Emergency infant Services began serving the Tulsa community on
January 1, 1977,
with the support of Second Presbyterian
Church. Prior to 1977, Second Presbyterian
had offered a broad
emergency program to the community to help many people with
a
wide variety of social problems. Seeing the need to focus its
resources, however,
Second Presbyterian conducted a survey and
evaluation of the community needs, as
well as an evaluation of
the existing community services available to meet those needs.
As a result, Second Presbyterian discovered that services for
the babies and young
children of families in crises situations
were totally inadequate based upon the
existing services
available.
Therefore, over twenty-two years ago, Emergency Infant Services
was created under
the jurisdiction of Second Presbyterian.
Funding EIS was initially provided by Easter
Oklahoma Presbytery
with a task force comprised of one representative from each
Presbyterian Church in Tulsa. During EIS’s first year of
operation, emergency services
we provided to 1,214 families.
As we have seen by those involved with EIS,
this was just the
beginning.
As of
January 1, 1978, EIS left the direct supervision of Second
Presbyterian Church
and formed its own board of directors with
its own governing by-laws as an autonomous
program under the
Presbyterian Urban Ministry Council. This move symbolized the
participation and support to EIS from all Presbyterians
throughout the community.
As of
January 1, 1981, EIS took yet another step by actually becoming
incorporated as
a non-profit corporation and becoming a
community ministry. While EIS has continued
to receive a great
deal of support from the Presbyterian Churches in Tulsa, it also
is now supported by Episcopal Churches, Methodist Churches,
Catholic Churches, Baptist
Churches, Lutheran and Christian
Churches throughout Tulsa and surrounding communities,
as well
as many individuals and corporations.
The
need for EIS has continued to grow since 1977 and today, EIS is
providing
emergency services for approximately 8,000 babies and
young children per year.
A family emergency may arise for many
reasons and under many different circumstances,
such as the loss
of a job, the onset of family illness, or the delay of federal
or other
assistance. The goal of EIS is to assure that the
babies and young children of theses
families do not endure
hunger and human suffering during such difficult times.
EIS
has also served as an inspiration to other in establishing
similar community services.
EIS assisted with the creation of
infant crisis services in Oklahoma City, Ft. Worth, and
Houston.
Furthermore, other comminutes across the nation are continually
contacting
EIS as a wonderful example of an organization
meeting the needs of infants and
young children in crisis.
