Knox Area Rescue Ministries (KARM)  provides daily for those most vulnerable and desperate among us, first supplying rescue services of food and shelter, then healthy, supportive relationships, and ultimately restoration, including job-training opportunities.

Knoxville Area Rescue Ministries (KARM)
Who They Are: KARM’s mission is to seek to rescue the poor and needy of the Knox area by providing recovery services in Jesus’ name.

How You Can Help: Disciple an individual who has some training and is in transitional housing, family educator, male table leader for skills class, transportation, serve at the Lenoir City Thrift Store.

SOME SERVICES PROVIDED BY KARM:

RESCUE/EMERGENCY:
There are many reasons why someone may become homeless. A house burns down, a job is lost, the person has poor job skills, mental illness, or an addiction that consumes. It can happen to anyone who doesn’t have a “safety net” of family or friends to fall back on when crisis hits our lives. And when these times come, there are many ways that KARM responds:

KARM serves nearly 1,000 meals each day, 365 days per year, to the poor and homeless.KARM provides emergency shelter to nearly 400 men, women and children each night who have no where else to turn. KARM provides immediate emergency shelter for families, then works with other family service providers in the East Tennessee area to find additional resources or housing. KARM’s Courtyard offers a safe, welcome outdoor space off the streets, with restrooms, bag storage, permanent seating and much more. KARM’s Crossroads Welcome Center is pioneering a whole new way of serving the homeless during the day, creating a bold model for inter-agency cooperation. Crossroads is a practical starting point where people can get off the streets, use the restrooms, have access to computers, make phone calls and even stow their bags while they work to get off the streets. And now, instead of duplicating each other’s services, secular agencies and Christian ministries from across Knoxville work together at Crossroads. The result is better care, superior follow-through, and greater success moving people out of homelessness.

RECOVERY:
Through KARM’s residential recovery, men and women finally confront the root causes of their homelessness and embrace the healing that knowing Jesus provides.

Serenity for women provides biblically-based residential recovery services, case management, individual and group counseling, spiritual support, crisis intervention, life skills classes, community-based mentoring, and refuge from abusive relationships for women who are seeking help.

CROSSROADS WELCOME CENTER:
Crossroads is designed to be a starting point to help the homeless in the greater Knoxville area initiate the process of change in their homeless situation. Our objectives are simple – meet the homeless where they are – on the street and introduce them to the opportunities, resources and services that will help them correct their presenting problems and issues causing their homelessness.

LAUNCHPOINT PROGRAM:
LaunchPoint is a four-week program that helps homeless men and women begin a new life journey. Ultimately, LaunchPoint is about restoring hope – reconnecting the individual to the dreams that he or she once had but were lost when the individual’s life path went off track. During the four-week period, participants begin discovering God’s plan and purpose for their lives, develop their own life plan with realistic goals, and learn to implement their life plan in manageable steps.

JOB TRAINING:
Abundant Life Training is a  multi-week training program leading to work in the food service industry.

For more about KARM and ways to serve, click here.