Freshbox Blog

Partner Profile: Faith Mission

Faith Mission is one of Freshbox’s closest partners; we’re both owned by Lutheran Social Services and our mutual goal is to help the homeless transition into permanent housing and stable employment.  Faith Mission provides a hot meal, a warm bed, and access to social services to those in need; in the last fiscal year alone they’ve served more than 275,000 meals and offered more than 105,000 nights of emergency shelter.  Freshbox works with Faith Mission to offer shelter residents empowerment through meaningful employment opportunities.  In addition, 100% of our proceeds support the shelter’s work-training program.  For this week’s partner profile, we had the opportunity to interview Susan Villilo, Faith Mission’s Executive Director.  She talked to us about what it’s like to run shelters that are filled past capacity, and what people can do if they want to help.  Read on to learn about the outstanding services that Faith Mission provides to the Columbus community.

How long has Faith Mission existed?  Who started it?
Faith Mission started on February 6, 1966, in response to the City Mission closing its doors.  At that time, we were located at 181 East Long Street. The services in 1966 included opening the doors at 5:00pm, serving a meal, and providing beds for twelve men.
Today, Faith Mission is a 24-hour emergency shelter, serving 42 women at one shelter, and up to 205 men at two other locations, 315 East Long Street and 599 E. 8th Ave.  Faith Mission is the only organization in Franklin County able to serve three meals a day, every day of the year.  Our mission is to continue to create a better world by serving people in need.

Who does Faith Mission serve in Columbus?  What services and opportunities do you offer to them?
Faith Mission offers emergency shelter for homeless adults along with social services to help each individual exit the program successfully into permanent housing.  Our Community Kitchen located at 151 N. 6^th Street provides three meals every day of the year to anyone in the community in need.

How does Freshbox fit in to the existing services that you provide your residents?
Freshbox offers employment and job training for Faith Mission shelter residents who are lacking the skills to be competitive in the job market.

How long are people allowed to stay at Faith Mission?
Up to 90 days. Extensions can be granted if a client is actively working on a plan to move to independence and is awaiting a missing link such as an affordable apartment.

As an organization that been supporting homeless people since 1966, how do you see the face of homelessness changing?
We see an increase in the number of people accessing shelter as well as the number of people who supplement their income by eating in the Community Kitchen.

There’s been a lot of press about how Faith Mission is overflowing.  How do you deal with that?  What does that mean for the staff and clients?
That means we have more people in need of shelter than there is shelter space available in the city.  We deal with it in two ways.  First, existing shelters increase their capacity to make more room for more people.  This creates some overcrowding and loss of the limited privacy afforded in the shelter.  The second way has been to open an alternate site that provides night-time shelter only.  This site is full too so we continue to operate well over capacity in all locations.

What has Faith Mission accomplished recently that’s made you proud?
Every time someone exits the shelter to housing I am proud.  I know that it has been a team effort with the client and staff to assist the person in moving forward in their life.

Also, every time I “catch” a staff person listening or providing some kindness to the people that use our services I am proud because I know that is what most folks need and I get how hard it can be to hear the stories of loss and pain.

If someone’s interested in supporting Faith Mission, what can they do to help?
We are always looking for both donations and volunteers.  Donations can be monetary as well as household items and toiletries.  We rely on volunteers throughout the organization.  To get more information contact Julian Simmons at JSimmons@lssco.org.

Is there anything else important that you’d like people to know about Faith Mission?
People stay in the shelters at Faith Mission because they are looking for help in resolving their homelessness.  We work hard to provide support and services to make their transition back to housing quick and with the necessary support.  Faith Mission has a comprehensive approach to meeting individual needs that include case management, Housing Resource assistance, employment assistance, nutritious meals and a Free Medical Clinic.  By assisting individuals with their immediate needs and linking them to community resources for ongoing support we are able to help people end their homelessness.

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