Episcopal Social Services - Essay Example

From its humble beginnings of providing assistance to needy immigrants in New York, ESS has expanded its activities to take on several social activities, starting with children and going on to adolescents requiring support and then on to adults. At the heart of the social activities lies the theme of improving the capabilities of individuals to become productive members of society and improve the quality of their life. This paper describes Episcopal Social Services and its activities as a social service organization.

This paper has been written after visiting Episcopal Social Services, 305, Seventh Avenue, New York and collecting information from Naomi Hopkins, their Communication Manager. ESS was founded in 1831 by members of the Episcopal Church, in an attempt to assist the vast number of immigrants arriving in America to overcome their difficulties. Though it had a religious background ESS from its founding days remained non-sectarian as it reached out any person that was poor, sick, homeless, hungry, or imprisoned to provide the needed service (Episcopal Social Services, 2011).

Throughout its 180 years of existence ESS has maintained this mission of attempting to transform and better the lives of the disadvantaged and needy residents of New York City (Episcopal Social Services, 2011). These services cover children, families and children. As early as 1864 ESS reached to provide convalescent homes and summer camps for the infirm and the undernourished; temporary lodging; clothing, food, and emergency funding for the destitute; trade schools for developing skills in the unskilled; and social clubs and free reading rooms to help keep poor people off the rough and dangerous streets of New York (Episcopal Social Services, 2011).

Expanding their activities, ESS in 1907, set up an office at Ellis Island for the purpose of providing assistance to newly arrived immigrants, who were quarantined