About US

Our History

The Community Service Society of New York (CSS) is a 160 year-old institution that has been on the cutting edge of public policy innovations to support poor New Yorkers in their quest to be full participants in the civic life of the nation’s largest city. CSS employs a variety of tools – advocacy, direct service, research and policy analysis, and strategic partnerships – to forge consensus on appropriate policy interventions to facilitate the economic mobility of low-income New Yorkers. Our legacy includes significant milestones, such as: establishing the prototype for the free school lunch program; serving as the catalyst behind the city’s first tenement housing laws; aiding victims of the Titanic maritime disaster and World Trade Center employees impacted by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001; creating the nation’s largest senior volunteer program; and developing the curriculum that spawned the Columbia University School of Social Work.

Our Mission

The mission of the Community Service Society is to identify problems which create a permanent poverty class in New York City, and to advocate the systemic changes required to eliminate such problems.  CSS will focus on enabling, empowering and promoting opportunities for poor families and individuals to develop their full potential, to contribute to society, and to realize social, economic and political opportunities.

Our Focus

Our primary focus is on the value of good-wage jobs and work supports to stimulate social and economic mobility among the working poor. Throughout our history we have embraced the idea that policy solutions grounded in research and informed by real life experiences inspires legislative remedies, volunteerism, and direct service models that bring assistance to populations in need. We continue to invest in that vision through five streams of activity:

• Research to identify underlying causes and stimuli of poverty
• Advocacy at all levels of government on behalf of low-income New Yorkers
• Direct service to individuals and institutions in poor communities
• Volunteerism to strengthen community life
• Strategic partnerships with public and private sector leadership

CSS Department of Social Services “Windows of Hope” program

Photo by Mike Relph

Working for Change

Identifying problems is not enough. CSS is committed to investing its resources, including its intellectual and human capital, toward systemic change. We are dedicated to working in a collaborative fashion with individuals and organizations toward the elimination of gross disparities in economic opportunity. To this end, CSS engages elected officials, not-for-profit organizations, the philanthropic sector, academia, and the business community to move beyond the status quo toward reframing the civic identity of low-income New Yorkers. We do so by turning our attention to three facets of life in our city – work, health care, and housing – that are major determinants of the economic security of all New Yorkers; particularly the working poor.