Union Gospel Mission & Center of Hope

The Union Gospel Mission was created in 1949 by a group of Dallas businessmen wanting to take care of the poor and homeless in the Dallas area. Throughout the years, the Mission served these people by providing food and clothing and conducting Bible studies and chapel services. Overnight shelter was eventually provided to men and women in 1962 with a 105-bed facility built in downtown Dallas. However, faced with many obstacles, the Mission decided in 1986 to serve only men with hopes that someday the Mission would once again serve women in a separate facility.

In 1995, a new property was acquired and renovated into a 230-bed facility named Calvert Pace, providing an even larger facility for homeless men to receive care. During 1999, a building was donated to the Mission by the Federal Government. This building was renovated in 2002 and turned into a 234-bed facility named the Center of Hope, serving the needs of women and children. Each of these programs gives the less fortunate a chance to change their lives — one of the reasons Interstate Batteries enjoys supporting the Mission.

Today, the Mission deploys buses to pick up the homeless and offers them an opportunity to acquire new clothing at a clothes closet, take a hot shower, eat a hearty meal and attend chapel services — which are often conducted by Interstate’s Corporate Chaplain, Henry Rogers.

Interstate holds clothing drives throughout the year for the Mission and Center of Hope’s clothes closet, and on the first Thursday of each month, employees have the opportunity to serve a hot meal to homeless men at Union Gospel Mission.

“If we can help just one life it’s worth it.”
Henry Rogers, Interstate Corporate Chaplain