What is your Mission?
Interfaith Community Services empowers people in need to stabilize and improve their lives through comprehensive programs, in partnership with diverse faith communities and people of compassion.
What do you offer to the community?
Interfaith provides both immediate safety net services and long-term, life-changing services for the most poor and most vulnerable of our San Diego County residents. Our 75+ services and programs are organized into five main areas, all designed to overlap so that clients have access to as many resources as necessary for their individual situation: Supportive Services and Basic Needs, Recovery & Wellness, Homeless Outreach & Shelters, Employment & Economic Development, and Housing. These comprehensive programs work to ensure that individuals become self-sufficient, active participants in our community. All programs are focused on the goal of helping individuals and families in crisis stabilize and improve their well-being, while also working to end homelessness and alleviate poverty.
What do you benefit most from being a member of NCPC?
Interfaith Community Services is proud and thankful to be a member of NCPC. We work in partnership with hundreds of diverse faith communities, thousands of supporting donors and volunteers, and dozens of partner community-based organizations. NCPC strengthens our connections and our ability to work in genuine and true partnership to deliver on our mission of helping people help themselves.
What event/program or campaign do you have coming up that you would like to share with our readers?
Mental health is on our minds. Interfaith Community Services invites you to join our Change Your Mind Festival (CYM), our inaugural mental health and wellness community festival with something for Everyone! We are creating a unique event and space designed to openly and safely challenge the stigma surrounding mental health and self-care as a community.
Change Your Mind is a free, one-day event that focuses on creating and sustaining mental wellness through workshops, demonstrations, presentations, and hands-on experiences led by experts from Interfaith Community Services and some of the leading voices in the San Diego mental health and self-help communities.
Change Your Mind is a community event that welcomes all ages to come and experience live music, mental health & wellness education, cultural dance performances, creativity & art stations, delicious food, a De-Stress zone featuring unique ways to reduce stress, including a cloud room, aromatherapy, sound baths, Yoga, meditation and much more.
One must register in advance for this FREE inspiring day. SIGN UP TODAY: https://www.interfaithservices.org/change/
What was your organization/company’s biggest accomplishment in the past six months – one year?
Our new Abraham and Lillian Turk Recuperative Care Center, the home of Interfaith’s post-hospitalization program, is in the last stage of renovations and is expected to open by winter 2022. The last of renovations include a multi-service dining hall, the creation of a serenity garden, and office space for clinical staff and social workers.
In response to a growing humanitarian crisis with at least a 56% increase in families experiencing homelessness since 2020, Interfaith launched its new Family Shelter. The program is the first and only low-barrier family shelter in North County and is operating out of a temporary location while a permanent site is being renovated. Since August 2021, Interfaith has served 65 families, sheltering over 200 adults and children. Out of the 223 individuals served, 126 have been children with 96 being under the age of 12. We are excited to share that the Family Shelter will move to its permanent home at the Hawthorn Veteran and Family Resource Center in the winter of 2022.
We are proud of our organizational capacity to survive pandemic-related critical challenges and to grow and strengthen our critical safety net services to meet the needs of communities in crisis. Please consider joining our invaluable community of volunteers! getinvolved@interfaithservices.org
Have you made a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion within your organization/company, and if so, how are you demonstrating it?
For over 40 years, Interfaith Community Services has provided services to and advocated for vulnerable and underserved members of San Diego County – regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or sexual orientation. Following the murder of George Floyd, Interfaith pledged to actively address the inexorable link between racism, poverty, homelessness, and trauma. In 2020, we launched an employee-led Racial Justice Working Group, now called the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism Working Group.
In 2021, Interfaith partnered with a diversity consulting firm to facilitate our commitment to Anti-Racism. We are engaged in a lengthy process of self-assessment, and education, and as of June 2022, every employee has received DEIA training. Our pledge to combat all forms of oppression and marginalization is central to our mission. We will continue to work diligently to bring to fruition our vision of a society in which all people can lead healthy, self-sufficient, and empowered lives.