@WakeUpCall – Union Rescue Mission's 'Over the Edge'

Amy speaks with Union Rescue Mission CEO Mark Hood about the ‘Over the Edge’ fundraising event supporting URM's long-term solutions, from emergency shelter and recovery programs to transitional housing, and education,

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
As we've been telling you, I'm going over the edge
this weekend to raise money to fight homelessness. Thank you will.
We want to tell you more about what it is
that Union Rescue Mission is doing and has done to
actually help people get off the street and back on
their feet. We caught up with the CEO of the
Union Rescue Mission, Mark Hood. Good morning, Mark, Good morning Amy.

(00:23):
So tell us about what we're going to be doing
on September twenty sixth and twenty seven.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
We are going to go to the top floor of
this Hilton and we're going to repel all the way
down to the bottom for a worthy cause. And for
two days we're going to have people lined up coming
down the ropes, supporting people that are experiencing homelessness. And
by your donations, by you participating, you're helping those in
need find their way home.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Okay, So I want to talk about Union Rescue Mission
and why we're involved with it, and why we believe
in it, and why you believe in it obviously, but
what you guys do is actually help people, like you said,
find their way home. You're not just throwing of the problem.
You're helping these people.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
We absolutely are. We pride ourselves in not being a shelter.
We pride ourselves in being a solution. And we look
at it as our job to end homelessness for everyone
that walks through our door. And I'm proud to say
we have a team that's really good at that.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Okay, and we know that the problem in Los Angeles,
in the whole Southern California area is daunting, stagger and
last year it was the theme was just help one,
which was almost paired it down where you made it
more doable, and that's what we're still trying to do.
We're not going to solve homelessness today, but we can
help some people. We can help the people who actually

(01:35):
want the help.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
We can help the people that walk through our door.
And the great news is we put over one thousand
families in permanent housing last year, one thousand people. That's
not small. We saw our graduations for our programs explode
by forty six percent, that's not small. We are making
a difference. When I say we, it's all of us.
Everyone that supports Union Rescue Mission, you're helping us help
others find their way home. So we're we're in this together.

(01:58):
But we are making a different and we can we
can continue to make a difference at this great event.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
Okay, and when they walk through your doors, you don't
just say say, here's some food and here's some vouchers
to go stay in a hotel, like you're reteaching them
how to get back into society.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
When people walk through our doors, the first thing they're
going to notice is they're love didn't care for. They're
not going to be judged. They're going to be met
where they're at, and we're going to assess their needs
and we're going to give them a caseworker. We're going
to give them a team around them that's going to
help us help them on their journey of recovery. Because
homelessess has a lot of faces. It could be that
you have an addiction, it could be you've experienced domestic violence.

(02:33):
It could be you've just been abandoned or you're out
of a job. We address all those needs, and we
do it in a spirit of love, and we do
it trying to live out the hands and feet of
our Lord and Savior in front of others.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Okay, and all of this does take money, and that's
why we're going over the edge. So how can we help.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
Well, what we need is people to go out to
our website. You arem dot org, slash ote and sign up,
and there's a lot of ways to sponsor. You can
either make a nation to go over the Edge with,
or you could sponsor Team kfive with Amy and Neil,
or you can just sponsor anybody that's on the page,
or you can just make a donation to the page

(03:11):
saying hey, I don't want to go over the Edge,
but I do want to make a difference. So you
go to that website. There's so many ways you can participate,
and we need your help.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
All right, Mark Cood, thank you so much for looking
forward to going over the Edge. Yes we are. It's
happening this friday. Both Neil and I are going to
go over the Edge this Friday. They're going to be
doing it on the twenty sixth and the twenty seventh
at the Hilton Universal City as Mark was just telling
you about, and I need your help. We need to
raise more money. We know that you have a lot

(03:41):
of pulls on your money and people are strapped. If
you can do something to help, we certainly appreciate it.
Whether it's you know, whether it's ten dollars or fifty
dollars or one hundred dollars or one thousand dollars. If
you want to go over the edge with us, we'd
love to go down the side of a building with you.
But you can find out all the information how to
donate how to go over the end edge at r

(04:01):
M dot org slash o t E. That's U r
M dot org slash o t E. And then when
you go onto that page, you just click on the
little teen kfi and make a donation there and thank
you in advance for any help that you can give us.
If you want to come down and watch too. It
is a pretty cool event, and I tell you it's
it's scary as all get up, but it's also thrilling

(04:23):
and exhilarating and boy, I can't wait coming up this Friday,