About ECS
Mission:
Episcopal Community Services empowers vulnerable individuals and families by providing high‐quality social and educational services that affirm human dignity and promote social justice.
Vision:
Episcopal Community Services is faith in action and leads the way in responding to changing human needs.
Values:
FAITH‐BASED: We honor our faith tradition as the foundation of our services.
INTEGRITY: We adhere to the highest standards of fiscal and organizational accountability and
transparency.
QUALITY: We provide high‐quality services to clients.
RESPONSIVE: We connect to the communities we serve and respond to changing needs.
CLIENT‐FOCUSED: We partner with clients to identify and shape services.
OUTCOME‐DRIVEN: We work with clients in ways that produce positive and measurable change in their
lives.
DIVERSITY: We invite and embrace diversity and treat everyone with dignity and respect.
TEAMWORK: We collaborate and communicate openly with clients, co‐workers, and other stakeholders.
LEARNING: We promote personal, professional, and organizational learning to strengthen high‐quality
services and to develop new strategies to address changing community needs.
LEADERSHIP: We commit to building leadership capacity across the agency and to establishing ECS as a leader in the community.
Episcopal Community Services has served people in need for over 140 years. The programs have changed with the times, but the legacy of caring and competence forged in the age of orphanages and tuberculosis lives on in our response to today’s challenges.
As a mid-sized social service agency, ECS is able to leverage resources efficiently while still providing a personal level of service. Nobody is just a name or a file at ECS and that makes a huge difference to the people we serve, some of whom have been shuffled through “the system” throughout their lives.
Charitable donations allow ECS to provide services that complement public programs. For instance, ECS St. Barnabas Mission receives client referrals and funding from the Philadelphia Office of Supportive Housing to provide shelter for homeless women and their children. While in shelter, the families benefit from education, health services and case management that can truly transform their lives. ECS volunteers also help enhance our programs in many ways.
ECS was originally established to coordinate the charitable efforts of local Episcopal parishes. Today, ECS operates separately from the Diocese of Pennsylvania, but continues to reach out to parish communities who provide vital financial and volunteer support. Our programs are open to all, but our faith roots inform a deep sense of mission on the part of everyone here at ECS.
Gifts from individuals and foundations make the difference in everything we do. ECS is blessed to have an endowment built by generations of supporters, the income of which covers overhead costs, so 100% of every contributed dollar goes directly to services.
Episcopal Community Services is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, contributions to which are tax-deductible to the fullest extent permitted by law.
