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LIFE
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Inside stories of hope,
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Jim and Ken
Kevin and John

4 min read

Profiles in Courage: UGM Edition

Courage was on display at Tuesday’s phase promotion celebration for the Men’s Recovery program. For one thing, it isn’t easy for anyone to admit they need help. Many of these men have had successful careers and families in the past, but their...

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5 min read

Jesus Came to the Mental Asylum with Me

Heather Pollock wrote this blog post while in Women's Recovery at Anna Ogden Hall. Since it was first published in 2017, Heather has been living in...

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5 min read

Five Steps to the New You

We’re all looking for the easiest way to change things about ourselves – our weight, our wrinkles, our temper, our energy level, our children, our...

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3 min read

How Failure Revealed My True Calling

In the last blog post, we talked about the paralysis and shame some people experience as adults because of their perceived failures in the past....

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Trevor in Vocational Education

4 min read

Recovery and Vocational Education Go Hand in Hand

When trauma and schoolwork intersect By Joel Brown, UGM Director of Ministries It is 9:25 in the morning and Billy (named changed to protect privacy)...

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4 min read

Recovery. For Life.

I was part of a brainstorming session about how to get the word out about UGM’s relatively new Recovery for Life weekly 12-step meetings. From a...

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4 min read

Christ is the Light of the World

As spring begins, we thank God for light – more sunshine and longer days. They aren’t just conveniences. They remind us, after the cold and darkness...

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Gwen portrait

3 min read

UGM Core Value: Thankful and Generous

Gratitude to the Rescue By Gwen Schwartz Since joining the UGM ministry team almost two years ago as the Director of Ministry Advancement, God has...

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5 min read

Serious Mental Illness: Four Things UGM Can Do

Serious mental illness. It’s a tough topic. But when we exist to serve the homeless, we simply cannot ignore it. As we mentioned in a previous post,...

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Go outside

6 min read

My Personal Suicide Prevention Plan

Editor's note: Barbara opened up about her struggle with depression in the last post. Here, she follows up with the practical ways she manages that...

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4 min read

I Have a Mental Illness

By Barbara Comito, Director of Marketing & Communications I once interviewed a teenager who described her depression as a “blanket on the brain.” The...

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3 min read

The Paralyzing Nature of Anxiety

Editor’s note: Recently we’ve been talking about mental struggles on the Impact Blog. From insomnia to trauma and addiction, there are many struggles...

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Serious mental illness

2 min read

Mental Illness: An Obstacle for the Homeless – and Many Others

It’s hard to talk about homelessness without talking about mental illness. An oft-quoted estimate suggests that as many as one-third of homeless...

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4 min read

Healing Homeless Men through Relationship

When Joe Marsh came in for a job interview, it was his first time inside the Union Gospel Mission. Looking across the common area, the Men’s Shelter...

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tears

4 min read

Trauma Recovery

This month on the Impact Blog, we’re looking at issues of the mind: sadness, depression, anxiety, mental illness, darkness vs. light. There’s a wide...

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people on escalator

4 min read

Does God Hate the Rich?

Recently we ran a series on God’s love for the poor which, in my mind at least, begs the question: “How does he feel about the rich?” Does he love...

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3 min read

Combatting Sleeplessness

Editor's Note: For the next month, we'll be looking at issues that seem particularly relevant during the gray, icy, short days of winter in the...

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4 min read

10 Things You Should Know About the UGM Crisis Shelter

The UGM Crisis Shelter for Women and Children is approaching its 13th anniversary in January. While the surroundings have changed dramatically in the...

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4 min read

It Isn't "Us and Them"

I don’t remember when it first struck me. It may have been at that UGM volunteer orientation in 2010. Perhaps it was even earlier, as my city bus...

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2017 Association Board

3 min read

UGM Core Value: Total Accountability

As we shared in an earlier blog post, UGM stresses the importance of individual accountability for staff and residents. In this post, we want to...

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2 min read

2017: Looking Forward

In his year in review, Phil talks about what God did through our partners in 2016 to bless the poor and homeless at the Union Gospel Mission.

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prayer circle

5 min read

The Blog Post You Don’t Want to Read

By Barbara Comito, UGM Marketing Director Who would ever read a blog post on Total Accountability? My staff said they wouldn’t. (So I changed the...

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1 min read

God worked through you in 2016

2016. No matter how tumultuous it seemed for the U.S. and the world, God was at work. We could see it every day at the Union Gospel Mission. Nothing...

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3 min read

Melissa: Building Trust, Breaking a Cycle

“All I knew how to do is just yell at her, and that stems from how I was raised. I didn’t know any better.” – Melissa Time was running out on any...

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3 min read

Who Are the Poor?

This is the third part of a series by UGM Marketing Director Barbara Comito. So far in this series, we’ve pretty well established that God does...

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