safe sites for all        showers and day centers        overnight shelter        coordinated entry locations  

Presentation Minutes

Tacoma Rescue Mission - https://www.trm.org/

  • Noah Baskett, Sr. Director of Community Engagement, Tacoma Rescue Mission, NoahB@trm.org
  • History
    • Founded in 1912 – going on 106 years - by a travelling evangelist – Gypsy Smith – with the Salvation Army.  Came on an evangelistic route – when Tacoma was becoming a City and at a time when they were struggling with severe poverty.  Mr. Smith challenged business leaders to take care of the poor in the area.  He helped found the Tacoma Commons Mission – located on Pacific Avenue – serving the poor and vulnerable in Tacoma.
    • Gypsy Smith didn’t try to bring all faiths together to agree on what to do – simply helped folks decide to serve together.  Their work is in the spirit of what you are doing here today. (a recent biography, Gypsy Smith: The forgotten Evangelist by Bill Curtis, looks to be an interesting read – I’m curious how he handles the 78 year old Gypsy’s second marriage to a 27 year old… -ed.)
  • Mission
    • Work to meet the essential needs of our neighbors
    • Scriptural mandate to serve the needy
    • We want to treat everyone with the deep dignity they deserve
    • See ourselves as a catalyst for change in the entire community. 
  • Have around 5,000 to 7,000 volunteers giving their time at the rescue mission every year on behalf of poor and vulnerable people (wow, that’s a lot of people. –ed.)
  • Video: homeless Households with kids is a growing demographic.  (we didn’t get the video going, and I was looking for what Noah had planned and found this recent video that I rather like - https://www.trm.org/2015/05/i-am-video/ , but I’d recommend https://www.trm.org/2015/05/sample-video/ because it has a good over view of their programs and a cameo with the Sonics Guy -ed.)
  • 800 - 1200 meals a day across all campuses – breakfast and dinner are open to any community member.
  • 32,000 bednights last year (I’m sure I heard this wrong – I suspect the number is more like 80,000 to 100,000 – ed.)
  • Recently expanded the Adams Street Family Shelter – a great facility for kids.  We want the stay at the shelter not to add to the trauma.  Can serve 32 households at any given time. 
  • Every single day, the Adams Street facility is over capacity. We put cots up in open spaces – because the need is so much higher than current capacity.
  • Invested in early childhood and youth education center.  Run a preschool out of the center.  Early childhood education is very important.  Parents can have their kids in a safe, nurturing place so they can work on housing and such. 
  • Afterschool education program – looking to expand mentor program.  Have 115 youth being seen in the shelter.
  • New Life Program – residential substance use recovery program
    • One at downtown shelter
    • One at Tyler campus
    • Have space for 15-20 people at any given time
    • intensive program where we nurture body and soul  with counseling and case management.
    • Just shy of 70% of graduates have 2 year sobriety rates – about double the national average. (it is great that they are even tracking 2 year success rates – many agencies give you no success rate or just the rate of people completing the program – nicely done TRM –ed.)
  • Al – do you have medication assisted recovery?  Noah – no, don’t have the facility for this.
  • Challenge Learning Center
    • Open to community members
    • Community-based organization licensed by state board of technical colleges – clients can work towards their high school diploma.
    • Work closely with Bates technical college
  • Search and Rescue (not helicopters or any dog teams that I know of, but if you define Search and Rescue as “Search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger”, then they certainly hit the mark. –ed)
    • Byron Corzo
    • Important part of our work – proud of our efforts in this past year
    • Go out 3 days a week – two evenings and one Saturday
    • Go out with community members
    • Build trust and relationships, break down barriers to why folks aren’t choosing to access emergency shelter. 
    • Provide basic resources
    • Question – is this Pierce-county wide?  Noah – yes.  Part of growing our street outreach.  Use a model from Seattle, which is volunteer run, but we have staff with them as well.
    • Question – do they record people? Luis – depends on the level of engagement people want to have.
  • Working with the City in their emergency declaration – working with the County as well every day a week in addition to our Search and Rescue program with volunteers
    • We are being successful in getting folks to access services. 
    • Had a big month with 98 folks coming out of formal encampments in the van to come to a shelter or a facility to get resources (it would take a lot of trust building to lure me into a van – just saying…-ed).
    • Story form someone:  Byron came in the other day beaming – found a family, invited them to come to the van, called Adams street but had no room, Salvation army waited late to do an intake to get the client into shelter. 
    • Brian – getting lots of 85 and 90 year olds.  Any ideas to work with Seniors?  Luis – we are seeing that same increase.  Brian – many of these folks are losing their faculties and need to work with the City on some options Noah – thanks, we’ll take a look at better serving that population.
  • New initiative about a year and half ago – enterprise initiative
    • Getting back into the job market can be challenging
    • If no great job experience or resume or a felony or any items on a long list can make getting work challenging.
    • Looking to create small, scalable businesses, hire clients, give them a good wage, and work on developing skills Currently have 3 businesses:
      • Painting business
      • Junk removal
      • Pressure washing business
    • Have been very successful giving the clients skills
    • Sherri – can you hire folks coming out of this initiative?  Noah – yes, we can. 
    • One client is looking to start his own business in King county.  These folks often have untapped abilities
    • Sherri – pay? Noah – starts at $15/hour (clapping and general appreciation showered the TRM staff – ed.)
    • Fellow that start this program was from a temporary labor market company.  Saw that temp laborers weren’t getting development or a path to better employment. Started this program to provide a path to living wage jobs.
    • VADIS - How to apply?  Noah – only employ 5-10 people, so no formal application process. 
  • New life – 12 month residential program
    • Must stay at downtown campus or Tyler square campus
  • Martha – We are all direct service providers.  Do you take coordinated entry referrals?  How do families get in your Adams street shelter?  Answer - Single adult men can walk up and get services.  Families can’t just show up at Adams Street shelter.  Noah – working with County to figure out how to engage with the Coordinated Entry system.  Martha - How do we refer folks to Adams Street? Luis – 253-383-4493 – ext. 1500  Call Dwayne or one of the case managers who between 8am-10am.  No drug use – if notice drug using behavior, will intervene.  Drug test at intake, but depending on drug and behavior may get in with positive.  Luis – if they are screened and vulnerable may go straight to a room bypassing folks on cots. 
  • Al – the Downtown campus had earthquake problems with nearby railroad – did those get resolved?  Noah – yes, that was resolved.  We are long-term viable.  Built to serve 60 people, currently serving 120-150 individuals (if you don’t remember the details, info on their woes, with a headline I suspect the editors are still pleased with themselves about, is at https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/matt-driscoll/article32707131.html -ed.             )
  • Phone – is there a back phone line or a provider phone line?  Noah – no, we don’t.  We know that is an issue and are working to address (we all need provider phone lines, -ed) 
  • Effran – shout out to TRM – they have helped many people coming out of prison and jail with housing and food – without that support, many would end up back in prison.
  • Maureen – as you reassess capacity, are you looking county wide?  Are you looking at alternative housing models?  Are you looking at empty buildings and empty strip malls.  Noah – I can’t answer all that – we have our executive directory Duke Paulson – who has county wide experience. We see our prevue as Pierce County – we have expertise in Homelessness across the County where were are in the process of planning more projects. (a bit of a teaser, there.  –ed.)
  • Duke Paulson – after the newspaper article about becoming the new director.  Got calls from councilmembers from the County, gig harbor, Lakewood, and Puyallup.  Homelessness is a big, County-wide issue – every city is struggling with it.  One of our biggest burdens is how do we respond to the crisis.  I am trying to move as fast as I can.  I stepped into a good team that is really engaged.  The team is working to accelerate the work.  We want the Rescue mission to serve more.  Lots of experience with different housing agencies.  Excited to see how to leverage this and keep growing.
  • James – If you have a male client who hasn’t been to the Rescue Mission before – they get in that night.  Lots of agencies are talking with municipalities about what homeless response can be in their community. 
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