About Us

FOCUS is the Fellowship of Orthodox Christians United to Serve. As the domestic service arm of the Orthodox Church, FOCUS unites Orthodox Christians to reveal Christ’s love through service that restores dignity, transforms lives, and builds community. Yet each letter of “FOCUS” also represents the core services we provide: Food, Occupation, Clothing, Understanding, and Shelter. Our name is both who we are and what we do.

FOCUS currently operates 13 local hubs where Orthodox faithful unite to serve their neighbors.  FOCUS Center ministries include:

• Distributing food, clothing & essential supplies
• Supporting mothers, children & families
• Offering job readiness, hygiene & community resources
• Serving all people without discrimination

Each Center is shaped by its city’s needs — but united in one mission: to reveal Christ’s love through service that restores dignity, transforms lives, and builds community.

FOCUS unites Orthodox Christians to reveal Christ’s love through service that restores dignity, transforms lives, and builds community.

FOCUS operates as a single 501(c)(3) organization. Each FOCUS Center is an operating division of this single, national organization. This creates economies of scale that allow programs to operate as efficiently and impactful as possible with the support of a National Office that supports, guides, and sustains local efforts.

FOCUS Centers operate with a baseline 92% efficiency. Operating as a single entity allows FOCUS to consolidate and scale administrative costs to maximize the resources available for feeding, clothing, housing, and serving our neighbors in need. The National Office both handles background administrative and operational items (financial tracking, annual audit, creation of policies and procedures, etc) and establishes new FOCUS Centers which seamlessly plug into these systems and create new, impactful programs in communities across the country.

FOCUS sees poverty as fundamentally about disconnection. At its most basic level, poverty is a disconnection from the material goods people need (I’m hungry because I lack food, for example). Looked at more deeply, poverty is a disconnection between people, some of whom possess material goods that others need (I’m hungry because someone else has food and won’t share it with me). At its deepest level, poverty is a disconnection between God and man: were people to truly live as God’s children, we would see each other as brothers and sisters and live accordingly. 

There are three ways to get involved:

• Pray — Remember the ministry of FOCUS, both those we serve and serve with, in your daily prayers.
• Give — Become a monthly donor and support either a local FOCUS Center or the National Office, which supports all existing Centers, develops new Centers, and offers a variety of National Programs.
• Serve — Volunteer at a FOCUS Center near you or engage in one of our National Programs.

FOCUS started 2023 with just 5 local FOCUS Centers in operation and currently runs 13 across the country, with an additional 4 in development this year. Click here to learn more about the New Center Development Process and how you can help bring this ministry to your community.