New Volunteer jobs and opportunities have been posted to our Volunteer page for this summer. We are always in need of people to give of their time and their skills to help the people we serve. Be sure to check them out and contact us if you are interested in getting involved!
Union Rescue Mission owes a huge debt of gratitude to Bark Avenue, our local urban pet spa, for taking such good care of our homeless friends. URM had a very special little kitty that was in need of shelter, a good home and a bath. He came in with a homeless family that was not able to properly care for him. He had fleas and needed some immediate care and TLC.
Bark Avenue has been voted Best of Downtown for 3 years running — and they deserve it. They are very passionate about supporting our Central City community and when we asked them to help us with our little homeless kitty, they responded immediately and said they would love to help. Not only did they give him a nice little bath and flea treatment, but they also gave him some supplies to take to his new home.
If you haven’t checked them out for your own pets, we recommend you do. Your doggy or kitty will have the time of their life at the Bark Avenue Day Spaw while you are at work.
Thanks so much to all of our Bark Avenue friends.
P. S. Our little fluffy friend was too hard to resist and was adopted in the same day by a loving home.
Dear Friends,
It’s been a year since I was forced to write a frantic “Save Hope Gardens” letter. Much has happened since then and I want to personally thank you for your faithful, generous support of Union Rescue Mission and Hope Gardens Family Center! You are truly a blessing.
I’m writing today to give you an update on the life transforming work you make possible and ask you to remain steadfast in your commitment to help people experiencing homelessness.
With less than 30 days left in this fiscal year, we need your help to end strong! We must continue moving precious women and children from the dangers of Skid Row to the safety of Hope Gardens!
Just the other day I saw 17 year old Michelle, a beautiful young Italian girl staying at URM downtown. She had lost track of her mom, and connected with her by phone. I caught up with her just as she headed toward the door to walk two blocks through Skid Row to meet up with her mom and brother and sisters. I said, “Hold up, Michelle. Let me walk with you to make sure that you make it safely.” Michelle thanked me, but we desperately need to work together to deliver Michelle and other precious young ones here at URM to the safety of Hope Gardens!
We need to gather enough reserves, nearly $2 Million, to ensure that we will make it through the difficult summer months of July and August and into the early Fall and September, so that we can continue to step up to meet the unprecedented needs of precious people.
Despite nearly tripling the number of families housed, doubling the number of people housed, and doubling the number of meals served to our friends experiencing homelessness, we have decreased our expenses by nearly $3 Million from last year! The cost saving steps we have taken to date include:
These expense saving measures and our focus on Life Transformation have all of URM excited about our future, but we need your continued support!
Would you please today consider a special fiscal year end gift today to help us rescue more moms and kids from Skid Row and help secure the future of Union Rescue Mission and our Hope Gardens Family Center?
Your co-worker in Christ,
Andy Bales
If you have a great idea of something you would like to do for URM and our guests, give us a call! We would love to speak with you about your ideas. Contact Alex at 213-673-4860 or acornejo@urm.org.
Every Thursday night this summer, starting June 30th, we will show movies on our roof for the guests at URM! Help provide snacks, serve popcorn and drinks, and enjoy a night of fun with our guests of all ages!
If you are interested in joining us for a movie night, or have a group that would like to sponsor one of the nights please contact Alex Cornejo at acornejo@urm.org or 213-673-4860.
Monday-Friday, from 5-6pm you can come connect with our kids in the gym! Right now we have nearly 100 kids living at Union Rescue Mission. Get to know them over basketball, jumping rope or a game of freeze tag.
You can come individually or bring a group. If you are interested in offering something more ‘organized’ than just free time in the gym such as a basketball tournament, or an “Olympics Day”, give us a call – we would love to work with you in setting up something fun for our kids!
We are looking for someone to come in at least once a week to help us out with some filing and administrative work in our Human Resources department. If you would be willing to give up a few hours of your time (or more!) to help us we would greatly appreciate it!
If you are available and interested to help with administrative volunteering jobs, please contact Andy Olivas at aolivas@urm.org or 213-673-8414
Every day, we serve breakfast, lunch and dinner to many people—averaging 2,000 meals per day! We can’t do it without the help of faithful volunteers – we need a lot of help to prepare meals and serve them to our guests.
Our greatest need right now is volunteers to serve breakfast. If you can help, please contact Andy Olivas at aolivas@urm.org or 213-673-4814.