Raynier Institute & Foundation funded Episcopal Community Services’ (ECS’) MindSet program for the first time in MindSet’s second year for $75,000, third year for $75,000, fourth year for $150,000, and now its fifth year, for $300,000. This foundational support will help in impacting lives with graduations from MindSet and growing with new program recruits.
MindSet is ECS’ life-changing solution for highly motivated adults whose personal lives are generally stable, but who still require support in order to move themselves and their families out of poverty and beyond it for the next generation. With a metrics-driven innovative approach, ECS coaches program participants along the holistic “Bridge to Prosperity”: a five-pillar model for sustainable self-sufficiency which encompasses the following social determinants of health: Family Stability, Well-Being, Financial Management, Education/Training, and Employment/Career. MindSet coaches and specialists stand beside participants to help them set and meet their goals through one-on-one coaching to reinforce executive functioning skills, group learning activities, financial incentives and a savings match. This 5- to 7-year program is designed to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty, one family at a time, and is unique in the region.
The mission of Episcopal Community Services (ECS) is to challenge and reduce intergenerational poverty, and they do that through both direct service and advocacy. ECS envisions a world where a path out of poverty is available to all. Their four core values reflect that commitment: Justice, Dignity, Community, and Impact, as do therir racial equity principles. ECS’s professional staff of 130 works in partnership with the 30 members of the Board of Trustees and 125 additional volunteers to directly serve more than 2,000 participants annually. Established in 1870, ECS has a long history of responding to the needs of Philadelphia’s most vulnerable populations, and currently serves families at its community resource center at 6006 W. Girard Ave, at seven Out of School Time programs in north and west Philadelphia, with its housing services, and with their MindSet program.