Hey Y'all! I’m super excited to share with you all about an organization that I care very deeply about. Today I will be sharing on the Binghamton Rescue Mission.
The Rescue Mission which began as an outreach programme for Erie Canal Workers and surrounding community members in 1887, is an organization that currently provides programs to end hunger and homelessness in Binghamton, Syracuse, Auburn, and Ithaca. Initially, the Rescue Mission embodied spreading the Gospel of Christianity and demonstrated it through humanitarian services such as meals and medical care. As time went on the Rescue Mission opened a Lodging House for transients and longer-term residents, and served thousands of meals. They hold a tradition of sheltering and feeding those in need, the foundation on which their mission lies, along with programs tailored specifically to the needs of each community they operate in.
The Binghamton Rescue Mission provides residence for men who were experiencing homelessness or are referred by local agencies.At the mission, residents are served 3 meals to remove the pressure of having to provide their own meals. A case manager is available to work with residents to develop an individualized plan to set and achieve goals and lead a more stable, independent life. They offer employment resources, spiritual care, transportation to employment and important appointments, and connection to other support services. The Binghamton Rescue Mission is what you would call a place for new beginnings as it seeks to give its residents a second shot at life. Many of the men at that are housed at the Rescue Mission experienced homelessness as a result of substance abuse and as such lost everything that they had, including family. The goal of the Binghamton Rescue Mission is to help the men recover from their previous circumstances to a place where they will hopefully have the ability regain what they have lost.
What I admire about the Binghamton Rescue Mission is the real impact that they have made in the lives of the people they serve. I have volunteered at the organization as well as heard many phenomenal stories from the men about how the Rescue Mission has changed or is currently changing their lives. This is an organization which has proven itself to be effective in achieving its mission of ending hunger and homelessness by giving men who had previously experienced both an opportunity to renew themselves. The truth is sometimes all people need is a bit of support to change their situation and this is exactly what the Binghamton Rescue Mission provides.
I have participated in a sleep out in Hinman in partnership with the Rescue Mission which serves as a simulation of what homelessness is like. That experience completely changed my life. The truth is I will never be able to fully relate to someone who has experienced homelessness but I definitely can empathize. That night, the difference between myself and the men from the Rescue Mission who came to share their stories was that they did not have a place to go when they got cold, but I did. The Rescue Mission is their safe haven and now provides them a place to call home until they are able to stand on their own two feet. The amazing thing about the Binghamton Rescue Mission is that there is no limit on the time in which the men are allowed to stay at there, as such the men have the opportunity to work on building themselves up without the added pressure that they may be at risk of experiencing homelessness again.
Not only does the Binghamton Rescue mission focus on supporting their residents but they also play a major role in the community. The staff, alongside their residents and volunteers, serve a monthly community meal open to those who are hungry at the United Presbyterian Church.This is very crucial for the community, as Broome County is known for having high rates of food insecurity among residents and through their monthly meals, the Mission is able to assist many families.
I believe this organization is worth supporting because it plays an important role to curb the issue of hunger and homelessness in Broome County. It is one that has made a tremendous impact on the lives of the men that have resided there as well as contributed to the well being of the community.
View the annual report here.
Hello!
ReplyDeleteHonestly an excellent job describing the organization. You did an awesome job of both describing what the organization is trying to do, based heavily in fact, while also incorporating a personal experience. I just though the way it was done was excellent. I guess my few comments I would have to make would be that I totally agree with the way this program is being run. I did some research and found some interesting things. In “The Atlantic,” they make a great point saying, “shelters don’t allow residents to develop a sense of permanency—and it’s permanency that helps people get a job or stay sober, as numerous studies have indicated (1).” So, the fact that these men are allowed to stay for an indefinite amount of time is really important to them becoming sober and getting back on track to living full lives. To give an idea of the statistics, “So you could spend up to $150,000 enabling a person to be homeless because you're not providing them with the solution. Or you could invest up to $25,000 and people would be in housing, stable, secure and safe [with] hardly any police interventions or utilization of emergency rooms (3).” This just seems like such a straight forward solution. Provide these people with housing and permanency and they will be able to get their life back on track. In the article about permanency they say, “Where should we invest our money if we are to reduce homelessness of families? Let's invest in permanency… to break the cycle of homelessness and poverty(2).” If we really want to make a difference than we need to let people get back on their feet and continue to be productive members of society. It is being shown that this is key to people succeeding and this seems to be at the head of the Rescue Missions statement, so it has my full support.
1)https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/04/end-homelessness-us/479115/
2)http://host.madison.com/news/opinion/column/permanency-is-key-to-fighting-homelessness/article_8895f926-9f14-11df-aa07-001cc4c03286.html
3)http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36092852
Hey, Natassia! I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post. I found it to be straightforward, engaging, and was made even more interesting with your personal experience. While reading, I could not help but notice you spoke of only men being helped. I looked into the organization, and saw that their original mission was to help everyone: men, women, boys, and girls. I found it interesting that nowhere does it say the non-profit is explicitly for men. Searching through success stories, I noticed that nearly all of them were of men being helped. Initially, I was a little turned off by this observation. Then, however, I checked myself. I realized that if this was a charity that aimed to help women and/or children, I would not mind. So, must not be biased. After doing some research on charities geared towards helping men, I came across an article that said:
ReplyDelete“homelessness...disproportionately affects men”; “This is because housing benefit and council houses are disproportionately given to women, and many homeless women can seek help in domestic violence shelters. It is also because people with children are given priority”. (avoiceformen.com)
Although this article applies to the U.K., I would not be surprised if the case here is similar. Moving along, I wondered if this charity was associated enough with the church such that it did not have to file IRS information. Then I found their oh-so-glorious Form 990. By having it so readily available online I think is a testament (no pun intended) to the Rescue Mission’s transparency.
I look forward to hearing you speak about it in class!
Sincerely,
Hannah
https://www.avoiceformen.com/men/mens-issues/uk-charities-that-help-men/