Mission Gate Christian Center

Christmas angel program providing 2,500 children of primarily prisoners'families and community needy with gifts, gospel witnessing and church referrals.upwards of 125 area churches and businesses are involved. Community,residents and their families participate by donating their time.

Equine and canine therapy for program clients utilizes dogs,cats,horses and small livestock at mission gate's fort good shepherd, stl city guest homes, hannah's ranch and promises of hope ranch for residents, children and graduates. The program has a healing effect on program participants' mental health. Participant feeds and cares for animals which promotes responsibility, trust and worth. Horseback riding brings a new way of recreation that excludes drugs and alcohol. Participants' families visit and partake in equine and canine interaction.

All mission gate aftercare facilities are running at full capacity and are credentialed through mcrsp (missouri coalition of recovery support providers) which meets narr (national alliance for recovery residences) national standards. Mission gate serves 350 or more ex-offenders and children yearly. All clients in the program maintain a 95% or higher employment rate. Volunteers from 135 local churches help with maintenance and programming in the prisons and jails, aftercare and christmas angel mission. Formal mentoring and training programs are provided to volunteers and staff. Training from the department of mental health for alcohol and drug recovery, mrss (missouri recovery support specialist) and cps (certified peer specialist) is provided for staff and key volunteers. Mission gate continued to worked closely with centers for disease control, department of mental health, missouri department of corrections, missouri department of probation and parole, missouri division of family services, national alliance of recovery residences, local health providers, department of revenue, churches and local employers to provide a continuum of care for our residents onsite such as ged/hiset, satop (substance awareness traffic offender program), and financial stewardship onsite with local banks and other entities. Mission gate has been very successful in building strong realtionships with the community. Quarantine units have been maintained and available to accommodate residents. Trish mathes, president, was awarded the 2024 helen b. Madden award from prevent+ed in st. Louis for appreciation of an exceptional career devoted to the treatment of substance use disorders. Joyce fields, hannah's ranch program director and greg smith, director of planning and development, were invited to present needs to impact 100 for hannah's ranch improvements and received a grant of 10,000. Mission gate received the 35,000 crawford opioid grant for transportation of residents in crawford county benefiting hannah's ranch and fort good shepherd. Mission gate received three community reentry funding awards from the state of missouri department of corrections of 50,000 each for fort good shepherd,promises of hope and st louis city outreach to aid residents by providing housing and wrap around services including counselors, initial needs, etc. In november 2024 the lower part of fort good shepherd next to the meramec river was flooded causing damage to 14 cabins. Ten were reconstructed and 4 had to be demolished. Volunteers and a local contractor completed the construction. This was the worst flood ever at fort good shepherd. Men had to double up in other cabins on the property in order to be housed. The board of directors of mission gate voted unanimously to construct a 19 man residence on higher ground due to the flooding and additional requests for housing from correctional centers and those addicted to drugs or alcohol. The residence is scheduled for completion in 2026. 3-1/2 acres of property was purchased adjacent to the main lodge of fort good shepherd for future use.