Hope of the Valley Rescue Mission has a goal to prevent, reduce and eliminate poverty, hunger and homelessness in Los Angeles.

Ken Craft is the founder and CEO, and he has a powerful story of how he became involved with this mission.

"I was a pastor for many years and had my own broken world experience, and I ended up losing everything," Craft explains.

He says it was through that experience that he met a man who asked him if he'd ever considered working with the poor and homeless, and for Craft, the answer was no. The man then asked if he would join him for lunch, so he did. 

"He ran a rescue mission, and so I went and I sat with him at the rescue mission. Everywhere I looked I saw men and individuals who really had had failure in their lives, and it just broke me," says Craft. 

It was on that day that Craft decided if God saw fit to use him to give people a second chance in life, that he was open for business. 

Hope of the Valley Rescue now operates 13 shelters, two access centres and a job centre. Most recently they have added a pair of tiny home villages, as well as a 107-bed interim housing unit.

Today on Connections, Ken shares how he became involved with the mission. He'll also chat about a pair of tiny home villages they have recently set up in Los Angeles and how we here in Canada can do something similar for our homeless community.