GREAT FALLS — For 60 years, the Great Falls Rescue Mission has been assisting those who struggle with homelessness, and this year, they plan to broaden their services to assist those in need.
Jim McCormick, the director of the organization, said, "What we've been doing, we have all sorts of programs to help people through their homelessness. We believe that treatment first is the way to go because they got there for some sort of reason, and that we need to help them through what got them there in the first place so that they can be successful once they move out, and move on."
Their expansions came about partly due to the impacts of the Covid pandemic, which affected the number of homeless people that were assisted.
Carrie Matter, development director of the agency, said, "One of the things that we did is we had people coming from out of state. They might've been referred, or maybe they came to be near a family member, and so we had to kind of adjust our intake processes for people out of state because we wanted to be careful."
The services they plan to expand:
- Providing Parenting Classes
- Providing Job Skills
- Lengthen Drug Recovery Program
"The services that the Rescue Mission is looking to expand upon will aim to not only continue their commitment in meeting one's needs, but will also strive to promote a safer and healthier community."
Matter said, "They might do really well in a structured environment, but when they're in an apartment by themselves, they need to have the support of the community outside of the rescue mission, and so there's usually mentors involved, there's people like counselors that they're connected with, so it just gives people time, while they're here to get connected to the community to partner organizations and resources that are necessary for their success.
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