Congratulations to Marsha Podsiad for being the winner of the naming contest for our new Wyandotte location…. THE D.R.E.A.M CENTER (Downriver Rescue Efforts and Mission)!!
Marsha is a Wyandotte resident and a local nurse and her name was selected from over 60 entries.

Here she is pictured (left) with DRMM’s President and CEO Dr. Chad Audi (center) and Outreach and Volunteer Coordinator Billie Lionberger.

The Dream Center located at 1167 Maple Street will be a community hub helping with food, clothing, and hygiene items, resources for the Wyandotte schools including supplies for teachers and students. Additionally, the center will serve as a referral source treatment, shelter or mental health support. Unlike other DRMM locations, the center will not offer housing.

THE DETROIT RESCUE MISSION SET TO OFFICIALLY OPEN WYANDOTTE LOCATION

WYANDOTTE, MI – The Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries official grand opening of its Wyandotte site located at 1167 Maple is scheduled for Thursday, March 9, 2023 from 5pm-7pm. The event will include a program featuring local officials, community partners, and DRMM leadership, networking and reception. The winner of the new location’s naming contest will also be announced.

The center will be a community hub, helping with food, clothing, and hygiene items, resources for the Wyandotte schools including supplies for teachers and students. Additionally, the center will serve as a referral source treatment, shelter or mental health support. Unlike other DRMM locations, the center will not offer housing.

“The Detroit Rescue Mission is excited to officially open our Wyandotte center and begin our work in the downriver area.” said President and CEO, Dr. Chad Audi. “We have hosted a few community events in the area, but we are now ready to welcome the residents of Wyandotte and the surrounding areas into our downriver home that will service as a community center. We have been looking forward to this expansion for a very long time.”

Community partners of the new location include the Wyandotte Police Department and Fire Departments, Wyandotte High School, and Community Choice Credit Union. More information on the recovery support services and school -based health clinic being offered to Wyandotte High School will also be unveiled during the program portion of the grand opening.
The grand opening will be held Thursday, March 9th from 5pm-7pm with the program being from 5pm-6pm and the reception and networking being held from 6pm-7pm. Guests are encouraged to RSVP by at bit.ly/ DRMMWYANOPENING.
For more information or media inquiries contact Chiara C. Clayton, Public Relations Manager at 313-993-4700 ext. 4707 or at cclayton@drmm.org

For more information on the Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries and their services, visit drmm.org or call 313.993.4700.

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The Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries is a 114-year old, Christian faith-based mission with the goal of easing the burden of homelessness, addiction, chronic unemployment, mental health struggles, and other situations through treatment, housing and various levels of support and engagement.

The non-profit partners with local actor to feed the homeless on Valentine’s Day

DETROIT, MICHIGAN, UNITED STATES, February 16, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ — The Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries hosted a Valentine’s Day event at their Oasis Shelter in Highland Park sponsored by actor and stuntman James Darnell, a Detroit native who wanted to do something to give back to his city on a day dedicated to love. The annual “Love Over Hunger” featured food distribution, haircuts, hygiene kits, job assistance, makeup and hair services and a live DJ that benefited over 100 clients of the DRMM.

“You never see community events on holidays that help people outside of Christmas and Thanksgiving. I wanted to do something on Valentine’s Day because it is a day that is a love holiday. “said Darnell. “I’m born and raised in Detroit, and I wanted to help those in my city and show them love on Valentine’s Day. So, I recruited my family and friends, and some community connections and came up with the theme ‘Love Over Hunger”. We want to make this an annual event that will grow each year to help more people.” Darnell has been featured such films as “Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G.” and music videos like Beyoncé’s “Haunted”.

The Oasis Shelter is one of 11 locations operated by the Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries and houses men, many of whom are struggling with addiction, debt, and difficulty finding employment. The Love Over Hunger event was able to provide food and services to the clients of Oasis and those who walked in. The event coincidentally took place on the Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries’ 114th anniversary.

The Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries was founded in 1909 by David C. Stucky as a soup kitchen offering shelter, food and clothing to Detroit’s homeless population. In the last 100 years it has added services and locations and now offers include substance abuse treatment, transitional and permanent housing, job preparation and educational courses. Services are available to men, woman, veterans, and returning citizens. Under the current leadership of President and CEO Dr, Chad Audi, DRMM also operates Lighthouse Food Pantry in Roseville, Wildwood Ranch in Howell, Pathway Shelter in Port Huron, and will expand downriver with a new community center in Wyandotte set to open this spring.

For more information on volunteer opportunities and services of the Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries, follow them on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn or visit their website at drmm.org.

Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries provides shelter for the homeless and food for those in need. At Christmas – they deliver gifts for families who just need a little help. This year Detroit police officers from the 7th Precinct got to be Santa’s helpers.

DETROIT – Tonight, as is the case every night, more than two thousand homeless people will have a meal — this night, a special Thanksgiving meal — thanks to Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries.

Some of them are homeless through no fault of their own, thrown out by abusers or forced to flee. Some are children; some veterans. Some are victims of alcoholism or drug addiction.

They will also have a clean, safe and dry place to sleep, no matter how crowded the mission (DRMM, for short) — may be. They will also be offered a chance at building a better life. “We never turn anyone away,” said Chad Audi, the man who, without fanfare, has turned what was once little more than a soup kitchen into what is essentially a full-service privately run social service agency.

Though he hasn’t gotten a great deal of attention in Michigan, last year Audi, a genial, modest and self-effacing man, received a global award for being the non-profit CEO of the year.

The magazine CEO Today noted that he had received widespread recognition as a “visionary and dynamic leader who had not only created one of the largest rescue missions in the world, but had quietly also built one of the biggest substance abuse treatment centers in the United States.

But while you might think Chad Audi would have a sense of satisfaction this Thanksgiving, he’s more worried than contented, for several reasons. “This is an odd time for us,” he said in his office near Detroit’s once-infamous, crime-plagued Cass Corridor.

“People think the pandemic is pretty much over, and unemployment is down, and the need is less. But it’s not. Contributions were down 49 percent in October over last year. But the need is actually greater. With the economic upheavals and uncertainties we are seeing people we haven’t seen since (the Great Recession of) 2008,” when many who had never been in serious economic trouble lost their jobs, and then homes.

Working poor and even middle-class families, that is, and that’s happening again now, he said. The pandemic was especially hard for the Detroit Rescue Mission. The mission, which now has 22 sites, had to open new ones and find new space to house people who could no longer be in close proximity to each other.

There were vast added expenses for sanitation equipment and supplies. The virus was devastating to people who were already weak; in addition to a number of clients, nine of DRMM’s full and part-time staff members died.

“Somehow I never got it, though I was here and with the people all the time– you can’t work remotely and serve the public in a job like this. Then, three months ago, when everything is supposed to be over — I got Covid!” he chuckled, shaking his head.

That may be ironic, but what is more so is that this was never the life Chad Audi planned at all. A native of Lebanon, he came to the United States in the 1990s to earn a graduate degree in finance (today, he holds two doctorates.) He was offered a job with a big salary in the private sector, but in the two months before he was supposed to start, he decided it would be good experience to offer to use his financial skills to help a struggling local non-profit whose finances were a mess — the rescue mission.

Within a few weeks, Audi, a committed Christian, decided this was his calling. “I was moved by the fact that it was changing so many lives. You can’t put a price tag on that.” His Middle Eastern father, who you might expect would have been horrified, supported the idea. “He encouraged me to make a difference, not just a living.”

So he decided to stay. He became CEO when he was 27. In the quarter-century since, he has more than quadrupled the size of DRMM, and expanded its reach and services.

Recently, they began a new program in which they offered to do renovations and repairs free of charge for any Detroiter over 90, and were deluged with requests, one from someone who was 102.

The mission is also planning a place where families, including suburban families, who are caring for an elderly family member can leave their loved one for a few days to have a break. They have a facility in Livonia, but face opposition from suburban politicians who, when they see, “Detroit Rescue Mission,” needlessly worry they are planning to bring homeless Detroiters to their community.

There’s another problem, too. “Everyone sees us as a ‘soup kitchen’ and are willing to fund that,” Audi said, adding that what the media and those who award grants don’t seem to grasp is that they have now evolved into a complete social service agency.

But some do get it, like Sophia, a 17-year-old varsity swimmer who was so moved by what the mission does that she did swim-a-thons and raised $1,000 and today helps tutor kids at the shelter.

This year, as last, she volunteered to put together Thanksgiving dinners for those who depend on DRMM. She was deeply moved when, for the first time, she met women and children who actually needed food, and got “a glimpse of what their struggles must be like.”

I don’t know of any organization in Michigan that does more good for more people; you can read more about them, or find more ways to help on their website, DRMM.org, or calling 313-993-4700.