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Terry Bray with Knox Area Rescue Ministries spoke
By Charlotte Underwood
LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF)- Terry Bray with Knox Area Rescue Ministries spoke at Tuesday’s Campbell County Rotary Club Luncheon held at the LaFollette Methodist Church. The faith-based non-profit organization is “celebrating 65 years of ministry” this year.
Knox Area Rescue Ministries (KARM) is a “Christian ministry that provides “rescue, relationship and restoration to the homeless, hungry and hurting.” They provide a multitude of services to the homeless population in Knoxville including, but not limited to shelter, food, health services, workforce training, and much much more.
Bray serves as the Aftercare Manager for KARM. He spoke about the Aftercare program, which is a fairly new initiative of the ministry that was started last year. It aims to help those “after they have left the care of KARM” to help prevent them from slipping back into homelessness.
“We’re taking a holistic approach to issues dealing with homelessness, which very often are no more than a byproduct of other issues in people’s lives. We try to offer ways to help them work their way out of that, it is a natural progression, when they get strong enough and ready to go out into housing of their own in the community, we go out with them to help them maintain that structure, maintain those life-skill habits that provide them with a stable life style and not fall back into homelessness again and recreate that cycle of homelessness, which makes them chronically homeless; that’s what Aftercare is all about,” Bray said.
He went over a few facts about the shelter, reporting that it serves over 4,000 individuals yearly.
“A little over 4,000 individuals come to KARM each year needing help, living in crisis and having nowhere else to turn. Last night we slept 432 at the homeless shelter at KARM. Yesterday we served 981 meals and in addition to that, we also provide services so that people can re-join the workforce. We have a workforce training program. We have a life-skills program to help those who have lost the habits of maintaining a structured lifestyle. We offer mental health through our care center and physical health through our home center, which is kind of a respite spot where people can come that are fresh out of the hospital with surgery or with some kind of injury, so we provide them with bed at KARM…we offer counselling programs to those needing counselling. We provide shelter for families with small children.”
AfterCare “seeks to ease the transition out of homelessness and help men and women continue their journey toward a fully restored, abundant life and to thrive in life outside of KARM.”
KARM is helped through partnerships with local churches and businesses, as well through private donations and fundraisers.
“We have about 1,000 churches that support KARM throughout the East Tennessee region. Churches send volunteers to serve meals and do ministry,” Bray said.
KARM has 26 stores that provide revenue to cover about 50 percent of its operating budget and the rest comes from private donations, fundraisers and events.
Bray also said KARM was in partnerships with churches to create social groups in the apartments where former residents are living to help provide continued support.
KARM also operates a men’s residential recovery program that runs 12 to 18 months and two programs for women, as well as a domestic shelter for women coming out of violent situations.
Bray closed by saying that KARM “welcomes donations and volunteers.” For more information about the services that KARM offers, visit its website, call (865) 673-6540 |, or email info@karm.org. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-03/05/2025-6AM)