Paris and Nicky Hilton have teamed up with West Third Street boutique House of Petro Zillia to benefit Union Rescue Mission! Thursday, December 17th, from 7pm-10pm, the sisters will be hosting the shopping extravaganza; proceeds of all sales will be donated to URM.
Thank you to Paris and Nicky Hilton, who continue to support URM, and to House of Petro Zillia for taking part in this great event!
The fourth annual Project Homeless Connect Day- Downtown LA will be held on Thursday, December 10th. The event will be held on 6th street, between Wall and San Pedro, and will run from about 10:00 am until 2:00pm.
Project Homeless Connect is part of a national initiative designed to bring together service providers, agencies, and organizations to provide housing, hospitality, information, health-care and other services for our nation’s homeless population. Los Angeles County, along with Santa Monica, Long Beach, Pasadena, Downtown LA, South Los Angeles, and the East San Gabriel Valley will each be hosting an event to bring awareness and connect those experiencing homelessness to much needed services. The goal is to provide area homeless and working poor access to the assistance they need to become self-sufficient and to ultimately obtain affordable housing.
Some of the day’s activities will include:
Project Homeless Connect Day will:
Get Involved and Help Make a Difference
Project Homeless Connect Day is a great opportunity for you and your organization to get involved with doing your part in trying to reduce the County’s homeless population. There are several ways to be a part of this special event.
If you are interested in getting involved in any way, or would like more information, please contact Sara Farnsworth at (213) 316-2752 or via email at projecthomelessconnect@urm.org.
Mark Horvath, known to many as @hardlynormal on Twitter, has been busy helping with the annual Winter Shelters Program. He says, “I get a warm and fuzzy feeling knowing I am part of a team that will provide a safe place, hot shower and warm meal for the next 3 months. But so very sad knowing most spent the last year living outside homeless…”.
Want to see what the winter shelters are really like? Check out Mark interviewing Andy just before the shelter opened on Tuesday night.
Yesterday, December 1st, was the opening day of the annual Winter Shelter Program. EIMAGO, a subsidiary of Union Rescue Mission, operates 4 of the 14 shelter sites administered by the Los Angeles Housing Services Authority. This termporary program runs in LA County from December 1st – March 15th each year. As the weather grows colder, it is a blessing for many to be able to sleep in a warm bed at a winter shelter!
The services offered include overnight shelter, meals, showers, access to the health, mental health, dental & legal aid clinics; in addition to recovery programs, education assessment, job training and personal and/or career development. Each Winter Shelter Program guest will have an opportunity to transition into longer-term programs that will assist them in their efforts to gain permanent housing and self-sufficiency.
As Andy Bales said, “The purpose isn’t just to welcome them for the night or the winter season…it’s to connect people to services so that they are no longer on the streets. We do have a plan for the day that we don’t have one precious human being on the streets. That’s why we do this.”
To hear about the impact of the Winter Shelters, click here to watch John’s story or click here to read about this years’ Glendale Shelter.
For more information on how the Winter Shelter Program is run, check out the LAHSA website.
As we begin to count down the final days of 2009, please take a moment to watch this quick update on all that’s happening at Union Rescue Mission.
Blessings,
Thank you again, Blessings
Available for viewing or download is the November edition of The Mission.
To sign-up to receive The Mission, Click Here.
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The Daily Grill came down to URM on Wednesday to serve up lunch for many homeless Veterans. The Veterans sat at a special table, and were served a delicious meal of meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, mixed green salad, penne pasta with rock shrimp, and cobbler, which was topped off with ice cream by children at URM!
The Daily Grill also announced that they will be donating a portion of all proceeds from cobbler sales throughout the rest of 2009 to the Union Rescue Mission! Thank you so much to the Daily Grill for your generosity, and for all the veterans who so selflessly served our country!
Next week we are launching our new website! We want to make sure it’s the best it can be, and we need your help. Could you take just a moment and answer our poll? Thanks so much!
“The King has one more move – God has plans for you!”
This was the message that our Men’s Christian Life Discipleship Program graduates were encouraged by as they celebrated graduation on Sunday, November 1st. Albert Tate, Intergenerational Pastor of Lake Avenue Church, spoke to 30 graduates and a full Chapel (it was standing room only!). He spoke about David, who was considered small and unimportant to most, but not to God. God had a plan for his life, just like he has a plan for each and every one of us.
He also told a story about two friends visiting a museum, one a teacher and the other a professional chess player. They encountered a painting of a chess board and a few chess pieces, titled “Check Mate”, which the teacher was rather uninterested in. He went about the museum, looking at the other pieces until finally it was nearly closing time. He went back to his friend, and found him still studying the chess painting. “This picture is wrong, ” he said, “It is not checkmate. The King still has another move. The game is not over- the King has another move!!” His powerful message reminded us that God has a plan for our lives – the enemy has not won, because the King still has one more move.
The program included musical performances by Rick Austin, and short speeches from Rev. Andy Bales, Chief Programs Officer Rev. Steve Borja, and Messengers Group Chaplain Rev. Rodney Tanaka. Anthony Armstrong, Rickie Furnal, Donald Jelks, and Raymond Peters, of the graduating class, also shared with the group some of their personal testimonies and words of appreciation. Afterwards, there was a delicious meal served in the dining room. Graduates and guests enjoyed roast beef, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and salad, and of course cake and ice cream! All in all, it was a great time of celebration and encouragement as these men enter a new phase in their lives!
Thank you to everyone who made this celebration a success, and congratulations to the new graduates!