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Nonprofit of the Year
Nonprofit of the Year Winchester Rescue Mission
From Left to Right: Pat Kofalt, Vicki Culbreth, Janice Dicken, Brandan Thomas, Peggy Perdue, Lauren Clouse, Sarah Williams, Rachel Rivera, and Patti Solenberger
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The Winchester Rescue Mission has provided shelter and support to individuals and families devastated by the effect of homelessness and poverty in the Northern Shenandoah Valley since 1973.
Beginning as a shelter for men, the mission has expanded to assist men, women and families as well as transitional housing. The Center for Men and Center for Women residential shelter programs provide for the immediate needs including shelter, meals, clothing and supplies to stabilize the crisis. Then, case managers begin to address the deeper issues including substance abuse, mental illness, literacy, financial management and develop an individualized case plan with achievable goals to progress towards stability and self-sufficiency. By going beyond just meeting the immediate needs, lives are transformed. In 2021, 33 individuals were moved from chronically homeless to successfully housed and contributing citizens in our community.
The Mission is able to meet these further needs with the assistance and support of community partners including Valley Health, Northwestern Community Services, Literacy Volunteers, Aids Response Effort (ARE), Northern Shenandoah Valley Substance Abuse Coalition, Sinclair Health Clinic and Veterans Assistance. The demand for assistance continues to exceed capacity which has led to the mission expanding services in 2022. The additional location will include an emergency shelter for men and women, new Center for Men location, day center, and classroom space. This expansion will allow the current location to become the new Center for Women expanding capacity from 8 ladies to 35 as well as providing housing for families and clients with high medical needs.
The mission outreach programs include a food pantry serving 1200 boxes of food per month; community meals serving over 5,000 meals per month; and free laundry & showers which provide additional support to struggling families with a goal of household stabilization.
Their goal is to end homelessness which begins with providing a safe, stable, supporting environment with the necessary programs and services each individual experiencing homelessness needs to transform their life from homeless to housed.
