CHRISTIAN CARE

Christian Care has been providing core services of food and shelter for over 107 years. It was Guy “The Kid” Rodgers, a retired professional boxer who established the Rescue Mission in 1916 with the idea of providing warm meals and basic necessities. He said “It is our job to rebuild the character and confidence of defeated men and women.” In 2004, the mission moved to its’ current location, where we continue to help improve the lives of our neighbors who struggle with mental illness, substance abuse and homelessness.

We offer a 42-bed facility for men experiencing homelessness; 33 beds for emergency shelter, 6 beds for our Veteran’s Transitional Housing Program and 3 beds dedicated to Rock Island County Drug and Mental Health Court Systems. Martha’s House, our women and children’s shelter is a 6-bedroom house located in the Broadway Historical District in Rock Island and will continue to offer desperately needed shelter for women and their children. We provide a community meal site open to the public serving almost 40,000 meals annually. We have a Food for Families Program providing up to 10 families two weeks’ worth of food. A collaboration with Trinity Parish Nursing and Health Ministry is on-site once a week providing basic medical and preventative health care. We also collaborate with Community Health Care to bring on-site mobile clinic and Prairie State Legal Services offering their services to those in need. These services operate during our meal site hours and are open to the community.

In partnership with Project Now in Rock Island, we provide street outreach services for those in our community living unsheltered or who may be unable to access services for any reason. Through street outreach services, individuals are immediately assessed and prioritized for assistance through the coordinated entry process in the same manner as anyone who would typically present for services in person. Two of our staff, including the outreach worker are SSI/SSDI, Outreach, Access and Recovery (SOAR) certified and able to assist both those living in shelter and unsheltered with accessing necessary benefits and mainstream resources. Case management services for the men’s mission and Martha’s House are service intensive and designed to get individuals in and out of homelessness as quickly as possible. Christian Care offers the only public shower on the Illinois side of the Quad Cities for those living unsheltered and provides a resource lab as well for those needing internet access.

From our humble beginnings as Rock Island Rescue Mission, to the organization we have become today, Christian Care is helping to improve the lives of those in our local and surrounding community who are experiencing homelessness, dealing with food insecurity, struggling with mental illness and substance abuse, transitioning out of the prison system and veterans.