June 19, 2025 • 7 mins
Kevin Ramsdell, Executive Director, and Sabra Ramsdell, Chief of Staff at the Springfield Rescue Mission, join us live from the Travelers Championship. The organization offers a men's residential rehabilitation program that supports recovery from addiction, including alcohol, drugs, and gambling, while also addressing education, job readiness, and spiritual growth.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, Thank you for listening to Community Access. I'm
Alison Demerz. I'm over at the Travelers Championship in Cromwell.
My guest this morning is Kevin Ramsdell and Saber Ramsdell.
Kevin is the executive director of the Springfield Rescue Mission
and Sabra is his chief of staff. Good morning, Good morning.
For those who don't know about the Springfield Rescue Mission,
(00:22):
how did it all begin and what's it all about?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well, basically, it started over one hundred and thirty years
and we reach out into the community and help the
homeless population, but we do a little bit more than that.
So a lot of people that see us think all
we do is feed and clothed people, but it goes
much deeper. We have a rehabilitation center there as well,
and people can be recovering from anything from alcohol addiction,
drug addiction, gambling addiction, and again we're we have a
(00:46):
holistic approach to the recovery process because we are faith
based and everything that we do there is based and
again through the Bible and whatnot, and it's just enjoyable
for us to be a part of everything that's happening there.
We do have a men's only program right now, which
is Men's New Life one and two. But in the
future we're actually looking at the possibility if we can
(01:06):
get enough support of opening up a women's facility as
well to reduplicate what we're doing with the men.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Well, I'm a pastor and I know that faith based
programs work a lot better than the other programs. I
think the other programs only have a five to eight
percent success rate, which will take it, but the faith
based is much much higher. It's maybe eighty percent. I
would say, yes, yeah, I mean, and with God it
could be one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
That's what we're shooting for. Yeah, but it's all up
to him. You know. His timing is always perfect.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Amen, Yes, it is. So that's amazing. So you'd like
to do a women's program at some point too, and
hopefully with these birdies for charities donations for every dollar
that you get, Webster Bank will give fifteen cents, and
maybe you'll be able to do that in the future.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Amen.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
We would love that. Yeah, So we give you a
little perspective, Alison. We serve over three million pounds of
food per year and that goes out in an outreach
capacity as well as what we do in house. We
are the oldest homeless program in the state of Massachusetts
and fifth oldest in the country. So it's been going
(02:15):
on for a long time. And when Kevin and I
got there five years ago, that's when we kind of
ramped up the educational models, realizing that the recidivism rate
was just too high. So we added through this holistic model,
high set people can get their GED equivalent. They can
(02:35):
go through mass Hired to do career coaching and counseling.
We have a workforce development liaison who helps them by
prepping their resumes and all that. Then we have, out
of thirty five men in our rehabilitation program, we have
nine that are in higher education models right now, from
college to four year programs to two year associate degrees
(02:57):
to certificate programs. As we know what they know, which
is you can't break that cycle of poverty and dependence
on the system if you don't have enough education to
get a better job exactly. So that's how we've changed,
and everything is now done on an individual basis, which
(03:17):
is remarkable.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Because everybody that comes in is different, So we focus
on what the need is and go from there. And
although we publicize it's a year long program. The two years. No,
it's a little different because we've got guys now in
higher educational learning models that are gone back to school
to get there the diplomas and the degrees and things
of that nature. So we've got one person that stayed
with us now it's going on a little over three years.
(03:40):
But we don't want them to have to worry about,
you know, room and board and whatnot. We want to
take care of them up until the fact that they
can stand on their own two feet and end up
in a job that they love to do. Because if
we can break through that model of just any old
job we'll do, they'll never work a day in their life.
And again, we don't want to just be a hand up,
you know what I mean, our hand We want to
be a hand up and get them really grounded. So
(04:03):
our primary goal is within the first two months, is
they have to plug themselves in some kind of church,
because we're a non denominational entity, but we want them
to also have a church family to supports and once
they do leave us and stand up, and then we
want them to come back and share as alumni or
whatever with some of the folks that they can encourage
as well that are just starting this journey and prove
(04:23):
to them, hey, it does work, so that they can
see it. And I speak a lot of different churches
throughout the community as well, and I always go through
the Book of Luke fifteen, chapter fifteen because it basically
spells out what we do there. Because you know, the
lost coin, it still has value. And that's what we
have to teach these guys when they come in. They
know deprivatey and whatnot that you and I will never experience.
(04:47):
But when they come in, we have to show them
they have value. They've just been out of circulation. One
of the ways they have value again is they're made
in the image of God. And the other way is
once they receive Christ is their savior. Guess what where
does the whole Holy Spirit live? He lives inside of you,
so you know what, You're now part of the Trinity.
So we teach the relationship. We don't focus on religion,
(05:09):
but we focus on building the relationship first because once
they get that, then everything else seems to fall into
place and we adjust.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
So blessed you.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Know, we invite people to come in for a tour
all the time, but also the one to our graduation,
which happens every year on May, the first Friday of May,
and this year we had a perfect testimony of a
person who was down on his luck try to commit
suicide and how God latched onto him, saved him, brought
him to the mission, and now his life is totally
transformed living out Romans twelve, one and two. So again,
(05:40):
go to our website and check it out. It's called
Dave's Story and you can click on that and get
a glimpse of what we really do do there and
what your support coming in helps us to do.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Well. Your better half is chomping at the bit. You've
got something to say.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Yeah, I was going to share with you that last
night I went to graduation for the Tech Foundry in Springfield,
which is the state's effort to bring digital literacy to
as many people as we can in the state of Massachusetts.
So we implemented a version of the Tech Foundry in
the Mission, which means that every guy who can do
(06:15):
this on their phone and knows how to operate a
phone also gets training in actual computer literacy, and the
Tech Foundry leads them into an IT job. So after
eighteen weeks of schooling there. This one gentleman graduated last
night and it was an amazing thing to watch these
people that you know, just flock to learning and they
(06:37):
gravitate towards wanting to know more because they want to
build a better future for themselves. So we had brought
in digital literacy along with a financial wellness program because
most people don't know how to balance a checkbook or
you know, manage a budget or handle the practical things
of life and they need that.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
So we do all of that wonderful with Kevin Ramsdell
and Saber Ramsdell. They are from the Springfield Rescue Mission.
If you'd like to volunteer donate, you can go to
Springfield Rescue Mission dot org or Travelers Championship dot com.
We're trying to raise that money for berties for charity,
and if you'd like to see what events they're having,
(07:18):
also go to Springfield Rescue Mission dot dot org. Thank
you so much for being here today and for serving
the community, and thank you for inviting us.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
God bless
Good morning, Thank you for listening to Community Access. I'm
Alison Demerz. I'm over at the Travelers Championship in Cromwell.
My guest this morning is Kevin Ramsdell and Saber Ramsdell.
Kevin is the executive director of the Springfield Rescue Mission
and Sabra is his chief of staff. Good morning, Good morning.
For those who don't know about the Springfield Rescue Mission,
(00:22):
how did it all begin and what's it all about?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well, basically, it started over one hundred and thirty years
and we reach out into the community and help the
homeless population, but we do a little bit more than that.
So a lot of people that see us think all
we do is feed and clothed people, but it goes
much deeper. We have a rehabilitation center there as well,
and people can be recovering from anything from alcohol addiction,
drug addiction, gambling addiction, and again we're we have a
(00:46):
holistic approach to the recovery process because we are faith
based and everything that we do there is based and
again through the Bible and whatnot, and it's just enjoyable
for us to be a part of everything that's happening there.
We do have a men's only program right now, which
is Men's New Life one and two. But in the
future we're actually looking at the possibility if we can
(01:06):
get enough support of opening up a women's facility as
well to reduplicate what we're doing with the men.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Well, I'm a pastor and I know that faith based
programs work a lot better than the other programs. I
think the other programs only have a five to eight
percent success rate, which will take it, but the faith
based is much much higher. It's maybe eighty percent. I
would say, yes, yeah, I mean, and with God it
could be one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
That's what we're shooting for. Yeah, but it's all up
to him. You know. His timing is always perfect.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Amen, Yes, it is. So that's amazing. So you'd like
to do a women's program at some point too, and
hopefully with these birdies for charities donations for every dollar
that you get, Webster Bank will give fifteen cents, and
maybe you'll be able to do that in the future.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Amen.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
We would love that. Yeah, So we give you a
little perspective, Alison. We serve over three million pounds of
food per year and that goes out in an outreach
capacity as well as what we do in house. We
are the oldest homeless program in the state of Massachusetts
and fifth oldest in the country. So it's been going
(02:15):
on for a long time. And when Kevin and I
got there five years ago, that's when we kind of
ramped up the educational models, realizing that the recidivism rate
was just too high. So we added through this holistic model,
high set people can get their GED equivalent. They can
(02:35):
go through mass Hired to do career coaching and counseling.
We have a workforce development liaison who helps them by
prepping their resumes and all that. Then we have, out
of thirty five men in our rehabilitation program, we have
nine that are in higher education models right now, from
college to four year programs to two year associate degrees
(02:57):
to certificate programs. As we know what they know, which
is you can't break that cycle of poverty and dependence
on the system if you don't have enough education to
get a better job exactly. So that's how we've changed,
and everything is now done on an individual basis, which
(03:17):
is remarkable.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Because everybody that comes in is different, So we focus
on what the need is and go from there. And
although we publicize it's a year long program. The two years. No,
it's a little different because we've got guys now in
higher educational learning models that are gone back to school
to get there the diplomas and the degrees and things
of that nature. So we've got one person that stayed
with us now it's going on a little over three years.
(03:40):
But we don't want them to have to worry about,
you know, room and board and whatnot. We want to
take care of them up until the fact that they
can stand on their own two feet and end up
in a job that they love to do. Because if
we can break through that model of just any old
job we'll do, they'll never work a day in their life.
And again, we don't want to just be a hand up,
you know what I mean, our hand We want to
be a hand up and get them really grounded. So
(04:03):
our primary goal is within the first two months, is
they have to plug themselves in some kind of church,
because we're a non denominational entity, but we want them
to also have a church family to supports and once
they do leave us and stand up, and then we
want them to come back and share as alumni or
whatever with some of the folks that they can encourage
as well that are just starting this journey and prove
(04:23):
to them, hey, it does work, so that they can
see it. And I speak a lot of different churches
throughout the community as well, and I always go through
the Book of Luke fifteen, chapter fifteen because it basically
spells out what we do there. Because you know, the
lost coin, it still has value. And that's what we
have to teach these guys when they come in. They
know deprivatey and whatnot that you and I will never experience.
(04:47):
But when they come in, we have to show them
they have value. They've just been out of circulation. One
of the ways they have value again is they're made
in the image of God. And the other way is
once they receive Christ is their savior. Guess what where
does the whole Holy Spirit live? He lives inside of you,
so you know what, You're now part of the Trinity.
So we teach the relationship. We don't focus on religion,
(05:09):
but we focus on building the relationship first because once
they get that, then everything else seems to fall into
place and we adjust.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
So blessed you.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Know, we invite people to come in for a tour
all the time, but also the one to our graduation,
which happens every year on May, the first Friday of May,
and this year we had a perfect testimony of a
person who was down on his luck try to commit
suicide and how God latched onto him, saved him, brought
him to the mission, and now his life is totally
transformed living out Romans twelve, one and two. So again,
(05:40):
go to our website and check it out. It's called
Dave's Story and you can click on that and get
a glimpse of what we really do do there and
what your support coming in helps us to do.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Well. Your better half is chomping at the bit. You've
got something to say.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Yeah, I was going to share with you that last
night I went to graduation for the Tech Foundry in Springfield,
which is the state's effort to bring digital literacy to
as many people as we can in the state of Massachusetts.
So we implemented a version of the Tech Foundry in
the Mission, which means that every guy who can do
(06:15):
this on their phone and knows how to operate a
phone also gets training in actual computer literacy, and the
Tech Foundry leads them into an IT job. So after
eighteen weeks of schooling there. This one gentleman graduated last
night and it was an amazing thing to watch these
people that you know, just flock to learning and they
(06:37):
gravitate towards wanting to know more because they want to
build a better future for themselves. So we had brought
in digital literacy along with a financial wellness program because
most people don't know how to balance a checkbook or
you know, manage a budget or handle the practical things
of life and they need that.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
So we do all of that wonderful with Kevin Ramsdell
and Saber Ramsdell. They are from the Springfield Rescue Mission.
If you'd like to volunteer donate, you can go to
Springfield Rescue Mission dot org or Travelers Championship dot com.
We're trying to raise that money for berties for charity,
and if you'd like to see what events they're having,
(07:18):
also go to Springfield Rescue Mission dot dot org. Thank
you so much for being here today and for serving
the community, and thank you for inviting us.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
God bless
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