Ministry Director - Bill Masimer
ISI Ministry started with the intent of helping reduce the recidivism rate of Idaho’s struggling prison population by helping recently released men on a one by one basis. Our founder saw that men who were on parole and did not have effective resources were struggling and failing, thus going back to prison.
Our founder is a war veteran who served our country for four years in the Army during the Vietnam war and was honorably discharged in 1968 after courageously serving our country during that horrific era.
Our founder attended the University of Arizona and Denver University while studying Hotel and Restaurant Management., after achieving his degree he then worked 30+ years in Institutional Food and Equipment Sales industries.
His crown achievements were owning two successful restaurants and a small trailer court with rental homes on the property but In a poorly written sales contract he went from being worth a substantial amount to being bankrupt. By the will of God he then went back to College in his late 50’s and obtained both a Bachelors and Masters degree in Social Work, then he also obtained a Bachelors and Masters degree in Biblical Studies for Christian Counseling.
While at working at Walla Walla University he was a Correctional Mental Health Counselor at Washington State Penitentiary and a paid Masters of Social Work Intern at the Walla Walla V. A. Hospital. Later he was offered a position in an Alaskan Bush Village where he was a counselor for 6 outlying bush villages, helping with drug and alcohol assessments and then sending the native population for In-House Treatment. Having a fear of height, he learned to stretch his faith as he had to fly in small bush planes to various villages and sleep in log cabins as he did his drug and alcohol assessments.
Our founder then returned to Boise in late 2011 and began helping parolee’s get plugged into community resources, while doing so he met a man who had a daughter struggling with drugs and observed our founder helping other parolee’s so he offered to purchase the Settler Home and carried the papers to start the first home to house struggling men. About 1 ½ year later, another Christian man learned of the ISI Ministry program & sold the Franklin Home and also carried the papers. The in 2017 a WWII Veteran came to the ISI Ministry Program and felt that ISI Ministry had a need for more housing, so he and his wife paid cash for the 5275 N. Five Mile Home and carried the papers as well they sold the home to ISI to help expand the program.
