YOU are breaking the cycle of homelessness
and drug abuse for generations to come!

If you ask 12-year-old Stanley Vaca what it’s like living in a homeless motel, he answers, “Good.” When pressed for any negative aspect he adds, “Crowded.” He doesn’t mention that it’s so dangerous his mom won’t let him play outside. Or talk about the brick that came flying through their window at 3:00 a.m. one morning. Maybe it’s good that Stanley doesn’t understand what happened in his parents’ life that caused his family to end up here. Maybe it’s good he wasn’t aware of the stress his mom was under to feed him and his two sisters. But the fact that Stanley, and most kids, will so readily accept their daily life as normal can be a problem. If children think violence, drugs, physical abuse and instability — along with missing school, moving from one motel to the next, unemployment, prostitution and the other things associated with motels — are normal, what kind of a life can they look forward to when they grow up? Why wouldn’t they follow the same pattern from the environment in which they grew up? How would they know anything different?

That’s the problem we see every day with hundreds of children growing up in motel life. We regularly see second and third generation homeless families. It’s a tragedy — and a horrible waste. The good news for Stanley and his family is that people like you care enough to help. Your generosity and compassion made it possible for Stanley’s family to join the Orange County Rescue Mission’s Strong Beginnings program. Stanley’s mom, Lucy, is very grateful for the practical help she has received, like weekly groceries from our War on Hunger vehicle. But she says what she appreciates most is the spiritual guidance and emotional support.

With your help, we gave this family a hand up, instead of a hand out. Together, we’ve had a major impact in their lives. Three months ago, the Mission helped Stanley’s family move into their own apartment . Now Stanley and his sisters can play outside. Today,instead of bricks flying through the window, Stanley talks about what he enjoys in school, like science and P.E. A new life. A new beginning. A new future. Have no doubt, YOU are making a difference in their world. Thank you.

“My daughter was messing up bigtime,” admits Maryann Perez. “She has a drug problem, and the court was about to take away her four kids — my grandchildren!” Maryann was barely getting by financially, but she was not going to let her grandkids fall into the court system. The court granted her custody. Suddenly she had four kids to support: ages 13, 11, nine and eight — and the eight-year-old is severely disabled.

Shortly after the kids came to live with her, Maryann lost her apartment, but she is resourceful and has a positive attitude. She convinced a motel manager to give them a room in exchange for her working at the motel. The five of them shared two beds — with Grandma sleeping on the floor — but at least they were together, even if they were struggling. That’s when Maryann saw OCRM’s War on Hunger Vehicle. Daniel, a Strong Beginnings case manager, told her this program is for people who want to better themselves. “That’s us!” Maryann told him. Daniel helped with gas vouchers and groceries, but what Maryann appreciated most was the encouragement.

With our help, Maryann and the kids have now moved into an apartment. And the manager at the motel thought she was such a good worker that he’s put her on his payroll. Money is still tight — especially since the kids always seem to need new clothes. But they’ve been able to access other resources and now they make just enough to manage.

“I have goals,” says Maryann. “I want to keep serving the Lord and be a good example to my grandkids, making sure they get to church.” Then she quickly adds, “Thank you for giving us a hand.”

I don’t have a drug problem, I have a problem of picking bad men,” explains Gina Wilson. “I was always trying to please everyone, thinking if I could just keep the peace, everything would be okay.” To escape from one abusive boyfriend, Gina quit her job, packed up her children and went into hiding — which quickly led to homelessness.

“Later this handsome man, Dwayne , swept me off my feet,” she says. “He told me I was beautiful — I’d never heard that before. My family always called me fat and ugly.” Dwayne pressured her into taking drugs with him. She agreed at first, but quickly started refusing. He started to threaten and abuse her. Fortunately, he is in jail today.

A social worker referred her to the House of Hope. This is the closest to a healthy family life she has ever experienced. She realizes how much work she needs to do to get life back on track. But it’s worth it, she says, to keep her daughter from following in her footsteps. This is Gina’s chance to break the cycle of abuse for herself and her children. She is very grateful for the hope and opportunities made possible by your support.

On July 8, approximately 75 volunteers and countless donors teamed up to make OCRM's first Heart for Hunger food drive a great success. Almost four tons of food from six supermarkets in the Tustin area were donated, collected and sorted, bringing significant relief to the summer food shortage we experience here at the Rescue Mission on an annual basis.

Orange County’s 2006 Serve Day took place on Saturday, July 29, throughout the entire day. Rock Harbor church played a large part in bringing together 28 churches with approximately 4,000 volunteers to serve all over Orange County with numerous non-profit organizations.

The Orange County Rescue Mission was blessed with over 130 volunteers who provided a wide variety of assistance. At the Village of Hope on the former Tustin Base, approximately 100 volunteers performed room clean-up, landscaping projects and furniture moving and construction. The eight children that attended cleaned up, washed, dried and put back together the play area used by the children of last year's hurricane evacuees. And what an awesome job they did! Afterward, they got to play in the water while mom and dad continued working.

As these tasks were being accomplished at the Village of Hope, approximately 20 volunteers spent the day collecting food, clothing and blankets from a site in Costa Mesa. At the end of the day, several truckloads were delivered to the Orange County Rescue Mission’s warehouses in Tustin for distribution to our clients. Another 10 volunteers spent their evening at the Men’s New Life and Emergency Shelter in Santa Ana where they assisted with the preparation, service and clean-up of the evening dinner meal service.

All in all, it was a very productive, blessed day. Many thanks to each volunteer who braved the heat to make a difference in the lives of Orange County's homeless. God bless you all!

When we talk to homeless men and women, we quickly discover that a lot of their problems started when they were young. Many of their parents bounced from one place to another, or were homeless themselves. They grew up under a great deal of stress. Now that they’re adults, they have no idea what a healthy, productive lifestyle is.

We’ve found that if we can start ministering to children when they are young — help their parents, reunite families and show them a new life — we can break that cycle of destructiveness. Healing families today is like reaching into the future to give the next generation a chance at a good life. Each dollar we invest produces healthy families, which leads to an even healthier community.

Thank you for supporting the Orange County Rescue Mission. May God bless you for all you are doing to make our world a better place.

In His Service,

P.S. — Hurricane Katrina hit us, too. People were wonderfully generous in sending money to New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit last year. But it resulted in a big drop in giving here at the Mission — even over the holidays.

We still haven’t fully recovered financially, even though we helped more than 1,000 Katrina evacuees right here in Orange County. If you are able to send an extra gift right now, we would really appreciate it. Thank you!

Have you ever seen a homeless person standing on the street corner with a sign saying “Will work for food?” What should you do? Should you give them money? Should you buy them food? These options provide only temporary relief, but at the Orange County Rescue Mission, we want to suggest a way that you can make a permanent difference in homeless people's lives:

Refer them to us!

We have downloadable and printable cards with the services we offer and a map to our emergency/transitional facility in Santa Ana. Click here to download the cards in PDF format. Print them out, keep them in your car and hand them out to the homeless people you encounter.