News
Special Foster Parent Honored for 25 Years of Service
May 13th, 2013
Episcopal Community Services Foster/Kinship Care recognized Deborah Holmes for her 25 years as a resource parent at an annual resource parent appreciation luncheon. Holmes is retiring from foster care with a full heart and a full house after fostering 15 children and adopting five.
“As resource parents, we do something God has put in our heart to share,” Holmes said. “Twenty-five years went so fast and I didn't really realize it because it's a family here at ECS. I have been through so many things and I have always gotten the support from my social workers.” Read on...
GALLERY: Event Honors Executive Director John Midwood
May 10th, 2013
An event at the Union League honoring the Rev. John Midwood on the occasion of his upcoming retirement brought many old friends together. Many in attendance had made a special gift to the John E. Midwood Pathways Fund established in Midwood’s honor. More than $260,000 was earmarked to the fund to support life-changing programs and innovative opportunities that help clients overcome the barriers to success and break the cycle of deep-rooted poverty. Read on...
Students in the Shark Tank
May 10th, 2013
The ABC television series Shark Tank, in which entrepreneurs present their business models to investors, served as the inspiration for a recent project-based learning experience at the ECS Out of School Time (OST) program. Three groups of middle school students assembled detailed business plans. Read on...
ECS Announces New Executive Director
April 11th, 2013
David E. Griffith has left his position as CEO of Modern Group Ltd. headquartered in Bristol, Pa., to become the first non-clerical executive director of Episcopal Community Services. The move was announced April 10 during a celebratory reception at the Union League honoring the Rev. John E. Midwood, who will retire June 30 as ECS’ 10th executive director. While Griffith remains chairman of Modern, one of the nation’s largest material handling, construction and stand-by power distributors, he joins Midwood for an unusual two-month overlap of leadership.
Read on...
VIDEO: Holderness School Returns to ECS St. Barnabas Mission
March 20th, 2013
Each year, Holderness School's entire 9th grade spends a week in Philadelphia devoted to community service. Arriving from the bucolic residential campus of their New Hampshire school, they provide a complete "spring cleaning" at ECS St. Barnabas Mission and complete a variety of other projects across the city. Check out this 90 second video to meet some of the volunteers. Read on...
ECS Employees Consider Implications of Technology on Social Services
March 20th, 2013
March is Social Work Month and ECS marked the occasion with an educational breakfast event at which June Fisher, a social worker and educator, gave a presentation on adapting to new technology. According to Fisher, the rapid shift to social networking, text messaging and other communication technologies has created a tangle of risks and opportunities specific to the field of social work with a particular impact on privacy and work/life balance. Read on...
At-Risk Teens Helped With $100K Grant to Episcopal Community Services
February 22nd, 2013
An award-winning, forward-looking program for Philadelphia’s most at-risk teens now will do even more, thanks to a $100,000 grant from the Caroline Alexander Buck Foundation.
Just announced, the funding supports expansion of Teens Takin’ Over, an Episcopal Community Services (ECS) Saturday program that has broken new ground by using cognitive behavioral skills in a non-clinical social services environment. Over the last seven years, the pilot program has worked to keep vulnerable youth in school actively pursuing college, while engaged in the community and out of juvenile justice and public welfare systems. As a result, the program is developing a human capital pipeline that will contribute to society and the economy. Read on...
VIDEO: Catching Up With Nakeshia
January 28th, 2013
Nakeshia was an ECS summer intern through Philadelphia Youth Network and later joined an early incarnation of ECS Saturday workshops for teens. She just graduated from the University of Wisconsin and is applying to MBA programs. She graciously sat down for a video interview and shared a little about what makes her tick and some advice for others.
Read on...
Thanks to All Who Made Christmas at ECS Special
January 25th, 2013
Christmas at ECS is a time when many groups and individuals participate in making the holiday season bright for participants in ECS programs. This slideshow provides some photos and statistics from Christmas 2012.
Read on...
Reflection on the Life of the Rev. Mary Laney
November 30th, 2012
The following is a reflection on the life of the Rev. Mary Laney delivered by ECS Board President Mimi Kepner at the most recent meeting of the ECS board. Her death last week saddens all of us at ECS and our thoughts and prayers go out to her family and friends.
Mary was an ECS Board member for ten years, finishing her term several years ago but remaining a faithful supporter and committee member until she died.
Mary touched and inspired hundreds of people across all walks of life as was evident by the overflow group of people at her memorial service. I first got to know Mary in the late 1980s when she was an associate at St Thomas, Whitemarsh. She ended her parish ministry at St Christopher’s, where several of our Board members got to experience her wonderful presence. In between, she was Vicar at St Gabriel’s in the northeast and she became a loud and energetic voice for those whose voice was mute or unheard by the city around them. Read on...
