On Monday, December 9, 2024, we announced the creation of a new program at Episcopal Charities, funded by an extraordinary, generous gift. The Frances Perkins Program for Social Work at Episcopal Charities will fund and arrange social work support to our grantee partners in a manner similar to other forms of EC program support, alongside our cash and program grants.
Why is social work important to us, our grantees and their clients?
Front line social work is often an essential element of our grantee’s programming and services. Social workers assist people with solving problems in their daily lives, through psychology, sociology and counseling. A good summary of the dimensions of social work and its importance may be accessed here: https://www.socialworkdegreecenter.com/what-is-social-work/.
Our grantee partners address food access, homelessness, youth vulnerability, addiction and other acute needs. Social workers have the essential education and training required to chart pathways to resolution. However, due to limited resources our grantee partners are often unable to provide the frequency, consistency or quality of social work support that would benefit their clients.
Shortages of qualified social workers have been a chronic problem for charitable organizations for many years. For many smaller, resource-constrained organizations, offering social work to their clients (typically during irregular hours and limited time windows) is often impractical or costly. By consolidating need across our grantees, working with social work interns and making grants in support of social work, our Frances Perkins Program for Social Work aims to facilitate greater access to social workers and social work-directed services.
The Program will be designed to utilize different types of social work, including the use of Licensed Clinical Social Workers and other social work specialties (see https://onlinemsw.fsu.edu/blog/social-worker-role) while conforming to the appropriately stringent credentialling requirements of the State of New York (see https://www.op.nysed.gov/professions/licensed-clinical-social-worker/license-requirements).
Why is the program named after Frances Perkins?(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Perkins)? Frances Perkins’ pioneering dedication to helping others and her focus on practical solutions in public policy made her an inspiration for our donor (more on our donor to follow in subsequent blogs) and make her a model for us at Episcopal Charities.
We will continue to update you as the program is developed but if you would like to learn more please reach out to our Program Director, Judy Douglas at jdouglas@dioceseny.org.
To contribute to the Frances Perkins Program for Social Work endowment, please visit the donation page here.
#SocialWorkGrant #FrancesPerkinsProgramForSocialWork #EpiscopalCharitiesofNewYork
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