Jeff Cook Examines Springs Rescue Mission’s Programs

The Springs Rescue Mission had humble beginnings thirty years ago, which is typical of programs that last. Unlike Athena in Greek mythology, they don’t spring forth full-grown from the head of Zeus. Starting in 1995, SRM gradually grew its focus on homeless services and addiction recovery. It built slowly but solidly, and started in 2013 to build a resource campus that could serve more people and provide more opportunities for those encouraged to leave homelessness behind.

A dozen years later, it serves more than 4,000 individuals each year and has a variety of programs under the authority of Chief Program Officer Jeff Cook — but Cook, to his credit, wondered in his June 2024 doctoral dissertation (Bakke Graduate School, Dallas) whether some “programs” were actually “services” that, despite satisfying daily needs, could ultimately be detrimental.

Cook wrote, “Most of the services SRM provided were not transformational.…[T]hese types of services can be detrimental to clients” by creating dependency. Cook’s vision was for SRM to be not “just about providing for essential needs but [helping those] experiencing homelessness to be reintegrated into the community and move toward God’s perfect will for their life, God’s shalom.”

In his dissertation, Cook noted that some “programs had zero goals and few, if any, structured activities with no process for completion. They perpetuated the need for clients to return again and again for assistance. There was no long-term goal for transformation.” Cook wrote that SRM needed to shift “from a services mindset to a program focus that would provide a Christ-centered approach to serving those experiencing homelessness and addiction.” That happened when SRM began to emphasize “vocational training in various departments to provide skills for jobs,” along with guidance “toward transitional and community housing.”

It’s hard to write a biblically objective dissertation about programs the author is supervising, but Cook bravely critiqued SRM’s Hope Program. (I wrote last week about one of its classes.) Cook wrote:

The Hope Program blended the work first and housing first models with little regard for the client’s physical, mental, and spiritual health. The Hope Program did not have a strong framework, and the oversight of the clients’ program success mainly fell on the case managers. Although these staff members are well-meaning and desire to see the clients succeed, their educational upbringing often created philosophical disconnects with the program.

Cook observed:

When clients felt that program sheltering or vocational training was overly difficult, the case managers advocated for their clients to have different rules in the program or even sought to guide them out of the program. Instead of advocating for the clients to work through their struggles and stay in the program, the case managers believed the clients could not handle life’s daily struggles. Without realizing it, the case managers who wanted to value their clients considered them inferior and incapable of doing more.

Cook continued:

Not only did the advocating process create issues for the clients dealing with their trials, but it also developed staffing frustrations. Employees in the vocational training departments and sheltering areas were frustrated with the case managers and vice versa. The collaboration of program staff in guiding the clients through the program was lacking. There was constant infighting throughout the departments.

Cook admitted, “In May of 2023, I realized that I was leading a program division that did not have the right guard rails to be truly effective and transformative for the clients.”

The overall problem was that SRM “was overly fixated on getting people housed and employed. We did not have a truly holistic program. We communicated to staff and the community that our programs were whole person in addressing clients’ health, housing, and work needs. However, we did not have defined goals in each area to ensure the clients would have long-term transformation. Holistic programs must provide change and long-term transformation to those they serve.”

Even good places and programs need to be challenged. It’s hard because we are naturally sinful and we are unable naturally to change ourselves. We all need God’s supernatural grace. In his dissertation, Cook showed what it took me 80 interviews to realize: Almost everyone who is homeless is the product of trauma exacerbated by living on the streets. That means almost everyone takes time to heal, and what was a six-month process is far more likely to be successful if it lasts 18-24 months and is Christ-suffused, not just sprinkled.