Month: February 2009

A Different Kind of Blog

I am in my office, preparing to go on Union Rescue Mission’s yearly 2 day Senior Leadership Planning retreat. Normally a very exciting time, a chance to get away, cast a wonderful vision, bond as a team, enjoy a few meals out together. This year is very different, my wife and I are providing the venue, in order to be frugal, I am cooking most of the meals(we have a brave group), and our strategic sessions will be more about surviving this deep recession than casting a powerful vision.

I have to admit I am leaving with a lot of concern, and I say concern because many believe worry is a sin, and I don’t want to sin, but frankly I am worried. Our staff has responded well to wage freezes, a hiring freeze, stopping the employer match to their 401K’s, and even the knowledge that as of March 1st, our wages will be cut 5% across the organization, with some of us possibly reducing our wages by 10%. We’ve reduced costs in our warehouse by 66%, halted renovation and construction projects, and have tried to reduce costs in nearly every area, but with the economic news and recent trends in donations, I am afraid that we have not done enough. That, possibly not enough can be done.

Like many of our friends who have come to us homeless, this was not my plan. When I came to URM it was to be the pinnacle of my career of serving people who are struggling. I did not plan on the greatest economic disaster since the Great Depression happening on my watch!

Yesterday, I must admit, I was overwhelmed! Today, after a prayerful night, I know that we need to continue to step up to meet the needs of people coming to us. The number of families is up nearly 400% and climbing, our Chapel is beginning to fill with an overflow of desperate women and their children. They need us! People coming into our Mission looking for a meal is up nearly 40%, 900 a day! Somehow the Lord is providing because for the first time in our history we served 1 Million meals in 12 months with food purchases of only $300,000, a reminder of what Jesus can do with fishes and loaves and willing hearts.

I also realized last night in a prayerful night that I need to go directly to heads of Foundations and personally tell them our dilemma, and plead for help, as that is all I can do and must do.

I also must ask you personally for your help. I am troubled going to the well one more time, but for the sake of our guests, and the sake of Union Rescue Mission and Hope Gardens Family Center I must. Your giving in December was incredible! We were blessed in so many ways we could not have imagined, but that generosity and the growing bad news must have taken their toll because January’s giving was less than half what we projected, and February’s giving has decreased even more. We at Union Rescue Mission are facing events that I can’t even imagine; widespread layoffs, loss of services, closing of facilities, if this trend continues. The only power I have is to pray to our Lord, and to ask you personally to give what you can. I’d actually like to meet with you personally and talk to you if you would have time to meet with me and ask me questions to understand our circumstance. Please consider giving what you can today so that we can continue together to meet the needs of families with children losing their homes, hungry people needing a meal and an encouraging word. Please feel free to call me at 626-260-4761 or email me at abales@urm.org to schedule and opportunity to meet face to face. Thank you, for taking time to listen.

Receiving Coordinator

Responsible for the accurate and efficient receiving and recording of all purchased merchandise and GIK donations, and distribution and/or short/long-term storage of same. This person will: Prepare and maintain daily logs of incoming product. Inventory product received against manifests, and resolve any discrepancies. Deliver items and/or coordinate delivery with warehouse. Data input of delivery information using the Platinum computer system. Inventory GIK donations against Donation Receipt, and resolve any discrepancies. Must be able to lift 50lbs and complete forklift operations. Must have forklift certification or able to obtain within 60 Days of employment. High School diploma required plus 2+ years progressively responsible, related experience, preferably non-profit accounting experience. Able to analyze complex data and develop innovative solutions; excellent planning, organizing, written, verbal and PC skills, particularly Excel and Word. Knowledge of Win PC Pay and ADP payroll systems preferred.

Proposed state budget adds another layer of tax – Daily News of Los Angeles

Sue Doyle and Troy Anderson, Staff Writers for the Daily News, interview Union Rescue Mission’s CEO Andy Bales about the potential impact of the new state budget.

The California Budget Project estimated 234,400 children statewide could be dropped from the welfare rolls, including 75,380 in Los Angeles County. Additionally, in- home care services for 81,000 Californians, including 34,290 in the county, could be eliminated.

Andy Bales, president of the Union Rescue Mission, said the possibility that tens of thousands of children could be cut from the welfare rolls would only exacerbate the rapidly growing homeless problem in the county.

“We’re already facing a tsunami of homeless families,” Bales said.

“Our fourth floor is completely full of homeless families and we have begun to fill up our chapel with families sleeping in pup tent-like units.”

Click Here to read the article.

CEO Andy Bales interviewed by CNN for AC360

Dave Schechter, CNN Senior National Editor, interviewed Union Rescue Mission’s CEO Andy Bales about the work being done by the mission to assist the increasing number of individuals who are homeless.

Most of the families living at the Los Angeles shelter are homeless for the first time in their lives. They’re coming from everywhere around Southern California, an epicenter of the nation’s mortgage meltdown and foreclosure crisis.

“These are not people who have been in the cycle of poverty,” Bales tells me. They are working people who have lost jobs, who juggled expenses for food, utilities, clothing, health care and housing until they no longer could keep a roof over their heads.

As a result, the number families at the shelter is up 300 percent in a year and the number of individuals up 25 percent. The number of meals served is up 40 percent — to more than 1 million in a year.

Click here to read the article.

Weathering the Storm

It is hard for me to describe how proud I am of the URM team and the honor I feel in working alongside them. This year we have faced overwhelming odds. Our numbers of single guests are up significantly, at least 25%. Our number of meals served has grown from around 750,000 last year to an incredible number of more than 1,000,000 meals for the 1st time in URM 118 year history! We now have 59 families with 111 children at our downtown URM facility, with another 32 families and 62 children at URM’s Hope Gardens Family Center in Sylmar. We have already had an astounding 113 families in the first two months of our Winter Shelter Program compared to 35 families in the entire 3 ½ months of last year’s Winter Shelter Season. Yet our staff is not only holding up, but exceeding the need of people who are coming through our doors, desperate for help. Our staff has even adjusted to the new challenge of housing families in EDAR units (see http://EDAR.org) in our chapel, and we are expecting many more families to do so.

I am honored because our staff is doing this with less resources, less food donations, and during a time when the economy has forced us to freeze hiring, freeze wage increases and suspend the employer matching portion of their 401-K retirement plans. I’ve also had to alert them to a potential 5% pay cut across the board, and still they carry on with joy. Challenged to become a Hero of Hope this morning in our weekly Chapel service, more than a dozen employees immediately marched to the Human Resources office and signed up to have a donation automatically given to the Mission from their paychecks every payday in the future. All this, despite the possible impending wage cuts. I have to tell you, that I am amazed!

Partly amazed because I see many National, State, County, and City officials stunned, stymied, almost paralyzed by the gravity of the emergency situation as we face a Tsunami of families facing homelessness. I am thankful for URM and agencies and ministries stepping up to meet the need, and I am honored to be part of this team.

Rescue mission seeks aid – The Burbank Leader

Tom Risen of The Burbank Leader writes about Union Rescue Mission’s appeal for increased winter shelter aid.

“We’ve been speaking out to public officials, but I don’t think anybody is quite ready to see the gravity of this,” said Andy Bales, chief executive of the Union Rescue Mission, which runs a number of shelters in the Greater Los Angeles area. “We need to take emergency steps for the number of people that are going to be coming our way because of foreclosures and job loss.

“This is alarming, and I’ve been working with the homeless for 23 years. It’s getting a little Depression-like.”

This is the second year URM has run the winter shelter in Burbank, which will close on March 15.  

Click here to read the article.

3rd Annual URM Spring Golf Classic

You are invited to participate in the Union Rescue Mission’s 3rd Annual Spring Golf Classic benefiting URM and Door of Hope. Once again, the day will be filled with excitement, fun contests, prizes, great food, and awesome people.

Golfers will compete on Monday, March 2, 2009, at the beautiful Mountain Gate Country Club. The tournament format will be a shamble. The top three finishing teams will win TaylorMade irons.

Whether you’ve been a longtime friend of Union Rescue Mission and/or Door of Hope, or this is your initial engagement, you’re sure to have a great time! Remember, the support you lend to our cause is not measured in dollars and cents, but in transformed lives.

Click here to register now!

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