(Credit-Photo by: Brea Walters/The Valley Forge)
Downtown Rockford is a lively and colorful place. Many small local businesses like the Rockford Roasting Company and District Bar and Grill fill the area. Many people in this area may appear to be doing well but are actually less fortunate than others. These local businesses try to help those people, but when they can’t do anything else, they may recommend resources like the Rockford Rescue Mission.
In Rockford, there are an estimated 403 homeless people who live on the streets and in local shelters, according to the 2019 CoC performance profile. Many places around town strive to help those people.
According to Rockfordil.gov, The City of Rockford is taking steps slowly to end homelessness in the community, starting with veterans and moving along to families and other groups. In 2017, Rockford became the first city in the nation to reach a functional zero for the homeless population. This ended homelessness in two of the city’s groups of homeless: the veterans and the chronically homeless.
Rockford Rescue Mission is an organization focused on helping the homeless in Rockford. The Mission’s services are designed to meet physical, emotional, and relational needs by empowering people to move from despair and hopelessness to whole-person life.
Abby Finley, the marketing and communications director of RMM, said, “We have our Meals For All program, that is 3 meals a day for 365 days a year to our guests, our residents, and our community. We have a medical clinic on site, which is staffed by a nurse here at the Mission, and then we have doctors, dentists, chiropractors, and nurses come in and provide care for our guests and residents, then a work center which is our educational training facility where people can study for their GED and take the GED on sight.”
Abby started out with the mission 6 months after her college graduation.
“The reason I keep coming back to work each day is because I see the life change with my own eyes each day,” Abby said. “Men and women who have struggled with addiction for decades have been in jail or prison most of their adult lives and lost everything they had as they fled domestic violence. They get a chance to rebuild their lives in a well-rounded and sustainable way here at the Mission. There is absolutely nothing more amazing than that.”
The need for the Mission’s services keeps increasing. At this time, in 2021, RMM was providing lodging to 109 people a night, but in 2022, the organization is up to 150 people on location and an additional 60 plus people being housed off-site temporarily through the city of Rockford.
“A couple of months ago, we were doing 345 meals daily. Now we’re doing 500 plus meals daily,” Abby said.
Rockford Rescue Mission helps many community members in many ways. It has helped provide nearly 40,000 nights of lodging, about 126,000 meals, 20,000 food and hygiene items, and almost 7,000 case management sessions.”
As the weather is getting colder, more people are showing up to RMM for help. We get deliveries a couple of times a week,” Abby said. “We send our truck out two or three times a week to pick up food from different grocery stores. From different Aldis, Targets, all of it, so that’s where it mostly comes from and individual donors too.”
Rockford Rescue Mission is run by a team of people, and that team of people works hard in the fight against homelessness. Ted Tomita also helps with the mission and is the Chief Development Officer. Ted leads the Mission’s fundraising and volunteer relations. He communicated what they do at the mission.
Rockford Rescue Mission saves many lives, and some of those lives are of people who work there, too.
“It’s a place of hope and healing, and at first, when I started volunteering and working here, I pretty much thought it was a place of hope and healing for the men, women, and children we serve, and that’s absolutely true. But it is, in fact, a place of hope and healing for anyone who goes in the door,” Ted said. “The staff, the volunteers, and perhaps even the vendors who come in our doors and fix things up. Personally, for me being a part of the mission has helped me go through some personal healing that I needed to go through myself. So, in a way, it has actually helped me more than the time I give working at the Mission. I, in the end, needed the Mission more than the Mission needed me.”
The Mission tries to help in whatever way it can. They have many programs and understand that everyone’s struggles are different.
“It’s a place of hope and healing for those men, women, and children who have nowhere else to turn. Whether it’s homelessness, domestic violence, or addiction recovery, although we call it life recovery cause it’s much more than I would say the traditional alcohol and drug addiction. It’s life recovery over any of the negative behaviors that have kept anyone back from becoming who they are and who they want to be. They recover through their journey and all of their hurts and pains that they have been through in their life,” Ted said.
Naomi is a woman that the mission has helped in her online testimony from RRM’s website.
“Everything good happened for me when I walked into Rockford Rescue Mission and made the decision to change my life,” Naomi said. “I had been in drug addiction for five years, bouncing back and forth between Rockford and Beloit. As long as I had a few dollars to give someone, they would let me sleep on their couch. Finally, because of my addictions, I lost my two kids – and it felt like my life was over. Homeless and pregnant with my third child, I came to the Mission, stayed two weeks, and… left. I just wasn’t ready. Today, I live in Tucson, Arizona, with my three daughters.”
These programs in Rockford help people survive whatever they are going through. Rockford Rescue Mission works with the City Of Rockford and District 205 to help families in need as well with school resources and housing.
The City of Rockford also helps them with housing for the people they are not able to house on-site. The Mission receives grants to help provide food, clothing, hygiene products, and other necessities. The mission also has a thrift store located at 2710 20th St. This thrift store also brings in funds for the mission. Ultimately, Rockford Rescue Mission runs on donations and volunteers.
The RPS school district teams with The Mission to provide bus rides to the students within the mission. They can go to their originally zoned school, and the bus will pick them up from RMM and bring them there. They will be the first to get on the bus and the last to get off to protect their privacy.
This population of people are people who deserve the necessities that more fortunate people get. These resources in the community work hard to get them the things they need to survive everyday life, especially as the weather gets colder.
To volunteer or donate to Rockford Rescue Mission, visit its website: https://www.rockfordrescuemission.org/.
