In efforts to give their organization the appearance of legitimacy and to stop the tailspin of further declining revenues (down by over 80% from just five years ago according to sources), the management of the Panama City Rescue Mission have been working to affiliate themselves with the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions. (http://www.agrm.org). This umbrella organization is comprised of over 300 member missions across the nation that work together to develop and implement a set of best standards by which to run a mission organization and provide valuable services to each members community. After an operational revue by the AGRM board of directors, the decision was made to offer a failing grade to the PCRM and reject their application into the AGRM. The reasons for their failing grade are because of the PCRM’s refusal to subject themselves to a complete, third party financial and operation audit. Additionally, the lack of over site and general operational chaos in the thrift store locations gave the AGRM great concern about how community donations were being processed. The controls over both cash transactions as well as physical inventory raised red flags. Chambers and the BOD of the mission have allowed the thrift stores to run amuck with participants in mission programs, many with drug and alcohol addiction problems, having unmonitored access to items being processed through the thrift stores as well as actual cash. If the PCRM does not meet the standards of the Association of Gospel Rescue Mission and they refuse to accept them as worthy members, why are we as a community accepting them as a solution to providing services to our communities needy?
The truth about the "Panama City Rescue Mission" and your downtown Panama City, Florida 