Mission of change: rehab program alters name to avoid confusion

Monday, Dec. 21, 1998 | 11:14 a.m.

A four-month-old charitable group that bears a name and advertising similar to the long-established Las Vegas Rescue Mission is changing its name to lessen confusion between the two.

"They do wonderful work and we do wonderful work but we are two different organizations," said Jackie Davis, executive director of the Las Vegas City Mission.

The newer group, one of seven operated in several cities by the Los Angeles Mission, will be known as the City Mission of Las Vegas. The others in the group are also known as City Missions, such as the Riverside City Mission, San Bernardino City Mission and Tampa City Mission.

"It will cost us some money, maybe a couple thousand dollars, but it is worth it to avoid any confusion and show the Las Vegas community we are a team player," said Gifford Claiborn, senior vice president of expansion for the Los Angeles Mission. "There was never any intention to create any confusion."

The Las Vegas Rescue Mission, at 480 W. Bonanza Road, has operated in Las Vegas for 28 years. Under its current executive director, The Rev. Ed Compton, the Rescue Mission has grown to stretch over two city blocks. It provides food and clothing to people in the poorest areas of the city.

"When I came here, we had just one building with no bathrooms, no kitchen and enough room to sleep 22 men," Compton said. "Today we have six buildings and plans for a seventh have been submitted to the city. And we now sleep 100-125 people."

The Rescue Mission gives away about 40,000 food items a month. At Thanksgiving, the Rescue Mission gave 300 turkeys to poor families. The organization served Thanksgiving dinner to 2,000 people and plans to serve Christmas Eve dinner to 1,200 to 2,000 people starting at 3 p.m. Thursday.

The soon-to-be City Mission of Las Vegas, 1126 Fremont St., provides an intense 18-month drug rehabilitation program where Las Vegas homeless drug addicts will be sent to the Los Angeles Mission. So far two local people have entered that program.

However, providing free clothes, holiday meals and food boxes to the poor is expected of all such organizations and cannot help but be duplicated, Davis said.

"We are not riding their coattails," she said as her workers helped poor people select articles of donated clothing at the facility, which is being remodeled from a trophy shop into a service center that helps the economically disadvantaged.

The confusion between the two organizations came to a boil early this month when the City Mission ran an ad for its free Christmas Eve dinner that was strikingly similar to ads the Rescue Mission has for years run in local newspapers.

Davis makes no bones about the fact that the ad was exactly the same as the one the Rescue Mission used to run, except for the name of the organization.

"It is a syndicated ad," Davis said, noting that the City Mission hired the same advertising firm that the Los Angeles Mission has long used. It also happened to be an advertising firm formerly used by the Rescue Mission.

The ad did state that the City Mission is "not affiliated with Las Vegas Rescue Mission."

Rodney Helm, a managing partner in the firm of Gordon Dean Development Corp., a resource development company for non-profit organizations, says the name change should benefit the City Mission as much as it should benefit the Rescue Mission.

"The decision by the City Mission transcends being just a gesture of good faith toward the Rescue Mission -- it was a good, strategic business move," said Helm, a Las Vegas resident since the mid-1980s. "The City Mission needs to develop its own unique identity."

Helm said that while the City Mission has been in Las Vegas just a few months, it is an arm of an organization that has been in the business of helping the poor for decades.

"The City Mission is part of a well-organized group that has used highly innovative ideas to solve problems and help people," Helm said. "The name change will turn out to be a blessing for them."

Compton has worked long and hard to build a good reputation for the Rescue Mission, and he jealously guards that reputation.

So much so, he felt it necessary to express concerns in his recent open letter about what appeared to be copycat actions of the City Mission:

"While we are supportive of any organization that is willing and able to help the other providers of emergency services in the valley, we have some reservations as to the similarities of the (City Mission's) name use and the solicitation methods and advertising tools that have recently appeared in our local newspapers.

"We have received many inquiries from you, our friends, who asked ... why we changed the name of our organization. ... We want you to know that our organization's name, location and services will remain the same as always."

The confusion has not hurt the Rescue Mission financially, however, Compton said. "This has probably been the greatest year ever for donations to the mission."

Davis said that before her organization came to Las Vegas, it checked out the existing service providers to plan programs that avoid duplication of services.

Compton and Davis said they have received donation checks made out to each other's organization and have returned them to the donors with notes explaining that the Rescue Mission and City Mission are different outfits.

The City Mission does not provide beds for the homeless nor a kitchen or dining room to feed them daily meals like the Rescue Mission. But Davis said her organization is seeking donated freezers and refrigerators to preserve perishables for its food boxes.

It also provides personal volunteer tasks. For example, a woman with a broken foot recently called the mission asking for someone to help clean her house and give her a ride to and from an area grocery store. The City Mission provided a volunteer that did both jobs for that low-income person.

At Thanksgiving, the City Mission delivered 150 food boxes to the poor and fed 500 people a catered meal on tables set up in its parking lot. The organization will host a catered Christmas Eve meal Thursday starting at 11 a.m. in the same parking lot.

The City Mission's future plans include religious services, Bible study and education classes to help the homeless and otherwise poor learn to help themselves.

"We are the new kids on the block so there is going to be some skepticism," Claiborn admitted. "We have to prove ourselves."

In its short time in Las Vegas, the City Mission has made some friends, namely the Exodus Christian Fellowship Church on East Charleston Boulevard.

"I don't believe the City Mission came to Las Vegas with an intent to mislead people into thinking they were the Rescue Mission," said Pastor Tony Giacopelli of Exodus.

"I'm happy to see that there is a mission on Fremont Street where indigent people who pass by every day can benefit from the help they offer."

Giacopelli blessed the Thanksgiving dinner for his new neighbor and said he plans to assist with the City Mission's future services.

"The City Mission is working hard not to duplicate services," he said. "If there is a little confusion over the names City Mission and Rescue Mission, it won't matter much because they both do excellent work and both will benefit from each other."

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