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Union Gospel Mission: June 20, 2014
Editor's Note: Roxanne Jenkins graduated from the UGM LIFE Recovery program on June 17, 2014. In this short graduation speech, she turns the focus...
2 min read
Union Gospel Mission: June 6, 2014
An Immersion in Trust By Darlene Willis, a resident at the UGM Center for Women & Children in Coeur d'Alene Last Friday morning, the weather was warm...
5 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: June 3, 2014
This is the second of a 2-part interview with Mental health Counselor Dave Edwards on how addiction affects all our lives. The first part, How do you...
1 min read
Union Gospel Mission: May 9, 2014
By Marsha Reese Voc/Ed Coordinator at the UGM Center for Women & Children The other day I was completing some paperwork in my office while a group of...
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,...
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...
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.”―...
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: 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 –...
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...
3 min read
Union Gospel Mission: January 1, 2014
Recovery is impossible... if you don’t believe you have a problem if you refuse to look at the problem if you blame someone else for the problem or...
3 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: December 6, 2013
Holly Simons is one of the extraordinarily talented volunteer professionals giving sacrificially of their time and talents to the Union Gospel...
1 min read
Union Gospel Mission: December 1, 2013
Lois used to be a kindergarten teacher. That probably says it all. Lois loves kids. Her husband, Everett, loved children, too. The couple lived life...
1 min read
Union Gospel Mission: December 1, 2013
Holly Simons, a psychiatric nurse, worked in the prison system for 10 years and first visited UGM while researching safe places for an inmate to go...
2 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: October 24, 2013
Roxanne and Doreen Roxanne and Doreen are bright, articulate women whose lives got off track. “In high school,” Roxanne said, “I just wanted to be a...
1 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: September 26, 2013
“I was in the bottom of a tin can, and I couldn’t claw my way up. It was dark. It was dirty, and I didn’t feel any value. I felt unreachable.” -...
1 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: September 25, 2013
THE BIG PICTURE Families make up 34% of the total US homeless population. 87% of homeless families are headed by women. (Single-parent families are...
2 min read
Union Gospel Mission: September 18, 2013
Editor’s Note: We found this letter in our parking lot. As you can see, it was an assignment – write a good-bye letter to your drug of choice. Dear...
1 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: September 14, 2013
On September 6, 2012, the UGM Center for Women & Children welcomed its first guests. One year later, the Center is home to 52 women and children and...
1 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: September 13, 2013
My teenage daughters told me the other day that they grew up thinking “hypocrite” was a bad word, akin to calling someone a curse word. Funny how our...
1 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: September 9, 2013
Reliable transportation critical for single moms Brittany Branch had a car when she started Women’s Recovery at Anna Ogden Hall – a 1988 Dodge...
1 min read
Union Gospel Mission: September 1, 2013
As part of her recovery, Dionne Varney needed to find a new career. Before coming to Anna Ogden Hall, she spent 14 years in the adult entertainment...
1 min read
Union Gospel Mission: August 1, 2013
As Paul’s strength returned, he was paired with volunteer Mike Updike to work in the Mission’s flower beds a few hours each week. Mike calls it...
1 min read
Barbara Comito, former marketing director: July 26, 2013
When a woman makes the decision to commit to UGM's long-term Recovery, the impact of her decision is far reaching. That decision impacts her...
