Haiti Family Literacy Food Pantry Meals-on-Wheels Garden Episcopal Social Services

 

Episcopal Community Services

Extending Christ's Ministry of Compassion and Healing

You Can Make a Difference

People who believed that volunteers, working one-on-one, could make a significant difference in the lives of their Kansas City neighbors started Episcopal Social Services in 1989. Those same people knew that there were others in the community-often separated by barriers like geography, race, or religion-whose needs were not being met by established agencies.

The goal of Episcopal Community Services, then as now, is to reach out personally to those overlooked or separated-to help those who cannot find assistance-to help people who often seem to be falling through the cracks.

Volunteers are People Just Like You Who are Making a Difference as They:

  • Deliver meals five days a week to homebound residents in midtown Kansas City.
  • Help recently discharged hospital patients with errands, urgent household tasks, and transportation to medical services.
  • Teach parenting skills to families who are at risk for child abuse and neglect
  • Visit nursing home residents who lack personal or spiritual contact
  • Distribute backpacks and basic school supplies to over 2,000 needy children each fall.
  • Assist at Turner House, our community center in Wyandotte County, by mentoring school-age youth.
  • Assist with fund raising, office work, and program development.
  • Work with high school youth who are engaging in community service projects.

These are a few of the ways you can volunteer your time-working by yourself or with others. All volunteers are screened trained and supervised to ensure a rewarding experience.

"But a Samaritan who was going that way came upon him, and when he saw him, he had compassion on him. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him." Luke 10:33-34

Visit the ECS Homepage

Perspectives…
by Jay Lehnertz, Executive Director of Episcopal Community Services

The administrative offices of ECS are located at St. Paul's Episcopal Church at 40th and Main in Kansas City, Missouri. We occupy a space at the west end of the parish hall, on a mezzanine level between the first and second floors.

The space is actually a large room 20 feet by 20 feet that we have separated into two work areas. Mary Louise Byrne, the Administrative Assistant, uses one of the areas, incorporating into it features of a reception room, mailroom, and computer station. The second work area has my desk and a 5 by 3 foot table, which serves variously as a conference room, workroom, and staff lunch room. Other staff members who office off site use the table as a work station when they visit the office.

Our windows look out over St. Paul's parking lot and southward toward the Plaza. From the activity in the parking lot, you can see instantly that St. Paul's is an active parish. Between the programs of the Day School and the outreach ministries of groups like the Friday Guild, it is difficult to find solitude in any quarter except the sanctuary. Much like our own space, nothing is wasted.

The food pantry, the rummage sale, the Sunday Meals-on-Wheels Program (which supplements our own mid-town program operated Monday through Friday) and a literacy program, all reach out actively into the community, bringing people from outside the church walls into its nooks and crannies.

And the parish is always quick to say yes to any number of requests that come its way for temporary usage and assistance, opening its doors and its resources to countless numbers of people. Our own Missionpalooza, for example, unfolded here in the church for one week in July, and when the Schools Supplies Program was unable to use St. Michael's and All Angels because of major construction, St. Paul's invited us into its parish hall.

We are in every way the guests of the parish. And its clergy and staff and other parishioners treat us with great warmth and support, much as they treat all those who come through the church doors.

The parish of St. Paul's is a visible reminder that servant ministry-promoting justice, peace, and love-is one way the Church pursues its mission. It is not only nor exclusively for Sunday use. Our connection with St. Paul's has been, for us, an exceptional relationship, allowing us to grow and expand in our own mission of extending Christ's ministry of compassion and healing.