John 3 16 Mission

Shelter: since our founding, john 3:16 mission's downtown shelter has provided emergency intervention for those who found themselves without a place to sleep for the night. Shelters generally have a reputation as dark and ominous places, but our aim is to offer radical hospitality to our guests, providing a shelter that is dignifying, sanitary, and safe. Our shelter has rules in place for the safety of those entrusted to us for the night. Caseworkers connect them to social and medical services, and every night, 365 days a year, we hold a chapel service for our guests to hear the simple truth that they are seen, known, and deeply loved by god.

Recovery programs: our downtown shelter is an emergency intervention. But for those seeking a path forward out of homelessness, addiction, or other challenges, we offer longer-term recovery programs for both men (new creation) and women (renew), both housed at our refuge campus. These 12-month residential programs are free of charge to our students and use biblical therapeutic principles, professional counseling, and many other tools to help students overcome addictions as well as emotional, behavioral, spiritual, and psychological problems. Students in our program participate in daily bible studies, life skills classes, counseling, and discipleship coaching. They're surrounded by support teams made of professionals and qualified volunteers. We want to help our students sustain an eight-hour work day by working with them on wellness habits, job skills training, and other related life skills.

Job training: we find that most of our shelter guests, recovery students, and fyc families are eager to make a better life for themselves and those they love. To this end, john 3:16 mission considers work experience and job training as a key part of our mission to prevent homelessness, offering a path out of poverty. The women in our renew program work with beeloved trading, using honey and other bee byproducts to create products we sell. The men of new creation help on our refuge farm with managing crops and working in our ranching operation. All students help out with kitchen and cleaning duty around campus.mission goods & mission market: mission goods is a store stocked with gently used, donated items that are offered for free to families on a tight budget and limited resources. Guests are free to come to the store and "shop" to get items they need for their households. Mission market is a grocery store that offers free food shopping to families, once every 30 days.search & rescue: those experiencing homelessness will find the best shelter they can, perhaps under a bridge or in a brushy area. Others will join makeshift camps in various areas, often in conditions that are dangerous and unsanitary. John 3:16 mission reaches out to these neighbors through its search and rescue program. Several times a week, specially trained mission staff search out areas where homeless people may be living. We enter these camps to check on the welfare of those living there. We encourage them to come to the mission for meals, shelter, care, and recovery, and we help provide casework to connect them with other social services.