Salvation Army Facts

Following on from yesterday's blog post, Language and Uniform, I realised that talked about the Salvation Army as if all of you know a lot about it - this was very remise of me, so to put it right I thought today I'd share some facts with you about the Salvation Army:

• The Salvation Army came into existence in 1878 - This was when the then Christian Mission changed its name to The Salvation Army.
• The founder of the Salvation Army was William Booth who was born in Nottingham in 1829.
• The Salvation Army is a registered charity
• Many of the terms used in the Salvation Army have army associations:
• Our ministers are called Officers (Captain, Major, ..., General etc)
• Our local churches are called Corps
• Many corps have junior and senior bands and/or choirs
• Junior band is known as the Young People's Band or YP Band
• Junior choir is known as the Singing Company
• Senior choir is known as the Songsters
• Senior band is known as....the Senior Band!
• Within the UK, there are currently approximately:
• 50,000 members (adult, junior and adherent members)
• 4,000 employees
• 1,500 Salvation Army officers (full-time ministers)
• And within the UK the Salvation Army provides a range of services, including:
• 3,000,000 meals served every year at community and residential centres
• 79,000 prisoners visited each year in 134 prisons
• 3,200 homeless people given food and shelter every night in 57 centres
• 709 local church and community centres
• 636 elderly people accommodated every night in 17 residential centres
• 300 youth clubs providing a caring environment for young people
• 120 drop-in centres offering support and help for people in need
• 70 day centres for elderly and disabled people
• 50 nurseries and playgroups
• 30 Red Shield support centres for military personnel in the UK, Germany and the Falkland Islands
• 10 people reunited every working day with their families through the Family Tracing Service
• 6 residential centres for victims of alcohol and drug abuse
• 6 centres for families and one community home for children
• 2 centres for people with special needs
• 2 employment training centres
• 1 centre for women escaping from domestic violence

 
So there you go, I hope you've learned something from this information about the Salvation Army. You can find out more about the Salvation Army and it's work in the UK at http://www1.salvationarmy.org.uk/uki/www_uki.nsf
 
The statistics used above were taken from the Salvation Army's UK website: http://www1.salvationarmy.org.uk/uki/www_uki.nsf