> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.ministryy.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Because Justice Matters - URL: https://www.ministryy.com/because-justice-matters/ - Published: 2026-10-03T23:23:45.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-17T15:13:38.000Z - Author: Ministryy - Tags: Urban Missions, Family Ministry, Youth Development, Community Outreach, Youth Evangelism, Discipleship ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/24/d5/24d5d8e2-e840-471b-ac6c-29e74e44dc3e/content/images/2026/10/because-justice-matters-cover.png) [https://becausejusticematters.org](https://becausejusticematters.org/?ref=ministryy.com) # About Because Justice Matters Sometimes ministry begins before you know exactly what the ministry is going to become. For Ruthie Kim, it began with a folding table on a San Francisco sidewalk and an invitation for women to have their nails painted. She had spent years encountering women who were unhoused, struggling with mental illness, or carrying the effects of abuse. The needs were enormous, but rather than beginning with an elaborate program, she started by being present. That small act eventually grew into Because Justice Matters, a Christ-centered ministry walking alongside women, girls, young adults, and families in some of San Francisco's most vulnerable communities. The programs have expanded considerably since 2008. The philosophy behind them hasn't. Justice begins by showing up. ## Staying Long Enough to Build Trust San Francisco's Tenderloin is a neighborhood where hardship can be difficult to ignore. Women experience homelessness and exploitation. Young people can grow up navigating foster care, immigration instability, or the juvenile justice system. Families face economic pressure while trying to create something better for their children. Because Justice Matters doesn't approach those realities believing that outsiders simply need to arrive with solutions. It starts by listening. The ministry describes its approach as being rooted in proximity. Staff and volunteers become part of the neighborhood, learn from the people living there, and allow relationships to shape how they respond. That takes time. Trust rarely forms because someone organized one outreach event. It develops when the same people keep returning. ## A Dance Class Can Become Something Much Bigger One of BJM's longest-running ministries demonstrates this beautifully. Girls come to dance. They learn technique and choreography, but somewhere between practices and performances, something deeper can begin developing. An instructor becomes a trusted adult. A girl who was hesitant to express herself starts becoming more confident. Friendships grow around her, and conversations about faith become natural because the relationship already exists. Some girls have remained connected to BJM from childhood into college. That's important because the ministry doesn't want its programs to become isolated moments in someone's life. It wants to walk alongside people as they grow. Creativity becomes one way of doing that. For Because Justice Matters, dance isn't a distraction from serious ministry. Beauty and creative expression can themselves become places where confidence, healing, joy, and connection with God begin taking shape. ## Reaching Women Where They Already Are That willingness to enter someone's existing world is especially visible through EdenMade. EdenMade serves women working in San Francisco's adult entertainment industry. Rather than waiting for women to come to a church building or ministry center, teams build relationships inside local clubs. They bring thoughtful gifts and practical resources. They pray. Most importantly, they return. The approach is intentionally relational and without strings attached. Because Justice Matters believes every woman bears the image of God. Her circumstances don't erase her dignity, and her occupation doesn't make her unreachable. So EdenMade begins there. Not with judgment. With presence. ## Reaching Girls Before Exploitation Begins Over time, BJM realized that responding to exploitation also meant thinking seriously about prevention. That helped shape SHINE, its trauma-informed mentorship program for girls ages 9–15 who have been affected by foster care, juvenile justice, or immigration instability. These experiences can leave young people without the stable relationships that often protect children during vulnerable years. SHINE intentionally places relationship back into that space. Girls are paired with mentors and surrounded by a community where they can develop confidence, discover their strengths, and experience the consistency of adults who keep showing up. The goal isn't to define young people by the systems they've encountered. It's to help them see a future beyond them. ## When Mentorship Becomes Opportunity As young people grow older, encouragement needs to become increasingly practical. BJM's Azul program helps system-impacted young adults develop leadership and workforce skills while receiving mentorship and support as they pursue educational and career goals. Then something wonderfully unexpected enters the story. Pizza. Through WildFlour, participants operate mobile pizza pop-ups around San Francisco. They prepare food, interact with customers, manage logistics, work as a team, and experience the responsibilities of running real events. A pizza party becomes a training ground. The young person isn't simply receiving assistance anymore. They're developing skills, serving someone else, earning a stipend, and discovering what they're capable of doing. That's the kind of transition BJM wants to encourage. Support should eventually create opportunity. ## Justice Rooted in Jesus Because Justice Matters is explicit about where its understanding of justice comes from. Jesus is at the center. Prayer isn't something added after the practical work has been planned. BJM describes prayer as foundational to how it understands the neighborhood and discerns where to serve. Its ministries intentionally create opportunities for spiritual formation alongside emotional and relational restoration. More recently, that commitment has expanded into church planting. As BJM began serving entire families and working with young men as well as women and girls, the ministry saw an opportunity for something more permanent: a bilingual neighborhood church rooted in the same relationships it had spent years developing. In some ways, that brings the story full circle. What started with meeting people on the sidewalk is becoming a worshiping community within the neighborhood. ## Justice Begins With Presence Because Justice Matters has grown considerably from that first folding table. There are now dance classes and mentorship relationships. Women are being reached inside clubs, young adults are developing leadership skills, families are being supported, and a church community is taking shape. Yet growth hasn't changed the lesson that started everything. You have to show up. And then you have to stay. Because real restoration usually doesn't happen through one dramatic intervention. It develops through relationships strong enough to carry people through difficult seasons and celebrate with them when something new begins. At the heart of Because Justice Matters is the conviction that Christian justice becomes personal when followers of Jesus are willing to enter people's lives and remain there. By combining consistent relationships with creativity, mentorship, practical opportunity, prayer, and the Gospel, BJM walks alongside women, girls, young adults, and families in San Francisco—not treating them as problems to solve, but as people made in God's image whose stories are worth knowing and whose futures are worth investing in. [Because Justice Matters![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/24/d5/24d5d8e2-e840-471b-ac6c-29e74e44dc3e/content/images/icon/favicon-8bc18d8c-edfb-41bd-93ad-f3e653594c92.png)Because Justice Matters![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/24/d5/24d5d8e2-e840-471b-ac6c-29e74e44dc3e/content/images/thumbnail/BJM_Final-Black-fdcb8fd5-9581-4d8a-baea-e5b64de76cf0.png)](https://becausejusticematters.org/?ref=ministryy.com) [ ](https://www.facebook.com/BecauseJusticeMatters "Facebook") [ ](https://www.instagram.com/becausejusticematters?ref=ministryy.com "Instagram")