The Ripple Effect: Cathy Manion & Bridgeport Rescue Mission

Bridgeport Rescue Mission is a force in our community, providing vital services, free of charge, to neighbors in need.

Cathy Manion, an Impact Fairfield County member since 2017, had long supported the Mission’s Great Thanksgiving drive when they applied for an Impact FFC grant in 2019. Their pitch for funding further piqued her interest in theorganization's planned expansion. The Rescue Mission had just purchased a former nursing home they would go on to convert into a new center for their community services – a shelter for homeless men, women, and children, a food pantry, hot meal services, and a health care clinic providing medical, dental, behavioral, general wellness and foot care services.  

Their application specifically requested funding from Impact FFC for refrigeration, which would enable them to expand their client meal services in the new facility. Cathy represented the Financial Review Committee at thesite visit. She got to hear firsthand about Bridgeport Rescue Mission’s full vision for the space, which included new plans to provide transitional housing and support services (e.g., GED, job training, financial education, and support to get their children enrolled in school) to single mothers, many of whom were victims of domestic violence, as were their children. This new mission would be called the Center for Renewed Life. 

While Bridgeport Rescue Mission was not awarded an Impact grant that year, their story stuck with Cathy, and she kept an eye on their work over the next few years. When a good friend passed away in 2021, Cathy knewimmediately how she wanted to honor her. The Rescue Mission’s plans to revamp the nursing home were underway, and it offered an adopt-a-room program for the Center for Renewed Life (the women and children’s floor) where a donor could fund the renovation and furnishings of a family’s room in the new facility. Cathy sponsored a room in the name of her late friend.   

In 2022, the renovated building, named the Community Care Center, fully opened, marking the first time in the Rescue Mission’s history that all programs and services were under one roof. Cathy and several friends were there for the ribbon cutting. Further expanding her ripple, the event inspired some of Cathy’s friends to sponsor rooms of their own. Currently, all shelter rooms are full, the health clinic averages 250 appointments per month, and 785,000 meals have been served year to date.