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 vulnerable of our San Diego County residents. Our 70+ programs are organized into five main areas: Self-Sufficiency and Supportive Services, Clinical and Behavioral Health, Employment and Economic Development, Recovery and Wellness, and Housing Services, all designed to overlap so that clients have access to as many resources as necessary for their individual situation. These comprehensive programs work to ensure that individuals become self- sufficient, active participants in the community. All programs are focused on the goal of helping individuals and families in crisis stabilize and improve their wellbeing, while also working to end homelessness and alleviate poverty in our communities.
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 was your organization/company’s biggest accomplishment in the past six months – one year?
Our greatest accomplishment in the past six months has been the opening of our new Abraham and Lillian Turk Recuperative Care Center, the home of Interfaith’s Post-Hospitalization Recuperative Care Program and our new Graduate Lodging Program. The only stand-alone center of its kind in San Diego, this new campus co-locates integrated, evidence-based social services, medical care, and behavioral health support to address the complex needs of individuals experiencing homelessness as they establish a pathway towards self-sufficiency. More than anything else, the Turk Center is a place for healing and restoration. It is a place for people who are medically frail and without homes or a place of their own. Interfaith envisions the Turk Center being the first of many new healing and restorative places in our community for people struggling with health problems and homelessness.
What event/program or campaign do you have coming up that you would like to share with our readers?
Mental health is on our mind.
Interfaith Community Services invites you to join our Annual Meeting and sneak peek of Change Your Mind (CYM), a unique initiative designed to change the conversation about mental health- –one mind–and one life–at a time. We will be hosting virtual conversations, inspiring microevents, social media engagements, and an inaugural #ChangeYourMind Festival in February 2022. For now, please join us October 28th, 11 am-1 pm, at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido. Details will be posted in the future on NCPC’s community calendar.
For more information, please contact Mitchell Snow, msnow@interfaithservices.org
What changes/opportunities have occurred due to COVID-19?
We are reminded daily at Interfaith Community Services that Resilience – the capacity to navigate difficult challenges and also improve along the way – resides within our clients, employees, and volunteer communities. We are proud of our organizational capacity to survive the pandemic and related critical challenges, and to grow and strengthen our critical safety net services to meet the needs of communities in crisis. With our broad continuum of programs and services, the resources we provide stabilize and rebuild the lives of our most vulnerable neighbors most disproportionately impacted by the economic devastation of COVID-19. Interfaith employees and volunteers continue to be heroic, on the frontlines, and essential in meeting our clients’ needs and providing supportive services, shelter, counseling, employment support, housing and access to healthcare. Interfaith continuously evolves to meet the needs of our community, yet our motto stays the same. We are Interfaith Community Services and we are Helping People Help Themselves. 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, and in 2021 partnered with a diversity consulting firm to facilitate our commitment to Anti-Racism. We are engaged in a lengthy process of self-assessment, education, and training for staff teams and faith communities. 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.