Emergency services are at the heart of our ministry

When Urban Ministry was founded in 1976, our goal was to help meet emergency needs including food and shelter. At the time, Birmingham was in the midst of a deep recession that left many people unemployed or underemployed. Sound familiar?

Then, as now, we seek to help families in emergency situations maintain the food, water, electricity, transportation and social services they need to survive. Without meeting those most basic human needs, no one can find the spiritual, mental, and emotional well-being (wholeness) that is also a part of our mission. 

We've already told you about the clients we serve through the Community Kitchen daily. We also offer: 

• Beeson Senior Services:  Funded by the Lucille Stewart Beeson Trust at Canterbury UMC, this program allows licensed clinical social worker Georgia Wilson to regularly visit 189 low-income senior clients throughout Jefferson County, assuring that they receive food, utility assistance, home repair services, transportation, and other vital resources.
• Food Assistance: We provide food boxes for individuals or families in need on a quarterly basis.
• Homelessness Prevention and Emergency Shelter Grants: This year, with funding from JCCEO, our social worker Jeff Bowman helped over 100 people avoid homelessness and find stable housing, administering deep resources to help families in crisis come to a place of economic independence over a 3 - to 18- month time period. He also provided emergency rent assistance to over 100 other individuals with funding from the City of Birmingham. 
• Transportation Assistance: In partnership with Church without Walls, we are able to offer transportation assistance to clients who need help getting to doctors' appointments, school, work, grocery shopping, and other important errands.
• Utility assistance: With funding from the Canterbury Beeson Trust, City of Birmingham, and various church groups, we are able to administer thousands of dollars in utility assistance for families who have a disconnect notice for power, gas or water. Our office manager Leslie screens hundreds of phone calls each week and helps connect those in the most dire situations to assistance. Too many of our neighbors in Birmingham find themselves without these most basic of necessities, which is why we are looking for resources to potentially expand these services next year.

We are grateful to the many supporters who provide operating funds and partnership for these core compassion programs, including the Canterbury Beeson Trust, HUD, the City of Birmingham, JCCEO, St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Canterbury's Brown Bag Ministry, the Feinstein Foundation, the Hill Crest Foundation, the Daniel Foundation of Alabama, UAB's Faculty and Staff Benevolence Fund, Regions Bank, and the numerous other individuals, churches, foundations and corporate donors who sustain our work.