NEWSROOM

City Rescue Mission card program helps the homeless

By April Wilkerson, The Journal Record
April is a reporter in Oklahoma City. Contact her at 278-2849.

Editor’s note: This is part of a series of stories on
creativity in business, education and the arts in Oklahoma. Oklahoma City will host the World Creativity Forum in November.

OKLAHOMA CITY – Among the credit cards, debit cards, business cards or discount cards people carry in their wallets, Tom Jones hopes there’s room for a Compassion Card as well.

Jones, president and CEO of City Rescue Mission, said the organization has dispersed thousands of Compassion Cards since the program began in March. The concept is simple: The card contains information and a toll-free phone number about City Rescue Mission. When people encounter someone who is homeless, hungry or otherwise in need of help, they can pass along the card. The card offers people a way to help others without giving cash and worrying that it will be used for drugs or alcohol. And if the recipient is genuinely in need, he or she will be glad to receive the information, Jones said.

“You don’t always know if people are legitimate, that if you give them money they won’t just go use it for drugs,” Jones said. “They can play on the compassionate heart of our citizens. We do want to give them what they need, but we don’t want to enable them to remain in an addictive state or use homelessness as a way to manipulate you to fund their life. Our citizens just don’t need to have to make that judgment call when they pull up to that street corner and someone is holding a sign. This way, if they truly are homeless and hungry, when you hand them that card, they will be thankful because we are a resource center that provides everything they are asking for.”

So far, seven people have found their way to City Rescue Mission because of the Compassion Cards, Jones said. When someone calls the 800 number, a City Rescue Mission staff member will come pick him or her up. People can print out the Compassion Cards online, and Jones said he’s sent them to hundreds of churches.

City Rescue Mission is observing its 50th anniversary this year. For the first 40 to 45 years, the organization’s focus was caring for people while they are homeless. But that focus is changing, Jones said.

“We have radically shifted to increase our perspective to include case management of what it will take for any one individual to end their homelessness – lack of education, lack of medical care, lack of job training, addictions,” he said. “We still provide care for everyone, but when they walk through the door, we partner with them immediately to talk about what it will take to bring an end to their homelessness.”

That help includes Bridge to Life, a three-year-old program that has helped hundreds of people break free from their addictions, Jones said. The 10-month service is free and available to anyone who says, “I need help.”

“It’s exciting to see people who have been caught up in addiction for decades find their way out of it and resume as functioning citizens,” he said.