The only accredited online university founded by Rescue Missions for Rescue Missions. Providing degrees in Nonprofit Management, Addiction Counseling and more.

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City Vision provides over $100,000 in scholarships each year to students from rescue missions.
• Tuition is $720/course for missions sending one student a year ($80/course or 10% scholarship).
• Tuition is $550/course for missions sending two or more students a year ($250/course scholarship).

City Vision's History with Rescue Missions

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Rescue Missions Sending Students
0
Students from Rescue Missions
0
Current/Former Rescue Mission Faculty
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1998

City Vision founded as the education arm
of AGRM called Rescue College.

1998

2005

Rescue College is accredited by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission with a degree completion program in Missions.

2005

2008

Rescue College becomes a part of the
Christian nonprofit TechMission
 and is renamed City Vision College.

2008

2015

City Vision College starts offering graduate programs and becomes City Vision University.

2015

2019

City Vision celebrates serving students and
interns from over 100 rescue missions.

2019

Our Students & Alumni Come from Over 100 Rescue Missions​

Below is a list of past & current rescue missions and the number of students they have sent to City Vision.

St. Matthew’s House (46 students)
Wheeler Mission Ministries (21)
Springs Rescue Mission (18)
Souls Harbor Rescue Mission (12)
Water Street Mission (Lancaster, PA) (11)
Wyoming Rescue Mission (10)
City Union Mission (Kansas City) (9)
Jericho Road Ministries (FL) (9)
Keystone Mission (9)
Caring Place (Miami Rescue Mission) (8)
Great Falls Rescue Mission (8)
Denver Rescue Mission (7)
Miracle Hill Ministries (7)
Sunday Breakfast Mission (Wilmington, DE) (7)
Hiway 80 Rescue Mission (6)
Market St Mission (6)
Knox Area Rescue Mission (5)
Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission (5)
The Path of Citrus Country Rescue Mission (5)
Bay Area Rescue Mission (4)
Brother Bryan Mission of Birmingham (4)
Capital City Rescue Mission (4)
City Rescue Mission (PA (4)
Gateway Mission (Holland, MI) (4)
Gateway Rescue Mission (4)
Hope Gospel Mission (4)
Milwaukee Rescue Mission (4)
Topeka Rescue Mission (4)
Valley Rescue Mission (4)
Bridgeport Rescue Mission (3)
Fairbanks Youth Advocates (3)
Fresno Mission (3)
Grace Resources (Lancaster Community Shelter) (3)
Kokomo Rescue Mission (3)
Open Door Mission (Omaha) (3)
Panama City Rescue Mission (3)
Philly House (3)
Rescue Mission of Utica (3)
Springfield Victory Mission (3)
Tri-City Union Gospel Mission (WA) (3)
Union Gospel Mission of Grays Harbor (3)

Union Rescue Mission (Los Angeles) (3)
Central Union Mission (DC) (2)
Christian Aid Center Rescue Mission (2)
CITA Rescue Mission (2)
Columbus Rescue Mission (2)
Crossroads Mission (Yuma) (2)
Durham Rescue Mission (2)
Healing House KC (2)
Idaho Falls Rescue Mission (2)
Lexington Rescue Mission (2)
Lighthouse Ministries (Lexington, KY) (2)
Lighthouse Mission Ministries (Bellingham) (2)
Montana Rescue Mission (2)
Muncie Mission Ministries (2)
Nashville Rescue Mission (2)
New Life Center Fargo (2)
New York City Rescue Mission (2)
Open Door Mission (Rochester, NY) (2)
Providence Rescue Mission (2)
Redwood Gospel Mission (2)
Shelter KC (2)
Southern New Hampshire Rescue Mission (2)
UCAN City Mission (2)
Wiseman Ministries (2)
Yakima Union Gospel Mission (2)
Blue Rose Mission (1)
Bread of Life Mission AZ (1)
Bread of Life Mission WA (1)
Buffalo City Mission (1)
Charlotte Rescue Mission (1)
City Mission (Washington, PA) (1)
City Rescue Mission (FL) (1)
City Rescue Mission of Lansing (1)
Cleveland County Rescue Mission (1)
Crossroads Nogales Mission (1)
East County Transitional Living Center (1)
Fairbanks Rescue Mission (1)
Family Resource Center (1)
Gospel Rescue Mission Tucson (1)
Grace Centers of Hope (1)

Grace House of Longview (1)
Hope Ministries (Iowa) (1)
Hope Rescue Mission Missoula (1)
Inside Out (1)
Jimmie Hale Mission (1)
Kelowna Gospel Mission (1)
Kitsap Rescue Mission (1)
Las Cruces Gospel Rescue Mission (1)
Life Path Christian Ministries (1)
Light of Life Rescue Mission (1)
Lima Rescue Mission (1)
LIVING Ministry (1)
Mel Trotter Ministries (1)
Merced County Rescue Mission (1)
Muskegon Rescue Mission (1)
New Orleans Mission (1)
Niagara Gospel Mission (1)
Orlando Union Rescue Mission (1)
Raleigh Rescue Mission (1)
Rescue Mission Alliance: Central Coast (1)
Rescue Mission of Salt Lake (1)
Rockford Rescue Mission (1)
Safe Harbor Rescue Mission (1)
Samaritan Villages of Hot Springs (1)
Samaritan Village (1)
Santa Barbara Rescue Mission (1)
Shelter House (1)
Stepping Stones Safe Haven (1)
Stowe Mission of Central Ohio (1)
Sunshine Gospel Mission (Chicago) (1)
The Gospel Mission (Sioux City) (1)
The Gospel Rescue Mission (Muskogee, OK) (1)
The Mission at Kern County (1)
The Mission of Winter Haven (1)
The Transition House (1)
Union Gospel Mission – Vancouver (1)
Union Gospel Mission Dallas (1)
WaterFront Rescue Mission (1)
Westminster Rescue Mission (1)
Winchester Rescue Mission (1)
Winston-Salem Rescue Mission (1)

Current and Former City Vision Faculty & Mentors from Rescue Missions

  • Dr. Jack Briggs, CEO, Springs Rescue Mission
  • Jeremy Montgomery, CEO, Philly House
  • John Savage, Former Director of Gift Planning, Los Angeles Mission
  • Tom Zobel, Former Executive Director, Brother Bryan Mission
  • Lisa Hoffman, Former Program Director, Wheeler Mission
  • Lisa Cooper, Former Director of Operations, Denver Rescue Mission
  • George Perron, Lead Case Manager, Bridgeport Rescue Mission
  • Greg Kirk, Executive Director, United Gospel Rescue Mission
  • Debra Pope, Case Manager, St. Matthew’s House
  • Billy Hastings, Donation Coordinator, City Union Mission
  • Marilyn Hughes, Former Director of Development, Orlando Union Rescue Mission
  • Amanda Craig, Former Case Manager, Wheeler Mission Ministries
  • Justin Behrens, Former Executive Director, Keystone Mission
  • Lisa Biers, Sr VP of Donor Relations at The Rescue Mission
  • Terrance Cummins, Learning Center Manager at Market Street Mission
  • Angie Criner, Human Resources Consultant to 20+ Rescue Missions 
  • Barbara Clemenson, Director of Finance, The City Mission
  • Cassie Sorenson, Former Director, Ventura County Rescue Mission
  • Cobby Asante-Mensah, Former Men’s Program Director, Union Gospel Mission Dallas
  • James Harriger, Former Executive Director, Springfield Rescue Mission
  • James VarnHagen, Former Executive Director, New York City Rescue Mission
  • Leonard Erb, Former Executive Director, Market Street Mission
  • Dr. Yvonne Brake, Development Director, Haven of Rest Ministries
  • Andrew Chamberlin, CEO, Jericho Road Ministries
  • Anissa Boyd, Chief Human Resources Officer, Springs Rescue Mission
  • Jeff Herman, Director of Human Resources, Milwaukee Rescue Mission
  • Penny Kievet, Former Executive Director, Penny Kievet
  • Lorraine Minor, Former Associate Executive Director, City Union Mission Kansas City
  • Mark Siegrist, Former Director of Education, Denver Rescue Mission
  • Michael Liimatta, Former Education Director, AGRM, Rescue College Founder
  • Perry Jones, Executive Director, Capital City Rescue Mission
  • Robert Rapp, Chaplain Overseer, Portland Rescue Mission
  • Steven Brubaker, Chief Vision Officer, Water Street Ministries
  • Victoria Queen, Founding Dean of Victory Trade School, Springfield Rescue Mission
  • Kiley Tyler, Former Vice President of Human Capital, St. Matthew’s House
  • John Frank, Former Director of Development Seattle Union Gospel Mission
  • Josh Callahan, Former Director of Education, Wheeler Mission Ministries
  • Phil Schultz, Former Executive Director at Wenatchee Rescue Mission
  • Dr. Charles McElveen, Former Director of Chaplains, Union Gospel Mission, Twin Cities, Consultant to Rescue Missions
  • Dr. John Frank, Former Director of Development, Seattle Union Gospel Mission, Consultant to Rescue Missions
  • Timothy Schouten, Assistant Administrator, City Union Mission (KC)
  • Andrew Watkins, Former Program Manager, Wheeler Mission

Rescue Mission Partner Profile: St. Matthew's House

st matthews house

St. Matthew’s House is an incredibly innovative $33 million dollar rescue mission serving the poor, homeless and addicted in Naples, FL. Each year, they provide over 513,000 meals and housing to over 1,000 individuals. Of those, 120 are placed in jobs, and 385 are placed in housing. The leadership of St. Matthew’s realized a key strategy to remain effective and innovative is to invest heavily in the education and training of their staff. In the past 3 years, St. Matthew’s has had over 40 of their staff and others enroll in City Vision and one of their staff has become faculty.

As a strategic partner, City Vision provides a scholarship so tuition is only $5,500/year. Also, many of their staff have outstanding senior management experience, enabling them to accelerate their degree by getting prior learning credit for their past experience. We plan to partner with St. Matthew’s to design some of our free MOOC courses, so they could be taken by all their intensive residential recovery programs participants. As our partner, St. Matthew’s can better fulfill their vision of transforming thousands of lives and becoming a national model of best practices for other organizations to replicate.

Rex Baker, Executive Director, Gateway Mission Testimonial on CVU Partnership

WHY CHOOSE CITY VISION?

Founded by Nonprofits for Nonprofits

Flexible Admissions & Transfer Credit Process

Accreditation

We are accredited by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission, which is listed by the U.S. Department of Education as a recognized accrediting agency.

We are an Approved Provider for NAADAC, which allows us to provide an educational path to addiction counseling certification in most states.

Flexible Online Courses

With our 8-week format and 5 start dates per year, you can study on your schedule in 100% online courses. You never have to travel to a physical campus.

Our online courses are like live courses but instead of live lectures, most are recorded. Instead of live discussion, you have discussion forums with other students.

Radically Affordable so You Can Graduate Without Federal Loans

2023 City Vision Undergrad Tuition Comparison Chart

Read Stories of Our Recent Graduates from Rescue Missions

Which City Vision Degree is Right for You?

$ 800
 Per
 Course
  • 60 credits, 2 years
  • $8,000 per year (full-time)
  • 7 required core courses
  • Up to 45 transfer credits
  • Pell Grant Eligible
$ 800
 Per
 Course
  • 120 credits, 4 years
  • $8,000 per year (full-time)
  • 10-12 required core courses
  • Up to 90 transfer credits
  • Pell Grant Eligible
Popular
$ 800
 Per
 Course
  • MBA & MSADC: 36 credits, 1.25 yr
  • MSNM & MACML: 30 credits, 1 year
  • $8,000 per year (full-time)
  • Up 25% as transfer credit

Note: Prices listed above our our prices without scholarship. Scholarships would apply as described on this page.

Awards & Recognition

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You Work to Transform Lives - Let Us Be a Guide

Like us, you work to transform lives. But some people you serve may appear stuck in dysfunction. You may feel over your head, like no one trained you for this. The needs seem endless, and you want to be more effective.

You know you need training to serve well, but you don’t have the time to stop working to get trained. City Vision’s flexible online programs allow you to balance work, family, and the rest of your life.

You deserve an affordable, flexible degree so you can help move your nonprofit to profound success. We want our students to know they are making a difference.

You may feel like your current position is an accident. But there are no accidents in God’s plan. Study with City Vision, clarify your calling, and be equipped to transform more lives than you’ve imagined.

Frequently Asked Questions

To get credit for experience, first take City Vision’s Prior Learning Assessment Portfolio Development course, which uses the CAEL portfolio process. In this course you will develop a portfolio of your learning experience using a template we provide. For each subject area where you believe you should receive credit, you must identify a course at an accredited institution where you believe that you have already mastered the learning outcomes for that course. For each course that you want to receive credit for, you need to develop a specific portfolio section where you provide several pages of documentation on how you have achieved the learning outcomes of the course. A faculty member then reviews your portfolio to assess whether you have provided adequate documentation to be granted credit.

After completing this eight-week course, you will get 3 elective credits toward your degree plus the credits for any courses where you documented that you met the course outcomes through your portfolio. You have up to 3 months to submit the rest of your portfolio to get credit for additional courses where you can document learning. After the three months, you can pay $100 to have additional sections of your portfolio reviewed. Undergraduate students can receive credit for up to 25% of their degree through prior learning (30 credits for a bachelor’s or 15 credits for an associate’s) and graduate students can receive credit for up to 25% of their degree (9 credits for an MBA).

We have credit recognition partnerships with Wheeler Mission, The Urban Ministry Institute (TUMI), Third Millennium, Saylor Academy, Vision International, Harvestime Institute, Genesis Process and YWAM’s University of the Nations. If you are with an organization that would like to set up a Credit Recognition Partnership, please contact us.

For the 2024-25 year, we offer the following tuition scholarships:

Here are the steps to request a scholarship:

  1. New Students Only: Fill out a free enrollment application. If you have already applied to the school, don’t do this again.
  2. All Students: Email the financial aid office at financialaid@cityvision.edu to say which scholarship you are requesting. There is not a form for requesting scholarships.
  3. The financial aid office will contact you if we need documentation to verify you are eligible for a scholarship.
  4. Be sure to read our criteria to keep scholarships.

City Vision offers two types of partnerships with organizations.

Multi-Student Organizational Discounts. We offer a scholarship to students from any organization that refers multiple students to City Vision in a given year. The scholarship makes tuition $5,500 ($550/course) for both undergraduate and graduate programs. If an organization does not have more than one student for at least a year, that organization loses its scholarship status. If you are with an organization that would like to receive this discount, please contact us.

Credit Mapping Partnerships. City Vision sets up credit mapping articulation agreements with ministries that have high-quality ministry training that can be evaluated through our prior learning assessment process. We have credit mapping partnerships with Wheeler Mission, The Urban Ministry Institute (TUMI), Third Millennium, Saylor Academy and YWAM’s University of the Nations, among others, that work in conjunction with our prior learning process. If you are with an organization that would like to set up a Credit Mapping Partnership, please contact us.

Yes. City Vision has worked with many employers that offer tuition assistance or reimbursement.

For students whose employer will pay their full tuition, we can work with you to send your tuition invoice to your employer for them to pay directly.

For students that pay their own tuition and need reimbursement with their employer, we provide the invoices and documentation you need to get reimbursed.

City Vision believes we are among the best in the world in providing an extremely practical Christian education for those interested in Addiction Counseling and Nonprofit Management. 

While state schools can provide information about counseling, City Vision will provide very practical counseling education with deep Christian integration. Similarly many state schools’ nonprofit management programs are often essentially generic business degrees, while we help our students integrate their Christian values in how they run nonprofit organizations and businesses.

Many community colleges or state schools will advertise “free” or nearly free tuition. Historically, for City Vision students that have applied for a Pell grant, 79% have qualified. For students that receive a full Pell grant, the grant will pay all your tuition making the cost to the student only the cost of books (which is similar to many community colleges or state schools). 

City Vision is very focused on providing extremely practical Christian education for those interested in Addiction Counseling and Nonprofit Management. City Vision offers fewer degrees than the mega-universities, but the degrees that we do, we do very well. We like to think of ourselves similar to the family-run hardware store where staff can answer all your questions with personalized service as opposed to the big box department stores like Walmart that offer everything. 

Liberty and Grand Canyon are fine schools if they are what you are looking for, but we believe we are superior for students seeking an affordable, practical education in what we teach. The following shows how we believe our strengths compare to those of Liberty and Grand Canyon:

 

City Vision

Liberty/Grand Canyon

Cost/Tuition

$8,000 per year

$12,198/$15,725 per year

Core Competencies

Nonprofit Management & Addiction Counseling degrees, with personalized service and practical training

Hundreds of degrees, convenience that comes from scale of 100,000+ students

History/Culture

20+ year history of serving the poor, addicted and underserved, including partnerships with rescue missions and Salvation Army

Liberty was founded by Jerry Falwell. 

Grand Canyon was a for-profit school.

Speed to Degree

Extremely flexible acceptance of transfer credit and prior learning credit 

Somewhat flexible transfer credit.

Student Recruitment

Primarily word of mouth and partnerships with 90+ rescue missions, Salvation Army, counseling centers, 500+ nonprofits and urban ministries

$100 million+ advertising campaigns

We have never had a student who wasn’t accepted into a graduate program based on our degrees, although in some cases with state schools we have had to advocate for them.

Our alumni have been accepted into the following schools: Grand Canyon University, Bay Path University, Southwest Baptist Seminary, Fuller Seminary, California University of Pennsylvania, James Madison University, Liberty University, North Park University, Southern New Hampshire University, St Mary’s University of Twickenham, Trinity Bible College, Bakke Graduate School and AG Theological Seminary.

Ultimately the acceptance of any degree or transfer credit is up to the receiving institution.

City Vision is nationally accredited by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC), which is recognized by the US Department of Education and CHEA. The US Department of Education does not recognize a distinction between regional and national accreditation in its standards and recently stated, “The Department does not believe…that rejecting transfer credits, an application for admission to graduate school, or a request to sit for a State occupational licensing exam on the basis of the type of Department recognized accreditation is justified.” See the US Department of Education letter on National vs. Regional Accreditation.

We have heard from a number of our students that other schools (sadly, even Christian schools) use scare tactics as a part of their sales practice, and misrepresent the significance of the distinction between national and regional accreditation.

From a Christian social justice perspective, many have called the distinction between regional and national accreditation a cartel that is a major injustice that hurts the poor.  Having said that, there are those that still maintain this distinction, so we address their concerns in this section. This letter from Dr. Leah Matthews addresses some concerns about the quality of DEAC accreditation.

Functionally, our experience has been that the distinction between regional and national accreditation is primarily of importance for:

  1. Student pursuing academic careers, since many high-end schools may require Ph.D.’s from regionally accredited schools. A very small percentage of jobs (mostly academic) require regional accreditation.  For example, a recent search of jobs in Boston showed 19 jobs out of 65,645 total requiring regional accreditation (of which 18 were in academic institutions).
  2. Students pursuing licensing in fields that often require a master’s degree from a regionally accredited school, such as Counseling or Social Work. It is because of this reason that City Vision does not offer master’s programs in these fields. As listed above, regional master’s programs to date have always accepted our bachelor’s degrees, but the decision is up to each individual school.
  3. Students planning to complete their bachelor’s degree at other schools. Many state schools and some CCCU schools may not accept transfer credits from nationally accredited schools. It is up to each school on what transfer credits they accept. Based on this, for students that come to City Vision that do not plan to complete either their associate’s or bachelor’s with us, but expect to complete at a state university or CCCU school, we recommend that they first check with that school on credit transferability.

Ultimately, choosing City Vision’s national accreditation over a regionally accredited school is a question of value: you get more for your money with City Vision. If you need the “gold plating” of regional accreditation for one of the reasons described above, then it may be worth paying 2-10 times more to get a degree with regional accreditation from another school. However, because of the career choices of our students, they prefer to choose the value of City Vision rather than more expensive high-end options.

Historically, 70-80% of our alumni work in the nonprofit or ministry sector after graduation. 

The others work in business with strong values that reflect strong social responsibility, Christian values and entrepreneurship. 
We have had hundreds of students that have come from over 90 Gospel rescue missions.

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