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Association of Gospel Rescue Missions
Founded in 1913, the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions (AGRM)—formerly known as the International Union of Gospel Missions—is a nonprofit organization whose member missions work to provide emergency shelter, food, youth and family services, and education and job training programs. In addition, the AGRM operates rehabilitation programs for drug addicts and alcoholics, and assistance to the elderly poor and at-risk youth. The sixth largest nonprofit organization in the United States, the AGRM has a network of 294 rescue missions, which provide approximately 30 million meals and 12 million nights of lodging to needy and homeless people every year. The AGRM has more than 9,000 full-time employees and 300,000 volunteers and has over 300 affiliates in the United States, Canada, India, Australia, South America, and Africa.
As part of its mission, the AGRM takes on five major responsibilities: (1) Creating new rescue ministries; (2) promoting and emphasizing prayer and spiritual values and growth; (3) providing local ministries with education, training, consultation, conferences, conventions, and networking; (4) stressing to the church and community the importance and value of their rescue efforts; and (5) and operating over 114 Alcoholics Victorious groups, as well as Rescue College.
The AGRM and other member missions consider themselves to be an “arm of the Church,” in that they work to meet the spiritual, emotional, and physical needs of people who are unable to be reached by the traditional church.
Programs
The AGRM has developed three major programs that help accomplish these goals by offering services to both those in need and those willing to help.
The Bowery Mission, founded in 1879, shown here in 2003
- Job Placement Program. The AGRM website provides a resume file for potential employees, and full-time employment opportunities with member rescue missions are posted each month both on the website and in the AGRM newsletter.
- Alcoholics Victorious. Founded in 1948, Alcoholics Victorious provides a support group medium for recovering alcoholics who profess a deep religious faith. Group members gather at meetings to share feelings, experiences, and goals with one another. Also included in the process of recovery are the Alcoholics Victorious Creed and the group's Twelve Steps toward recovery.
- Rescue College. Rescue College is an Internet-based distance-learning program that prepares men and women for an administrative career with rescue missions and other church-related organizations. The programs offered allow students to acquire either a Certificate in Rescue Ministry or a Bachelor in Rescue Ministry, which is equivalent to a four-year degree awarded at other accredited colleges and universities in the United States.
The newest project added to the AGRM's repertoire is the Program Outcomes Assessment Project, which was initiated to measure the outcomes and effectiveness of the association's various programs. This evaluation is done for two reasons—to upgrade and modify programs by identifying what does and does not work, and to use in fund-raising, public relations, and promotional efforts. Outcome indicators are used to measure the effectiveness of the association's programs, and they serve as guidelines for whether or not an individual has successfully “graduated” from the AGRM's rehabilitation programs. The Mission Program outcomes one year after leaving the program state that in order to be considered “successfully graduated” an individual must be (1) gainfully employed or actively involved in continuing education, (2) free of primary life-controlling issues identified during the mission program, (3) in stabilized housing, (4) maintaining healthy relationships, (5) achieving financial stability, (6) content with quality of life, and (7) involved in a local church.
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- Appendix 3: Directory of Street Newspapers
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- American Bar Association Commission on Homelessness and Poverty
- Association of Gospel Rescue Missions
- Corporation for Supportive Housing
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- Goodwill Industries International
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- Appendix 1: Bibliography of Autobiographical and Fictional Accounts of Homelessness
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- Autobiography and Memoir, Contemporary Homelessness
- Images of Homelessness in Contemporary Documentary Film
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- Images of Homelessness in the Media
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