The Salvation Army is an international Christian church with a social conscience, operating in 130 countries around the world.
 
It was founded in 1865 in East End London, England, by a young methodist minister, William Booth, and his wife, Catherine.  They had a passion for the people living in poverty and addictions and went out into the streets to tell them about Jesus, with the intention of bringing them back into their church.  Unfortunately, the church folk of the time did not welcome them.  William and Catherine decided that if they couldn't bring the street people into the church, they would take the church out to the street people, and The Salvation Army was born.
 
The Salvation Army has been in Canada since 1882 and started many of the social services we know today - the first federal parole officer was a Salvation Army Officer!
 
The Salvation Army Thunder Bay Booth Centre has been in operation since 1917 and has been on the Cumberland Street North site since 1971.  There are now multiples services operating out of this site - known as the Community & Residential Services, or CARS.

 

We are part of the Ontario Great Lakes Division in the Canada and Bermuda Territory.  Our Divisional Headquarters is in London, Ontario and the Territorial (national) Headquarters is in Toronto, Ontario.

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We believe that God created us in His image and that every person is cherished in God's sight.  We believe that God gave us free will which results in some poor choices - our own or the choices of other people that impact us.  But we also believe that God loves us so much that He sent Jesus to live on earth to show us how to do it, and to die for us so that we could be reconciled to God and have eternity in heaven.  We are all on a journey and some of us are farther along than others.

We believe in a God of second chances - and third and fourth - and we believe that it is God's power that changes lives.

William and Catherine Booth, founders of The Salvation Army, believed in a motto of "Soup, Soap and Salvation".  This means that we have to meet the practical needs of a person before we can talk to them about God.  That is our philosophy as well - we want to help people get their lives together - we know where the power and strength to do that comes from.  We want to show by example that it is possible to live a life filled with hope and promise.