4 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: May 1, 2014
Addiction is so much bigger than drugs & alcohol. In this interview, Dave Edwards, a Spokane mental health professional and former UGM counselor, expands the definition of "addiction" beyond drugs and alcohol and provides helpful insight into how to...
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5 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: April 18, 2014
A Junkie No More Photo by Robert Peterson Eddie Collins was the subject of my first newsletter feature when I came to UGM in January 2008. He had...
1 min read
Union Gospel Mission: April 1, 2014
Do you remember the darkest dark you’ve ever experienced? I know I do.
3 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: April 1, 2014
This is the second of two posts on UGM’s self-evaluation process. The first, “The courage to ask why I do what I do” explains how the process plays...
3 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: March 26, 2014
Change requires courage. Often when I forget why I am here – why I am writing yet another newsletter story, wracking my brain for a bit of Facebook...
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Union Gospel Mission: March 20, 2014
Part 2 in our series on "The Crisis: a troubling reality." Read part 1, Homeless Women: Who Will Belive in Them?
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Barbara Comito, former marketing director: March 14, 2014
Reason #1: Shari Griffin Shari, 50, just finished the first four phases of the LIFE Recovery program at the UGM Center for Women & Children in Coeur...
4 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: March 6, 2014
“Life is not made up of minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or years, but of moments. You must experience each one before you can appreciate it.”―...
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Union Gospel Mission: March 3, 2014
An Interview with Jillian Devine Jillian Devine started her tenure with UGM in Women's Recovery at Anna Ogden Hall back in 2004 and is now the lead...
2 min read
Union Gospel Mission: February 27, 2014
Recovery Kid-Style Of the 386 guests staying at UGM's four shelters on a recent evening, 99 of them were children. Not only do these children need...
2 min read
Union Gospel Mission: February 25, 2014
Editor's Note: This is the first in a regular series, "The Crisis: a Troubling Reality." We will begin to examine and discuss the causes, conditions...
5 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: February 21, 2014
Just say no. Not even once. DARE to keep kids off drugs and alcohol. The problem with these anti-drug slogans is twofold: 1) their simplicity belies...
3 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: February 18, 2014
(This article was posted in 2014 and updated in 2019.) UGM: the Whole Person Approach In its quest to break – not perpetuate – the cycle of...
5 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: February 13, 2014
When the actor Philip Seymour Hoffman died of a heroin overdose, public reaction ran the gamut from disgust to sympathy. One controversial church...
2 min read
Union Gospel Mission: February 10, 2014
“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” – Frederick Buechner Bob Peterson loves bikes....
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Barbara Comito, former marketing director: February 7, 2014
Effective Compassion "Truly effective compassion means striving for human flourishing and seeking the conditions that make it possible." (Jennifer...
2 min read
Union Gospel Mission: February 4, 2014
Editor's Note: Julie Marks, a participant in Women's Recovery at the UGM Center for Women & Children in Coeur d'Alene, passed away last week due to...
4 min read
Union Gospel Mission: February 1, 2014
You showed us the love and power of the gospel. You broke the cycle. “I used to be one of those teenagers who just didn’t care about anything. I went...
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Union Gospel Mission: February 1, 2014
“If a country is to be corruption free and become a nation of beautiful minds, I strongly feel there are three key societal members who can make a...
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Union Gospel Mission: January 31, 2014
Editor’s Note: Ashley and her dad, Chris Kent, were featured on the cover of the February 2014 Mission News. Chris was absent from Ashley’s life for...
3 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: January 28, 2014
Safe Shelter Kimmi Halbrook liked to play, “Let’s Make a Deal” with God: Get me out of this scrape, and I promise to get my act together. But at 39 –...
4 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: January 23, 2014
Editor's Note: We first met Amanda while she was staying at the Crisis Shelter with her daughter, Daisy. She and Daisy moved into Anna Ogden Hall...
5 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: January 17, 2014
Seven years ago this week, UGM opened the Crisis Shelter for Women & Children at 1234 E Sprague. This week also marked the Shelter’s 10,000th...
2 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: January 7, 2014
Not everyone who walks through the doors of one of UGM’s shelters needs the same kind of help. Case in point: Tim Whitman. Tim had been sober for two...
2 min read
Union Gospel Mission: January 3, 2014
When I say “counseling,” what do you picture? Most of us probably imagine two people in a quiet room, seated in comfortable chairs, talking. You’ve...
