Get Involved > Educate

Enormous misconceptions exist about homelessness and the work of The Jimmie Hale Mission.

Birmingham residents poured out their hearts and purses to help hurricane victims. Maybe for the first time, people were able to view homelessness in a whole new light.

Many of The Jimmie Hale Mission clients may have not experienced a natural disaster but have experienced a personal disaster.

“Most of those who are homeless are homeless by chance, not choice,” explains Executive Director Tony Cooper. “A catastrophic event has turned their life upside down which they had no control over. They are looking for an opportunity to become self-sufficient.”

Cooper continues, “Storms of life have swept over them and destroyed life as they knew it. They are suddenly confronted with the questions ‘What do I do now?’ and ‘Where do I go from here?’ That’s where the Jimmie Hale Mission comes in.”

The Jimmie Hale Mission not only sleeps and feeds people but also works hard to help homeless men, women and children get back on their feet…and back to life.

Ways to educate yourself and others include:

• Take a tour of one of our facilities
  
  
• Watch our video A Hand Up, Not a Hand Out about our family of ministries
  
  
• SHOW our video at your community group, church, office or school
  
  
• Invite a representative to speak or set-up a display at an upcoming function
  
  
• Listen to the testimonies of three Mission clients.

Call (205) 323-5878 for a free copy of the book Doing Unto the Least of These: The Story of Birmingham’s Jimmie Hale Mission (1998) by John Hayman.