PLF Back-to-School Resource Fair

Children enjoy a beautiful day the resource fair. June 2025.

Thank you to everyone who joined us recently at Montgomery-Waller Park for the first ECS Para Las Familias Back-to-School Resource Fair.

Families enjoyed a day of connection, support, and fun while gearing up for a strong start to the school year.

Children receive supportive resources like Comfort Cubs at the event. June 2025.

Thank you to our vendors, partners, and especially The Comfort Cub for sharing valuable resources including therapeutic bears which offered comfort, healing, and care to families in need.

And a special thank you as well to Councilmember Vivian Moreno for her community engagement and continued support.

Councilmember Moreno delivers a speech to the resource fair crowd. June 2025.

PLF staff enjoy the fair and offer information to families. June 2025.

Día del Niño with the Head Start Community

First friendships blossom at Head Start. April 2025.

Chula Vista, CA — Excitement filled the air Wednesday afternoon at St. John’s Head Start. As school let out, children and their families flocked to the school’s field for a Día del Niño celebration hosted by St. John’s Episcopal Church. Día del Niño, or Day of the Child, is a time to celebrate and recognize the contributions children make in our world and promote their well-being.

Children show off their painted hands at Día del Niño. April 2025.

Head Start children enjoyed activities such as face paint, arts and craft stations, lawn games, and a raffle. Music and laughter rang throughout the event as children played and engaged with the activities and each other.

The Día del Niño celebration was a clear display of the impactful community that ECS Head Start has built. Melanie Flores, a St. John’s Head Start parent, shared that seeing all of the students, teachers, and parents interacting at the event was exciting and an opportunity to connect in meaningful ways. She shared that ECS Head Start has been a supportive program for her family. “I think that ECS is a great program. I would highly recommend it,” she said. “It’s going to be the best decision you’ve ever done. It’s really going to help them in their educational future.”

Sunshine and bubbles bring out big smiles. April 2025.

ECS Head Start provides quality early childhood education and wholistic care for the whole family. It creates a necessary support system and steady foundation for over 2,000 families every year.

Recent federal funding threats to Head Start attracted even more parents to the event, including Evelyn Selmon. Evelyn’s daughter, who attends ECS Zamorano Head Start, is a prime example of the impact Head Start can have. “When [my daughter] first started, she was shy, kind of in her shell. Now, I see her blossoming and socializing with other students,” Evelyn said. “I’m really amazed with her progress here.” Evelyn came to Día del Niño in support of keeping Head Start so that other children can benefit the same way her own daughter did.

Head Start staff enjoy celebrating their students. April 2025.

The community that ECS Head Start forms would not be possible without community partners such as St. John’s Episcopal Church. Jeff Bates, the Junior Warden at St. John’s, expressed how impactful it was for the church to host the celebration. “I’m so happy to see not only the partnership between St. John’s and ECS Head Start, but just the kids having so much fun and that we’re able to be here and help serve the community, our neighbors that are right around the school and church,” he said.

ECS is grateful to St. John’s for hosting a fun event to celebrate our Head Start children and promoting the importance of caring for their educational, social, and emotional wellbeing.

To learn more about Head Start visit Head Start & Early Head Start — Episcopal Community Services.

Children play on the playground and spend time together outside the classroom. April 2025.

Arts and crafts allow students to express their creativity. April 2025.

Growing Up Great with PNC Bank

Students give PNC Bank volunteer a group hug after reading activity. April 2025.

Community partners of ECS provide invaluable support to clients. One of these partners is PNC Bank, offering volunteers, classroom supplies, activities, and engagement to ECS Head Start students.

Last month, PNC Bank sent four volunteers to a Head Start center to celebrate spring. Students planted seeds and did some arts and crafts with the help of the volunteers. Afterward, students took their pots home and watched their plants flourish as they cared for them.

Students plant seeds to take home and care for. March 2025.

The springtime fun continued with PNC Bank’s Grow Up Great Month, where they focus on giving back to their community partners, and in their 21st year of building brighter futures, PNC donated new books for Head Start classrooms and a bilingual activity book for each child. Two volunteers from PNC Bank, Eva Bryant and Valerie Attisha, visited ECS San Ysidro Head Start to read with the children.

ECS is grateful for the support from PNC Bank. The volunteers and resources shared benefit ECS Head Start children, educators, and families, expanding education to a new level and creating lasting memories.

To learn more about ECS’ community partners, visit Partners — Episcopal Community Services.

Volunteers help students with a craft activity. March 2025.

Students’ plants bloom after a few weeks of care. April 2025.

EDSD Establishes Hope with Comunidad de Luz

The Rt. Rev. Susan Brown Snook (third from the left) and other community leaders celebrate the grand opening of Comunidad de Luz. March 2025.

The Episcopal Diocese of San Diego (EDSD) has partnered with three other organizations — Via International, the Anglican Diocese of Western Mexico, and Vida Joven — to establish Comunidad de Luz, or Community of Light, a new shelter in Southern Tijuana that aims to provide the necessary wholistic care for women and children in need.

The San Diego/Tijuana border is one of the busiest in the nation. According to the Latin Times, “about 200 people have been deported daily from San Diego to Tijuana since June [2024].” Since the increase of immigration enforcement in January, this number may be rising.

Tijuana is a hub for asylum seekers. Many either await entry into the U.S. or grapple with potential next steps after being deported. Migrants waiting for entry may be stuck in Tijuana for months or even years and, since many are not from Tijuana, they lack the proper legal status or permits to work, driving them quickly into poverty. Deportees may stay in Tijuana if their family is still in the U.S., but adjusting to an unfamiliar place with no connections poses a challenge and potentially a dangerous situation.

ECS CEO Elizabeth Fitzsimons and ECS Board of Directors Chair The Rt. Rev. Dr. Susan Brown Snook visit Comunidad de Luz. March 2025.

Due to the traumatic experiences many endure, migrants and deportees may also struggle with mental health issues like anxiety and depression. They are in need of so much more than just a place to sleep at night; they need long-term care.

Comunidad de Luz can serve up to 100 women and children at once. They offer services such as job training, language classes, childcare, and psychological support. A shelter like this offers resources and community support, which is critical for many migrants/deportees who have no one else to turn to. Comunidad de Luz provides hope and rebuilds lives.

EDSD youth engaged in service trips to repair and prep the space, while diocese members contributed funds. This project falls in line with EDSD’s Migration Ministry.

Congratulations to EDSD on the grand opening of Comunidad de Luz. This is a meaningful step forward in honoring the dignity and resilience of those experiencing migration, loss, and the hope for something better. Read more about EDSD’s involvement in Comunidad de Luz.