Episcopal Community Services (ECS)

Head start and early head start: head start promotes the school readiness of young children from low-income families through agencies in their local Community. Head start and early head start programs support the mental, social, and emotional development of children from birth to age 5. In addition to education Services, programs provide children and their families with health, nutrition, social, and other Services. Head start Services are responsive to each child and family's ethnic, cultural, and linguistic heritage. Ecs head start and early head start programs provide early childhood development, healthy nutritious meals and education Services to over 1600 low income preschool children and their families. Services are delivered in a variety of (see schedule o for continued descriptions) settings including 13 centers, 4 public school settings (partnership with the san ysidro and south bay elementary school districts) and over 350 homes. Ecs partners with the juvenile court and Community schools to operate a head start program for children of pregnant and parenting teens while they pursue their education.

Ecs nutrition Services programs provides over 210,000 high quality, balanced meals and snacks annually to the children enrolled in ecs head start and early head start programs and the adults served in ecs safe haven programs.

Behavioral health services:1. Ecs central east regional recovery center (cerrc) provides intensive outpatient and outpatient substance use disorder treatment to more than 980 clients including transitional age youth (tay.) In the central region of san diego. Cerrc provides recovery residence (housing) assistance, on site mental health Services, case management, medication assisted treatment (mat) referrals, naloxne distribution, transportation, medical referrals and vocational assistance. 2. Ecs accord empowers adults to stop driving under the influence of alcohol and / or drugs. It is a fee-based, state licensed dui treatment program providing drug and alcohol education and counseling Services. Approximately 75% of the more than 4,203 clients served successfully completed the program.3. Ecs para las familias empowers families with children ages 0-12 who are struggling with the adverse effects of trauma; a significant number of the children are in foster care. The Services (provided to approximately 288 low income families (with children aged birth to five years) are bilingual and include behavioral healthcare screening, assessment, family therapy and school observation. Ecs para las familias also provides behavioral health Services to children and families enrolled in head start programs in the south bay.4. Ecs' uptown safe haven empowers mentally ill homeless adults to transition to permanent housing. This is a 'harm reduction' site where the philosophy is to first house and stabilize the resident and then work on an individualized plan to assist them in improving their mental and physical health, income and life skills. Approximately 37 adults are served in the program each year in the downtown area of san diego, the area with the highest concentration of homeless people in san diego county. In addition to being homeless, these adults have also been diagnosed with a mental illness and most have a substance use disorder. C-hrt safe haven serves approximately 40 unhoused residents annually living with chronic substance use conditions and is a partnership between the county of san diego, the city of san diego, family health centers, and Episcopal Community Services. This is a "harm reduction" model where the philosophy is to first house and stabilize the client before addressing their substance use disorder and co-occurring mental illness.