Today's modern Salvation Army holds to its founding principle that loving God means loving your neighbor in very practical ways. It's faith put into action, Christianity with its sleeves rolled up. Social services simply means making life better for others: those who lack the necessities for survival, those who find themselves in the throes of crisis, those who are trapped in destructive lifestyles or circumstances, those who long for meaning to their lives.
Help is given freely each year to hundreds of thousands of people without regard to race, gender, culture or religion. For The Salvation Army believes that only in meeting the basic needs of people will they be able to live on a higher plain, reach their full potential, contribute effectively to society and cultivate their souls.
The form this service takes covers a broad spectrum and varies in each community. The assistance might be childcare for the single mother struggling to juggle responsibilities and provide for her children. It might be shelter for a family who's lost their home or for a woman fleeing domestic abuse. It might be teaching a child to read or helping a man develop the skills he needs to get a job. It might be a basketball league that keeps kids safe, off the streets and out of trouble while learning valuable lessons like teamwork, or it could be anger management or Bible correspondence courses for inmates and assistance as they re-enter society. In many cities throughout the U. S., thousands of people each year take the first tentative steps toward healing and wholeness through Salvation Army addiction treatment programs.
Through The Salvation Army people's homes are heated in the bleak of winter, and they find refuge from summer's disparate heat at cooling centers. Those making the transition from welfare to work receive professional clothing to help them succeed, while underprivileged children awake to new toys on Christmas morning. In the wake of disasters like floods or tornadoes, The Salvation Army is on the scene extending hope and literally helping people rebuild their lives.
The kinds of assistance The Salvation Army provides in each community are based on local needs and resources. The Salvation Army often works in conjunction with governments, other churches and agencies to bring the maximum amount of resources to bear in meeting the needs of individuals and families. Salvation Army services not only meet immediate physical, financial and emotional needs but also offer opportunities for lasting life changes. The Salvation Army is nationally recognized for being on the cutting-edge in creating and modeling innovative programs for individuals, children and families.
In giving this service, The Salvation Army believes that preserving the individual's dignity is crucial and that for people to really prosper assistance must go beyond meeting the immediate, tangible need and address the larger issues. This often involves a continuum of care geared toward long-term solutions. It involves ministering to the whole person for each of us is woven of a seamless fabric of the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.
In community, too, there is an inherent connectedness. One person's life touches another. Like a pond, each individual's actions and circumstances ripple outward, affecting families and communities, influencing the future. We have a responsibility to each other; we have a responsibility to future generations. That's why The Salvation Army is there, 365 days a year, changing one life at a time.