Women’s and Family Ministry
Welcome
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Safety, Shelter, Food, Restoration. These are the priorities of clients coming to the Family Center.
These families walk into our doors, past our security, into a neat and clean environment, where three meals a day are served, and sigh with relief. As they interact with a staff who cares about them, encourages them, helps them with their issues, they begin to think past survival and toward rebuilding their shattered lives. I invite you to be a part of this ministry of restoring lives. Robert Strong |
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Programs
Women and Family Shelter
| The Emergency Family Shelter at City Union Mission is a haven for families and single women. There are many causes of homelessness in families, including financial setbacks, addiction, family violence and mental illness. The Family Shelter provides a safe place to stay, nutritious meals, spiritual counsel and case management to address and help resolve some of the issues they face. |
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Medical Services
Free medical care is offered to indigent men, women and families at both shelters. The Men's Shelter offers a nine-bed infirmary - the only free convalescent care in K.C. for homeless men recovering from injury and illness.
A Doorway of Opportunity
City Union Mission is not only a doorway of escape from desperate circumstances. It is much more than that! The Mission provides a doorway of opportunity to clients willing to face their problems and deal with them. Our long-term rehabilitation/discipleship programs offer a turning point where the patterns of the past give way to hope for the future.
New Life Program
| Families and single women at the Mission's Family Shelter can enter the four-to-eight month New Life Program that offers rehabilitation to whole families. Members attend Bible study, local churches and have regular counseling sessions. Life Skills courses guide each person toward a healthier lifestyle. Families live in the shelter while parents and children alike stabilize and prepare to move into permanent housing. |
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Transitional Living Programs
This six to nine month follow-up to the Christian Life and New Life Programs helps graduates and their families adjust to independent living. In our transitional living apartments, clients pay a program fee each month, must be employed, can attend school and live as independently as possible in a nominally supervised setting, before moving into their own home.
Biblical Counseling
| Guests at City Union Mission's shelters and members of the rehabilitation/discipleship programs, receive family and individual counseling free of charge. A youth and children's counselor meets the specific needs of children in the New Life Program, Emergency Family Shelter and Vanderberg Youth Center. |
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The Learning Centers
Located at the City Union Mission Men's Center and Family Center, our Learning Centers offer educational advancement to low-income and homeless adults. Using "user-friendly" computer programs designed especially for the homeless and the learning disabled, students grow not only in knowledge, but also in self-worth, self-respect and self-confidence as they work toward their G.E.D. or improve vocabulary and other skills.
Life Skills Classes
| Many of the homeless find themselves on the streets again and again. To help break this tragic cycle, we offer Life Skills classes to men and women in the community and in our shelters. The series of classes include Parenting, Decision-Making, Communication, Nutrition, Money Management, Drug Awareness, Relapse Prevention and much more. Mountain Movers, a Christian ten-step program, allows participants to explore their addictive and sinful behavior and God's response to that behavior in a group setting. |
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Community Assistance
| The Mission provides extensive, compassionate service to low-income community residents. Relief efforts include the distribution of food, clothing, school supplies, household items, utility assistance, case management, help to find affordable housing, Life Skills classes and services to homebound elderly and disabled people. |
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Holiday Ministry
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During the Thanksgiving and Christmas season, Mission supporters collect and donate thousands of
pounds of holiday food for the low-income community. An established network of churches throughout
Kansas City helps the Mission distribute this food to about 350 needy families who receive holiday
baskets filled to the brim with a Thanksgiving feast.
Christmas allows us to reach out to hundreds of the poor and homeless through our Christmas Adoption Programs. Each year, the Mission works hand in hand with generous individuals, churches, schools and businesses to "adopt" low-income and homeless families and men, nursing home residents, children at the Vanderberg Youth Center, and Jackson County Jail inmates. With the help of volunteers, the Mission distributes over 12,000 new items and 160 food baskets during the Christmas season. |
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Testimonials
Gail
| My mom, a gambler and an alcoholic, used to drop me at different people’s houses when she went out to party. She didn’t know about the abuse I suffered at the hands of her so-called friends. To cope, I turned to sex, drugs and alcohol. Click here to read more about Gail's story ... |
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Angela
| For years, I felt abandoned by God. Physical and sexual abuse as a child led me to start using Meth — it eased the pain. I got pregnant at fourteen and moved in with the baby’s father, even though he abused me. We had two more children. I finally left him when I discovered he was cheating on me. Click here to read more about Angela's story ... |
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Sheila
| Sheila's inner-city apartment was a slum. “There were no doorknobs on the doors, and the pipes under the kitchen sink were duct taped together,” says this 26-year-old single mother. “When the pipes broke, we had to haul water from the bathroom.” Click here to read more about Sheila's story ... |
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Prayer Requests
- Amy - Amy would like prayer for her mother-in law; she pulled a muscle in her knee. It is the same knee that she just had knee surgery on. Also, for her son Brandon's health. She would like prayer for guidance, wisdom, and strength for her family and their decisions.
- Dinial - Dinial would like to ask for prayer for her grandchildren and their health and safety during school. Also, for her daughter as she is preparing to give birth. She asks that everything goes well for both her daughter and grandchild.
- Clara - Clara asks for prayer for her finances to pick up as she starts to look for work as well as housing; that the Lord shows her the right area for her to be in. Also, for her GED results; that they came back with good news.
- Kevin - Kevin asks for prayer for the children in the city. He has two daughters and would like prayer for their safety as they are in school and the choices they make. Also, for an unnamed male student that has been giving one of his daughters a hard time. He asks for prayer for this young man.
- Lisa S. - Lisa would like prayer for her utility assistance. She is in need of resolving a past bill with the light company before she can get into her housing, so she is currently working on that. She is needing prayer for her parenting abilities, as she is learning a new, healthy way of dealing with her children.
- Shannon - Shannon would like prayer for help with entering the New Life Program, that she is able to meet the requirements that are needed of her and her husband. Shannon is asking for prayer for guidance in making choices for her family.
- Nathan - Nathan is asking prayer for guidance as he makes choices that will affect his future both with his wife as well as his own future. He asks for strength and wisdom to know the right path to take.
- Anita - Anita is asking for prayer for housing, to find the right affordable house for her and her family, and also for employment.
- Patti - Patti is asking prayer for her mother; she is sick and has cancer. She is asking for prayer for understanding as well as guidance and comfort.
- Betty - Betty is asking for prayer for the attitudes of people she deals with. Also, that she be able to get the things done that she needs to.
- Susan - Susan is asking for prayer for her husband, that he follow her lead in her walk with the Lord.
- Shana - Shana asks for prayer for housing. That she find not just a house, but a home for her and her family. Also for grace here in the shelter.
- Karen - Karen is asking for prayer for her to find transportation to go back to her home town.
- Jennifer - Jennifer is asking for prayer to find an apartment soon.
- Elizabeth - Elizabeth is asking for prayer for deliverance from drugs and alcohol.
- Laticia - Laticia is asking for prayer for deliverance from drugs and alcohol.
Church Partners
Dynamic Life Baptist Ministries, Greater Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, and Emmanuel Baptist Church volunteer on a regular basis. They continue to show how much they care for the women and families that come here by being involved in chapel services and family night hosting.
Robert Strong, Family Shelter Administrator, says, "These churches are partners with us in the ministry of the gospel of grace." Thank you!
Corporate Support
Northland SonicNorthland Sonic has been a special friend to City Union Mission's Family Center. They come and serve a meal in the Family Center monthly and have even been known to bring "The Sonic Cup" mascot along to entertain the kids. Northland Sonic also put on a "Breakfast with Santa" for the family shelter last Christmas, which included a large hot breakfast for all of the families, pictures with Santa, a special craft projects and gifts for the children. Thank you Northland Sonic! |
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