Fairbanks Rescue Mission opens its doors to the most vulnerable residents of Fairbanks and Interior Alaska. They serve warm meals and offer a bed and safe place to sleep to those who are forced to the streets due to life crisis. The man, who has always been fiercely independent living in a remote cabin and hauling his own water and chopping his own wood. He has survived on his small, fixed income earned from a life doing construction. Now as he enters late life, his health is failing, and he finds himself at the hospital with nowhere to go. He is not able to return to his cabin, because he needs to recover and build his strength. He is a proud man, never needing the help of others. But he is grateful for the place that allows him to stay, until the weather improves, or he has enough time to explore his long-term care options. The knowledgeable staff at the shelter, can help him with that. He may not like it, but he has no other choice. He is joined, by a thirty-year old women, with three children in tow. She also is a proud person, who chose the Fairbanks Rescue Mission to get away from a unsafe living situation. Her first day at the shelter, she is up early pushing a stroller through the snow. She needs to get her children on the bus, to school and daycare, in order to get to her job. She does not own a working vehicle but is willing to use the resources available to her. When the shelter staff get after her to pick up after her children, she considers buying a tent and moving to a campground. She too is proud and has a strong work ethic. It will take her an hour of walking to get the kids to school, work and repeat it at the end of the day. What is even more amazing, is she is able to find a job at all. Her employer wants her to work an eight-hour shift. She balanced caring for her children and working when she can. She does not always find the shelter staff to be helpful, when they get after her because the kids left toys in the dining room area. She swallows her frustrations because living at the shelter moves her up on the housing list. The staff are able to convince her that spending money on a tent, is not moving her in the right direction. Every human that walks in the door has a unique set of circumstances that forced them to accept help from the Fairbanks Rescue Mission. The thing you need to know is, without the shelter they would likely die on the streets of Fairbanks. People who have never spent time at the shelter may think it is full of addicts, and they do have those humans as well. But it is much more than that.
While I have worked here, the Rescue Mission has changed the lives of so many people for the better.
FRM is filled with people that genuinely care for the people in our community and have a sincere desire to help.
We who live in Interior Alaska are very fortunate to have the services of the Rescue Mission. The Rescue Mission serves the most needy members of our community. Homelessness, which is often invisible to those of us with jobs and homes is a problem in Fairbanks and through out Alaska. When you lose your job and then your home; it is a safe haven with warmth and food.