PEC is prepared to respond to the basic needs of homeless women and children by providing shelter, food, clothing, and other material necessities and support services. PEC offers a safe haven, not only from the elements, but from the violence and turmoil of marginal living. PEC operates in an open, flexible and responsive way to meet the needs of people regardless of their situation, condition, or identification with any group. 

PEC’s emergency shelter program provides emergency shelter and meals to approximately 40 female headed families containing an average of 80 children and up to ten dependent female teenagers who may or may not have children.While in shelter, families are provided with beds; linens; blankets; toiletries including soap, shampoo, deodorant, tooth paste, and tooth brushes; carfare for school and recreational purposes; and other items.PEC’s shelter program provides a total of 46,000 nights of shelter per year to this population.

A typical family at PEC is headed by a single, African-American mother with two children under five years old. Families arriving at PEC face serious and often multiple barriers to self-sufficiency, including mental and behavioral health issues, emotional trauma resulting from domestic violence, drug and alcohol addictions, and physical disabilities. They have routinely experienced evictions by private landlords or relatives, have histories of child abuse, domestic violence, sexual abuse, and grew up in households where one or both parents had substance abuse problems. Of the clients that PEC works with, 50% have gross deficits in lifeskills, 42% experience symptoms of severe depression, 41% have experienced domestic violence, 35% have histories of sexual victimization as children, 30% lived in foster care, 20% were victims of child abuse, and 14% are struggling with substance abuse. 76% of PEC’s clients are coping with four or more of these problems at the same time.

Grounded in 34 years of experience servicing homeless families in Philadelphia, PEC’s program provides families with case management; emergency shelter, food and clothing; transitional housing; on-site child care and health care services; specialized after school and summer enrichment programs; mental health services; parent education; welfare-to-work services; and housing counseling. Beyond offering safe, pleasant housing and supportive services, PEC provides clients with an increasing level of responsibility that enables them to move out confidently on their own with minimal risk of returning to homelessness.Through the support and guidance of case management and the parent-child education program, clients learn how to recognize and mobilize available resources so they can achieve and maintain a stable, independent and permanent position in the community. To assure each family’s success, PEC services go well beyond basic support in order to address the long-term antecedents of a family’s homelessness, the immediate concerns that precipitate homelessness and the consequences for each of the women and children.