Episcopal Social Services of New York

History

Click here for an illustrated historical timeline of ESS’ development through the years (PDF)

Established in 1831, Episcopal Social Services (ESS) was founded to help meet the pressing needs of the vast numbers of immigrants arriving in New York City in the nineteenth century. From its earliest days, ESS’ work was nonsectarian, as the Society’s workers offered assistance to anyone who was poor, sick, homeless, hungry, or imprisoned.

Throughout its over 175-year history, ESS has remained flexible in responding to the changing needs of the disadvantaged with an unchanging mission to help children, families, and individuals become independent and self-sufficient, and to make the most of their opportunities and potential. Over the years, this outreach has taken many forms: convalescent homes and summer camps in the country for ailing and undernourished residents of the tenements; temporary lodging and meals in St. Barnabas House, a facility opened in 1864 and operated by ESS for over 120 years; distribution of clothing, food, and emergency funds to the destitute; trade schools for the unskilled; and social clubs and free “reading rooms” to give young people an alternative to the rough-and-tumble streets.

In 1907, ESS established an office on Ellis Island to offer assistance to arriving immigrants who were detained or quarantined. Often the only link these new arrivals had to the outside world, the ESS workers helped make contact with family overseas or in the U.S., provided clothing and other necessities during their confinement, and facilitated the eventual settlement in their new country. When the Ellis Island facility was closed, ESS established three Port and Immigration Offices to carry on this work well into the 1960s.

ESS was also part of the development of one of the most familiar names in social outreach. In 1915, two Brooklyn clergymen began a program called Goodwill Industries to facilitate in-kind gifts to the needy and to support the handicapped and destitute in need of work, the first to use the Goodwill name. Seven years later, ESS launched a similar program in Manhattan, also using the same name; eventually Goodwill groups sprang up in a number of cities across the country. Goodwill not only gave meaningful work and skills training to young and old alike in repairing and reconditioning clothing, furniture, and more; these rehabilitated items were then made available to low-income families at affordable prices in Goodwill’s retail stores. Forty years after the founding of ESS’s program, the Manhattan and Brooklyn groups combined to form Goodwill Industries of Greater New York.

Generations of young boys and girls benefited from the summer camps that ESS operated for more than 80 years. The first of these, Camp Bleeker, opened in the 1900s on Long Island Sound and gave city boys a taste of outdoor life. Eventually the several camps that were established over the years were consolidated at Elko Lake, New York, as Camp Wanasqetta for Boys, and Camp Wepawaug for girls. Thousands of young people built memories for a lifetime during these weeks in the country.

The Family Services Office operated through the Depression years and after, providing a lifeline to families and individuals who had fallen on hard times. Parents facing unemployment were helped to find new jobs to support their families; the elderly were assisted with housing difficulties or daily chores that had become too much for them; the despondent found a sympathetic ear and helping hand in getting back on track.

The post-war years brought many changes to ESS. The aging structure that had housed St. Barnabas House since its founding was finally replaced with a modern facility that greatly expanded program capacity and quality. Changes in city foster care policy led to a shift in ESS’ operations from orphanage, to congregate care, to foster boarding homes and adoption. Programs to help restless youth find their way in the turbulent 1960s included Boys’ Clubs and a Youth Guidance Program. At the same time, ESS helped older New Yorkers retain their quality of life through senior centers and assistance with daily living.

In 1990, ESS opened a medical clinic in Manhattan to offer direct medical, dental, and mental health services to the children in the Foster Boarding Home Program. In 1998, an office and second medical clinic were opened in the South Bronx as a commitment to ESS’ ongoing work in that community. In 2005, ESS opened Paul’s House, an early childhood center in the Mott Haven section of the South Bronx; this new facility houses the Bronx medical clinic, six Early Head Start classrooms, foster family visiting facilities, a rooftop playground, and administrative offices.

Today ESS has an annual budget of $38 million and meaningfully impacts over 5,000 lives every year throughout all of New York City, with an emphasis on the South Bronx and Manhattan, and a growing presence in Brooklyn. ESS focuses on strengthening children, families, and adults through programs in foster care and adoption, early childhood education, after-school programs, group homes for developmentally disabled adults, and community re-integration of the formerly-incarcerated. As it has in the past, ESS continues to remain relevant and effective by being flexible in responding to the evolving needs of the communities it serves.