Our Mission

To offer God’s help, hope and healing to the most impoverished members of our community.

Our Vision

That every homeless person in Pierce County has access to a complete and permanent pathway out of poverty as they pursue God’s plan for their lives.

Our Purpose

We help all people; including clients, volunteers, donors and staff, to become their best. We provide emergency services such as shelter and food to the homeless or hurting; offer self-sufficiency programs to help lift a person from poverty and break the chains of addiction; support prevention programs and share our Christian faith.

Our Values

Calling: We believe that God loves and cares for every single person, and is not willing to write off anyone. God has made us all in His image with irreducibly divine value, dignity and purpose. We grow deeper in this truth as we answer God’s call to courageously offer our homeless neighbors HIS help, hope and healing.

Courage: God’s calling us into a twilight landscape of wreckage and dysfunction, in which the pathway forward is lit only by a belief in His ability to raise the dead. It takes courage to choose faith, hope and love in the face of brokenness.

Culture: God’s plan for healthy people is actuated through healthy, loving relationships which are the reason for, the vehicle of and the reward of change. Our relational culture is the gift we offer to our clients.

Quality: Because we recognize the divine image of God in every individual, we strive toward the highest levels of quality. In all of our programs and services, we seek to uphold the God-given dignity of our clients, and to measure our efficiency and effectiveness in bringing about positive, lasting change in individuals and our community as a whole.

Partnering with caring people like you toDo something about Tacoma’s Homeless Crisis

Hover over one of the balloon icons below to reveal one of the programs we
offer at the Tacoma Rescue Mission. Click to learn more. 

Providing Resources to Survive

Offering essential resources to our impoverished and vulnerable neighbors.

Meals

A warm, nutritious meal is something most of us take for granted. But we know that for our neighbors experiencing homelessness, a simple meal is often the first step toward a new life.

Our Good Neighbor Café provides over 800 meals a day to men, women and children living in poverty. Our Downtown Campus location is open to the public twice daily:

Breakfast: 7am-8am
Dinner: 5pm-6pm

Shelter

Men’s Emergency Shelter

Our Men’s Shelter provides safe overnight shelter and warm, nutritious meals to over 1,400 homeless men in our community each year. Thanks to generous community members like you, we offer holistic case management, housing and employment services, life-skills courses, mental health support and adult basic education to anyone who walks through our doors.

Adams Street Family Shelter

Our Family Shelter now provides emergency shelter, meals and services every single day of the year to over 135 homeless families. At any given time, we are working with 40 homeless families providing services such as case management, mental health counseling services and career, housing placement and employment assistance

Clothing

Each year we receive over 40,000 items of clothing and warmth from generous members of our community and redistribute them to men, women and children in need.

Rescue

When you live on the streets, the line between safety and danger is very thin. A pair of dry socks, a warm blanket and an encouraging conversation can really make a difference. That is why our committed staff, along with community volunteers, hit the streets four times a week to distribute much-needed items and facilitate healing relationships. They also offer those they meet a ride back to the Mission for a chance to get off the streets for good. Because of our dedicated Search & Rescue staff and volunteers we provide support and services to over 4,000 unsheltered neighbors in Pierce County each year.

Overcoming Barriers

It’s such a blessing to be able to provide much-needed services to those experiencing homelessness, addiction and poverty in our community.

RECOVERY

Men’s and Women’s New life Program

Our New Life Program is designed for those that have suffered from the devastation of substance use disorders. We offer help and hope in an environment that combines nurturing support with critical structure and accountability. Our staff work with clients individually and in groups to help them in all areas of life: physical, social, emotional, spiritual, and more. This program is a twelve-month, faith-based, in-house program with the men’s and women’s programs located on separate campuses.

New Life Program Overview:

• Genesis Process Recovery and Relapse
• Prevention curriculum
• One on One Mentoring
• Adult Basic Education
(refresher courses in math, reading, and writing)
• High School Completion
(High School 21+ or GED)
• Job skills training and Career Coaching
• Each year these recovery programs help over 100 homeless and addicted men and women from our community become clean and sober. These clients now have a chance to become the men and women (and parents) they always hoped they’d be. Additionally, all of the children who are with their parents going through the New Life Program are enrolled in our vibrant Youth Program and offered counseling as well.

COUNSELING

Our Counseling Services program on-site crisis & mental health counseling each year to our clients on all four of our campuses. This includes the children staying with us – perhaps the most abused, traumatized and vulnerable members of our entire community. We are committed to investing in the healthy development and mental well-being of the those we serve.

EDUCATION

Education is often a defining factor in being able to overcome homelessness. Nearly 2 out of 5 adults who are struggling with homelessness don’t have a high school diploma. Our staff works with clients individually and in groups to help equip them with the tools and education necessary to gain employment. Our adult education hub, known as the Challenge Learning Center, provides over 10,000 hours of free adult basic education, tutoring, job skills training, resume assistance, and career and higher education navigation and is open to anyone in need in our community.

We are open to the public for High School Credential Completion support (HS21): Monday – Thursday 12:30 pm – 4:00 pm at our Downtown Campus

For Math and English tutoring, we are open Monday – Thursday 1:00pm – 3:00pm.

VETERANS

We are honored to extend a helping hand to those who have served our country in the armed forces. We have an office dedicated to Veterans experiencing homelessness to do just that! Our Veterans Resource Center, located at our Downtown Campus, provides direct service, assistance and guidance to our community’s homeless veterans who come to us for shelter and food. We link them with needed services while offering support and encouragement here at the Mission. In addition, we have dedicated a 10-bed dorm reserved for our country’s veterans experiencing homeless and it has been full since the day we opened it.

We are proud to partner with the US Veteran’s Affairs Administration to make these services available to our Veteran guests. We are also members of the VA Stakeholders Committee and Operation Comfort Warriors: Heroes to Home Towns.

LEGAL

We offer free legal services and guidance to anyone who is staying with us. In partnership with Open Door Legal, we remove legal barriers that often seem insurmountable to help individuals and families escape homelessness.

Equipping to Thrive

We provide guests with practical and holistic opportunities to build a permanent pathway out of poverty.

JOBS

We provide career navigation services to prepare men and women experiencing homelessness to enter or re-enter the workforce and help open doors to future job opportunities. Among these services are resumé building and job interview training. Additionally, through our Vocational Training Program, guests of the Mission can develop their work-related skills, get hands on job training and build rapport with local employers.

YOUTH

We are committed to investing wholly in the children staying with us to promote a legacy of hope by breaking the cycle of homelessness and abuse. Our Youth Services Program supports the academic, emotional and social development of children experiencing homelessness. Each year we provide over 10,000 hours of supportive, nurturing guidance and educational off-campus experiences to over 350 traumatized and vulnerable homeless children a year. Children enrolled in our program have shown measurable improvement in academic performance and social well-being. In addition, we offer free childcare and preschool for working families at the Mission.

Supporting in Community

Connecting guests experiencing homelessness with long-term solutions and community support so they can be successful long after they have left the Mission.

HOUSING

Tyler Square Campus

Our Tyler Square Campus is home to our Tyler Family Housing Program that offers 15 subsidized, clean and sober, permanent housing apartment homes for families exiting out of homelessness. We continue to support these clients’ stabilization with case management, mental health counseling, life-skills development, and career navigation.

Jefferson Square Apartments

Our Jefferson Square Apartments provide permanent housing solutions for previously homeless single individuals with physical or mental disabilities. Like our Tyler Family Housing Program, we also offer residents at our Jefferson Campus continued stabilization services.

FAITH

Our Christian faith in a God who deeply loves us and encounters us amidst our brokenness guides all of what we do at the Mission. That faith is at the foundation of how we see the lives of families and individuals restored and transformed Through bible studies, discipleship, and connecting with local faith communities, we seek to bring about positive, lasting change in each person who comes through our doors as well as our community as a whole.

Together, we are empowering transformation in the lives of our unhoused neighbors and our community.

Check out our Annual Report to read how.

The Tacoma Rescue Mission legacy Serving the Hurting & Homeless for over 100 Years

The Tacoma Rescue Mission is proud to have served Tacoma and Pierce County since 1912. For over 100 years we have continued to serve in the name of Christ, while emphasizing the dignity of each person who enters our doors. We value the needs of our immediate community, and continually adapt to the changing needs of those who come to us for help.

Our work is a community effort Partners of the Tacoma Rescue Mission

The Mission is committed to offering help and hope through healing to the most impoverished members of our community. Partners play a vital role in making this possible. Organizations, businesses and churches who are interested in becoming a partner can contact Emily Koo at EmilyK@trm.org or 253.383.4493 to learn more.

FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY &
OTHER RESOURCE DOWNLOADS

Tacoma Rescue Mission is committed to transparency and
good stewardship of the resources we are provided.

View Documents

The dedicated individuals serving the MissionTacoma Rescue Mission Team

Click below to meet the team of men and women delivering
hope to those who need it the most.

Meet our Leadership Team