HISTORY

Our Mission...to rescue lives, to save lives, to change lives, to serve lives.

The Phoenix Rescue Mission was founded in 1952 by six businessmen from the Phoenix area. In the beginning, they ministered to migrant workers and vagrants. "Homelessness" was not yet a term that was associated with persons who had unfortunate circumstances.

Our original location was in a building on South 3rd Street in downtown Phoenix. Services provided at that time consisted of an evening meal, Chapel service, and much needed clothing. Lodging was not available. They soon began to feel the burden of trying to keep up with the needs of the many people requiring their services, and they began to seek out help. At that time, they were serving between 35 and 50 clients each day. Reverend Carl Spacone joined the Mission as a Board member in 1963 and became the Executive Director of the Phoenix Gospel Mission in 1969.

By November 1969, the Mission had moved to a larger building at 440 W. Washington Street. The building was actually the old Utah Hotel. For 22 years, the Mission provided showers, three meals per day, clothing, family events, Sunday school on Sunday afternoons, food boxes, and six beds for addiction recovery at that location.

In 1991, urban renewal -- by right of eminent domain -- forced the relocation of the Phoenix Rescue Mission. Warehouse property was purchased at 35th Avenue, and progress remained steady but slow. Unfortunately, later that year, Reverend Spacone became ill and eventually passed on to be with Our Lord Jesus Christ, leaving his wife Dorothy to carry on. As Acting Director, Dorothy ran the Mission until 1994.

Dorothy hired Don Johnson as the Mission's executive director in September 1994, and under his leadership the Mission continued to grow and change. The Phoenix Gospel Mission became the Phoenix Rescue Mission in 1997.

In the Spring of 1999, the Board of Directors appointed Jerry Sandvig as its Executive Director. Under Jerry’s watch, the Mission has expanded its services with outreach to the surrounding community. It offers three meals daily, a 24-hour walk in center, showers and clean clothing, up to 150 emergency shelter beds nightly, a 21-bed Residential Addiction Recovery Program, a Career Education Center, Chapel services, and referral information. Another ministry is the Hope Coach, which is a van sent out daily offering lunches, bottled drinks, Christian literature, blankets and a friendly word of encouragement to the homeless on the streets.

Food boxes are distributed to families every weekday, especially to single mothers with children. At Thanksgiving and Christmas special holiday food boxes with a turkey and all the fixings are given to hundreds of needy families.

Special events are also held each year at Easter, for Back to School, at Thanksgiving and Christmas for the children from school districts nearby. Here we serve thousands of children by providing food, clothing and other items they otherwise would likely not receive. At each event, there is Christian presentation of message and song that is enjoyed by children and parents alike.

Construction is currently underway to build the new Changing Lives Center for women and children. This will be a specialized facility for homeless women and their children that will offer a comprehensive approach to breaking the cycle of addiction, abuse, trauma, and homelessness.

God continues to call us to grow and serve more people. That won’t change in the future ministries of the Mission as we continue to pray and work to stay in God’s will. As we do that, we will continue to see that we are cared for by the Lord and so many other faithful Mission friends!