550 West Washington Avenue
Escondido, CA - 92025
(760) 489-6380
North County Interfaith Council Inc., doing business as Interfaith Community Services, is a non-profit organization which partners with more than 350 diverse faith centers in North San Diego County. Interfaith was formed in 1979 by a small group of North County Faith Communities to address the growing problems of poverty and homelessness. Because the poor have multiple needs and because accessibility to community services was a problem, Interfaith began addressing those needs within its own service delivery system and through collaborating with other agencies. Interfaith s services began at the most basic level - with an emergency food program. A pantry was established using donated food distributed by volunteers. But hunger does not exist in isolation. It is always linked to other human conditions: homelessness,under- or non-employment, inadequate parenting skills, physical, emotional and mental illness, illiteracy, lack of education and social skills, unawareness of available resources, and most of all, hopelessness, loss of human dignity and spiritual crisis. One of the key strengths of Interfaith is that it has developed an effective community model approach that propels individuals in need to their highest level of self-sufficiency and optimum health. Interfaith s Faith Center members contribute donations of money, materials, in-kind services, and volunteers, thereby offering an impressive array of services. Interfaith Coommunity Services has grown from a small food pantry staffed by volunteers to a seamless continuum of care, which is operated by 90+ paid employees, a Board of 20+ community activists, more than 3,000 volunteers in direct service, and a membership of more than 350 Faith Comunities. Interfaith has become a national model for faith community involvement in addressing problems of the poor and the needy. All of Interfaith s programs are designed to help people help themselves, to offer a hand up, not a handout. A well-designed continuum of care provides an effective array of services that move people from poverty and despair to self-reliance and hope.
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