The Rescue Mission of Salt Lake

Founded in 1972, the Rescue Mission of Salt Lake exists to meet the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of the homeless, addicted and/or poor through humanitarian efforts and faith and maturity in Jesus Christ. We help those in need throughout the State of Utah regardless of their station in life, race, religion, or any other determining factor. We seek to help all those who ask help of us, just as the Lord Jesus would.

To be the most effective life-changing ministry in Utah that serves the homeless, indigent, and poor

Goal One: Preserve homeless person's lives by providing food, clothing and shelter to prevent hunger, illness and death from living outdoors.

Goal Two: Teach sobriety and life skills and connect homeless persons to healthy and supportive communities.

Goal Three: Enable homeless persons to find long-term employment and save money; and provide temporary transitional housing to formerly homeless persons who are learning to live in sobriety.

Rescue Mission staff members actively participate in Citygate Network (a network of 300 plus homeless services and poverty elevation organizations across the United States and Canada). Active participation includes: six staff members attending annual training and best practices conference, CEO training sessions, District CEO collaboration meetings, Affinity group ( counseling, food services, etc.) collaboration via email list serve. New staff counselors are trained in primary relapse prevention curriculum training courses and certification program. Staff, at Rescue Mission request or their own desire, peruse continued education, typically at the college level, in their vocation. Costs associated with continued education are partially subsidized by the Rescue Mission of Salt Lake. Online and in person training sessions are actively attended, as per need and availability, via a variety of organizations.

The external change that primary affected the organization was the Covid-19 Pandemic. Administrative staff who were able to work from home were allowed to do so. Staff who actively serve our homeless community, were provided N95 masks and rotational time to limit covid exposition. If staff contracted Covid-19 their sick time was NOT counted as PTO but regular work hours. We worked with the Citygate Network, Local Health Department, City, County on our Covid response our homeless and low-income population, following CDC and Health Department guidelines in and around our facility. Through the Citygate Network we worked with the United State Interagency Council on Homelessness to address the Covid-19 pandemic and enable homeless service providers (classified as essential workers) to obtain Covid-19 vaccinations, in Salt Lake County, among first responders. Adapted methods of service providing to ensure physical distancing without turning people away and continue to provide shelter including plex glass between bunks less than six feet apart, day room, hygiene, meal services and recovery program. Seek and Rescue Outreaches were added to assist the growing number of people choosing the live on homeless camps. This included taking our homeless friends hand sanitizer, masks, water, clothing, etc. Activity partnered with health department and local homeless health clinic for covid testing, and covid and flu vaccinations twice per month. Operated a covid quarantine within men’s facility when county homeless quarantine was full. Story: Our staff team is very dedicated, one staff member, who has three children between the ages of mid-teens to early twenties, packed an emergency go bag and left it in her car. She wanted to ensure in the event of an emergency she could live in her office in order to provide continual care to our homeless friends. Reporting to the CEO she stated, “This is my ministry, please don’t make me stay home, if I die God will take care of my children”.