Summary
Organization name
Parish Resource Center
1976
Tax id (EIN)
23-2000688
Categories
Faith
Address
2160 LINCOLN HWY ELANCASTER, PA 17602
$9,825 raised by 97 donors
66% complete
$15,000 Goal
For almost 50 years, Parish Resource Center (PRC) has helped nonprofits and faith communities in Lancaster County better utilize their resources and fulfill their missions. These days, our work is all about identifying direct service gaps in our community, creating programs that fill those gaps, and equipping local volunteers to have the greatest possible impact on their community.
Our primary initiatives this year have been addressing food insecurity and a local shortage of immigration legal services:
And we support all of this work by cultivating and training a dedicated pool of 250+ volunteers. In addition to training our own volunteers directly, we partner with organizations like the Lancaster County Community Foundation and Central Pennsylvania Food Bank to offer subsidized capacity building courses to nonprofits and faith communities tirelessly working to serve their most vulnerable neighbors.
Our vision for the future of south central Pennsylvania is this: That an interconnected and mutually supportive network of community benefit organizations would weave a water-tight social safety net, lift up volunteers and funders to give their gifts where they would have the most impact, and offer dignity and abundance to all people as they have need. And we believe that our community already has the skills, resources, and will to make this a reality.
For 50 years Parish Resource Center has worked to help nonprofit organizations in south central Pennsylvania more effectively fulfill their missions. In a region where these entities are integral to the delivery of social services, we offer educational opportunities and build community initiatives that are efficient, equitable, and compassionate.
The Parish Resource Center (PRC) was founded in 1976 as an ecumenical non-profit corporation organized to discover, gather, develop, and share material and human resources to be used by lay and professional leaders in the development of local churches. PRC provided workshops where church leaders could find resources and guidance; cultivated a shared library of periodicals, curricula, and audio-visual materials; and offered consultant services.
Over the past fifty years, PRC has evolved to increase the efficiency and impact of the local missional community, which has grown to include nonprofits, social service providers, and medical institutions. PRC bridges the concerns of secular and religious organizations through educational opportunities and direct service initiatives, building inclusive programs that are accessible to all.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic threw PRC, like many service-oriented nonprofits, into a season of discernment around our resources and utility. As more people lost access to food, medical care, child care, technology, and social services, we found ourselves sitting at the center of a network of faith communities, nonprofits, and healthcare providers with the expertise, flexibility, and stakeholder support to address real needs in real-time. We began rapidly filling gaps in local services; everything from training organizations on Zoom to delivering pallets of bottled water to free meal providers to coordinating local churches to buy and forgive $3.1 million dollars in medical debt. We have embraced the rising, ever-evolving need of the past four years as a time to apply the values and strengths of PRC to a whole host of direct service initiatives that ultimately enhance the efforts of our partner churches and nonprofits. Our current direct service initiatives focus on food access and immigration.
Parish Resource Center’s purpose is to serve vulnerable populations while rooting our work in collaboration at every level: connecting social service providers with volunteer aid, connecting community surplus to individual needs, connecting medical systems with nonprofit support, and connecting passionate educators with energetic learners.
We need the support of our community in south central Pennsylvania to keep service and collaboration at the center of our work. If you're a person of goodwill looking to directly impact the wellbeing of your neighbors, we need your dedication as a volunteer. If you have resource to share in pursuit of equity, we need your generosity as a donor. And if you are a part of an organization that shares our values, we need your partnership.
Organization name
Parish Resource Center
1976
Tax id (EIN)
23-2000688
Categories
Faith
Address
2160 LINCOLN HWY E