Trinity Rescue Mission

Okay, so Trinity Rescue Mission...is it a homeless shelter? Is it drug and alcohol rehab? Is it both? Glad you asked.

Trinity Rescue Mission is a ministry of Trinity Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida and was started over 40 years ago as a homeless shelter for men. Since that time it has grown to include several facets of ministry. The picture below is the men's center.
The men's center offers the following options:

1. An overnight program for men seeking shelter for the night. This is offered for free for 5 nights per/month, additional nights beyond the 5 nights cost $8.00 per night. This includes a shower, change of clothes, dinner, chapel service and a clean bed.

2. The Lifeline Program - a 65 day program designed to break the cycles of addiction and homelessness. Many of our clients are homeless as a direct result of addiction to drugs and alcohol. Upon graduation the men are offered case management or the farm program.

3. Case Management - this provides the men a guaranteed place to sleep at night while allowing them to work during the day. The cost for this is $60.00/week - but their bed is guaranteed and they have the same bed night to night.

4. The Farm Program is a 6-9 month discipleship program located in St. Johns County. They call it the farm because there are actual animals there (chickes, pigs, goats and maybe a cow or two on the way) - and they plant vegetables...I know for sure green beans but I think they are trying for corn too.

5. Transitional housing - this is a cluster of condos and apartments around the city that are in decent neighborhoods free from environments that promote drug and alcohol use. There is still some measure of accountibility but leans more towards independent living.

While the men's programs were running along quite smoothly it was becoming increasingly evident that women and children needed the same opportunities. The fastest growing segment in the homeless community is women and children. There were many nights when women had to be turned away because there simply was no place to house them. This burdened the heart of the Executive Director so much that he decided to build and women and children's center.

The women and children's center opened August 14, 2006. Initially we offered just one program we called Case Management. This gave the women shelter for 30-60 days while they sought out childcare, employment and housing. Since that time we have expanded our services to include a Lifeline program and transitional housing. All of our programs require church attendance, daily devotions in the book of Proverbs, reading requirements, memory verses, video education classes, chapel, group meetings and of course chores - "If you have time to lean, you have time to clean!"

The Lifeline Program runs much like the men's Lifeline program in that it is a 65 day program designed to break the cycle of addiction and homelessness. Likewise, the transitional housing offers our clients a place to stay that is free from outside influences. Currently we have an apartment in the building above that serves as our transitional housing.

We offer our clients individual family rooms which can make our numbers a little deceiving. We have approx. 119 beds in the facility but a woman with 1 child gets a room to herself and there are 4 beds in the room. We may need to place 2 clients in the same room in the future but for now we try to give them individual family space. The rooms are nicely decorated to give it more of a home feel rather than an institutional feel. Some of the rooms even have murals painted on them to provide a haven away from the dreariness of the streets.

The room on the left is my personal favorite. We recently had a client move out so we have it all cleaned up for a new family moving in tomorrow.

Then for our single, unaccompanied clients we have dormotories - 10 beds for Lifeline, and 12 beds for case management.

So...yes, we are a homeless shelter, but what Christian can provide housing without offering the opportunity to escape from the sin that is causing the homelessness?