffering from homelessness and addiction now live joy-filled lives because of our New Life Recovery Ministry at the Mission. Their “journey home” is not complete, but they now are on a better path.

Download a PDF of “The Journey Home” and read the stories. Be encouraged. Be blessed. Know that this happens only because God works through friends like you to allow us to touch lives with His love and grace.

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Francis’ Story of Hope

Francis needed help finding housing. The Portland Rescue Mission LINK program helped him stop the downward spiral to homelessness and its challenges.

Francis’ Story of Hope on YouTube

Through our LINK program, homeless men who are sober and drug-free can have an extended stay at our Burnside Shelter while they look for work and save money.

In exchange, they work several hours a week alongside our staff to help keep our facilities and ministries working smoothly.

The added structure, accountability and encouragement LINK participants receive has proven to be a highly effective catalyst in moving them forward toward their goal of a healthy life.

Your support ends addiction and homelessness. Please donate online or call 503-MISSION (647-7466).

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NEA Helps Provide Meals For Portland Homeless

Portland Rescue Mission recently received a gracious invitation to partner with the National Education Association (NEA) at the annual NEA Conference on Higher Education held in Portland this year.

Keeping with the conference theme of “Common Good”, organizers held a silent auction with all proceeds given to Portland Rescue Mission — enough to provide over 400 meals to hurting people in need.

More important than the financial donation is the story of healing that brought together two unlikely groups. We asked the auction organizer why Portland Rescue Mission was chosen as the beneficiary.

The young woman shared how her brother moved to Portland several years ago. He struggled with alcoholism and quickly became desperate for help. Portland Rescue Mission provided hot meals and other care that helped him start a new path in life. Today, he’s sober, employed and happily married.

We’re grateful to the NEA for helping us serve the Portland community and give hope to more hurting people in need.

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Eagle Scout Collects 500 Coats for Homeless

Winter is hard on the many men, women and children who live on the streets here in Portland. Portland Rescue Mission supplies many of the needs that homeless people are not able to provide for themselves. We are in constant need of coats, hats, socks and gloves to keep the cold and rain at bay. That is why we are grateful for people like Colin Cathey, a high school student at Pacific Crest Community School.

For his Eagle Scout project, Colin chose to run a coat drive for Portland Rescue Mission. “The idea of a coat drive came up and at first I was hesitant because there wouldn’t be permanent final product,” says Colin. “But then I realized that wasn’t so important. What’s really important is the effect the project has on the community and how many people will benefit from it. I ended up choosing the coat drive because, while I would have no final product to show off, it was something that could truly make a difference to a great number of people.”

With the help of his family and a group of volunteers, including Boy Scouts from his troop and fellow students from his school, Colin went door-to-door with bags and fliers asking people to donate their gently-used coats to help homeless men, women and children here in Portland.

“Our goal was to collect 200 items… and we ended up collecting five hundred, over double our goal. Seeing how much people were willing to give was incredible, and seeing all that clothing piled up gave me one of the greatest feelings I’ve ever had. This coat drive is truly my favorite Scouting memory and I would love to do another one in the future.”

See how you can make a difference and meet a need at: http://www.portlandrescuemission.org/get-involved/donate-food-clothing/.

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Faces of Addiction

Vanessa, thirty-five, had three children with an abusive husband. She “lost her mind, started doing heroin,” after losing the children, who were taken away and given to her mother. The drugs led to homelessness and prostitution. She grew up on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, but now spends her time in Hunts Point, “trying to survive everyday. Just doing whatever it takes.”
Photo by Chris Arnade

From Yahoo News:

Photographer Chris Arnade has been following the stories of addicts in Hunts Point neighborhood, the poorest in all of New York City, for several years. Of this compelling documentary project, he says, “What I am hoping to do, by allowing my subjects to share their dreams and burdens with the viewer and by photographing them with respect, is to show that everyone, regardless of their station in life, is as valid as anyone else.”

Addiction hurts. The “Faces of Addiction” photos and quotes by Chris Arnade reveal the heartache and despair in the daily life of men and women held captive by drugs.

“I have already destroyed myself. I can’t walk by a corner with a pocket of money and not buy dope.” – Erik

“I am sick of this life. Sick of jamming needles into myself, sick of not having a home, sick of all my money going to dope, sick of waking up and needing drugs. I just want a normal life. I want to have a home and watch movies.” – Michael

“At the beginning, when you first start shooting up, you lie to yourself, but over time you can’t. Would I like to change? Sure, but I am afraid its part of who I am.” – Joette

“I’m like a walking corpse. I just want it to end already. I don’t have dreams no more.” – J Lo

In our New Life Recovery Program, courageous men and women heal from the lies and deep-seated pain behind their addiction. They build new identities grounded in God’s truth and purpose for their lives. They find a way back home.

Thanks to generous public support, we’re able to offer all of our services for free.

To get help with addiction, get phone numbers and more information on our website: http://www.portlandrescuemission.org/what-we-do/get-help/

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