About Us
Seniors on a Mission was founded in 1999 by Joanne Hickox, a Canadian farm-girl, who is the oldest of 42 grandchildren. Growing up, she had only adults to relate to which led to an early respect and admiration for the elders in her life. More than 35 years ago, Joanne moved to the United States, where she met and married Bryan Hickox. Joanne has spent the last 25+ years loving and encouraging senior adults and believes it to be her personal purpose and mission. Joanne was ordained at Beaches Chapel Church in 2011.
In 1999, Seniors on a Mission operated under the name, Barnabas International, Inc. and began with a small group of senior citizens making monthly social outings that allowed them to fellowship with one another where they would normally be sitting in their homes alone.
By 2005, one of the senior citizens suggested that they do some good for the community during one of their group outings, thus laying the foundation of what would later become the Seniors on a Mission program.
Over the course of 2005, Seniors on a Mission was able to connect with several nonprofit groups in Jacksonville's community and develop senior adult appropriate, group-service opportunities, referred to now as Mission Trips. In order to get the seniors to the sites of these trips a Seniors on a Mission bus was purchased and ‘bus pick-up locations’ were set up around Jacksonville which allowed for more seniors to get involved in the program with the provision of localized transportation.
By the end of 2009, Seniors on a Mission was sponsoring 9 teams in different areas of Jacksonville, completing between 8-11 mission trips each month in service to more than 50 community nonprofit organizations. Mission Trips provided a way of helping senior adults find meaningful work, purpose, and friendships while lending their helping hands, engaged minds, and seasoned skill-sets to area charities and ministries.
We strive to serve the senior adults in Jacksonville, Florida and plan to extend our reach to other cities across the country.
SoaM Comfort Bags
This was part of our Pandemic Outreach
to read the
07/22/2020 ARTICLE by the TIMES UNION about
Seniors on a Mission's
Pandemic efforts!
