» Letter to Community
» Board of Trustees
» Staff LIsting

Letter to Community

Together We Can.

The East River Family Strengthening Collaborative (ERFSC) is dedicated to transforming Ward Seven into an effective community of caring where adults are worthy of their children's trust and unconditional love. If this is to be achieved, we must strive to develop strong families that have the consciousness, commitment and competence to create and sustain strong neighborhoods where love among neighbors and for children is evident. Such a lofty goal may seem unattainable, but it is not. It does, however, require that we use the creativity that our Creator has amply given us. It requires that we challenge existing attitudes, assumptions, concepts and practices. It requires that we dare to be innovative and not satisfied with operating within zones of comfort. What does all this mean?

It means that those of us who are in the human services business, cannot settle for the mere delivery of services to those who are sent to us for support or who voluntarily seek our assistance. If we as providers partner with one another to improve our effectiveness, because we recognize the awesome power of collaboration, we must also seek to generate such partnership and collaboration with and among those whom we serve. We should not be satisfied with meeting individual needs of individual adults, children, families, and neighborhoods: to do so is to guarantee that we entrap our people in a permanent state of crisis and dependency. We must also work to organize those whom we serve into self-help groups and support networks that are capable of holding their members accountable for each others well-being. Through community organizing a true community of caring can emerge: a community that can demand accountability from those institutions, agencies and organizations which impact its quality of life accountable because it demands accountability from itself.

Together we can build such a community where people can come to witness love in action. Together we can build a present and a future for our children that are free of abuse and neglect by speaking and acting out against the social, economic, and political abuse of our families and neighborhoods. Together we can serve, and organize those whom we serve, to effectively serve and support themselves. At the East River Family Strengthening Collaborative this will be our continual quest.