HURT & COMPEF

Director of HURT and COMPEF

About Sanghoon Yoo

Pastor Sanghoon Yoo was born in South Korea and came to the U.S. in 1991. He earned a Master’s degree in Social Work (M.S.W.) at Michigan State University in 1994. While studying, he got involved in volunteer activities with the disaster management team of American Red Cross and critical incident debriefing team of Police and Fire Dept. in Greater Lansing Area. Also he worked with Dr. Janet Bell for a research project to investigate the psychological impact of a traumatic flight crash in South Korea, publishing a journal article with the research team in Tulane Studies in Social Welfare (2000).

Having moved to Arizona in 1994, he became a full time Christian minister. He founded ‘The Faithful City’ ministry at Arizona State University in 1998 and has been serving City In The Desert Metro-Church as associate pastor since 2000. In 1995, he served the first social worker team hired by Phoenix Fire Dept., launching C.A.R.E. program responding to mental health related 911 calls. He earned a M.Div degree (Master of Divinity) at Fuller Theological Seminary, serving various Christian communities and movements in the valley.

Since 2005, Mayor Hallman, City of Tempe, initiated For Our City movement with Jon McHatton as a collaborative body of community service between the City and faith community. H.U.R.T. (Holistic Urgent Recovery Training) was the first project of For Our City in Tempe and Pastor Yoo became the director of H.U.R.T., launching and expanding the training program to diverse faith organizations and other cities. Last year he organized COMPEF (Community Preparedness Exercise & Fair) in Tempe, mobilizing 100 volunteers and 15 community organizations to work together for more effective preparedness for local emergency situation, offering table top exercise, emergency trainings, and health related practice and fair.

Contact Sanghoon