Headquartered in New York City, FriarWorks is a non-profit network of Friar parishes across the Eastern seaboard, providing life-changing services to people in poverty. At its most basic, this means feeding and sheltering. But our ultimate goal is to move people out of poverty with education, counseling, drug rehabilitation services, job coaching and more. In short, we provide the crucial services that empower people to live their lives with dignity and purpose, free of the bonds poverty
FriarWorks is a network of Franciscan parishes and volunteer ministries located along the Eastern Seaboard. The organization stems from a group of 300 Friars who migrated from Germany to the United States in 1901. There are now over 30 different locations where Friars and highly motivated volunteers provide life-changing services to people in poverty. Today there are over 17,000 Franciscan Friars around the world.
It's said that poverty in the U.S. is largely invisible. Not to us. We see its many faces every day—adults, children, immigrants, the elderly, the sick and drug addicted. Extreme poverty is affecting America in its own backyard. Although FriarWorks focuses on poverty in America, there are Friars in over 129 countries around the world working toward the same goal.
We're Franciscan Friars. Following in the footsteps of St. Francis, we have renounced all worldly possessions and devoted our lives to the service of those most in need. We have always been thought of as "of the people and with the people." Living in a community is a core value and helps us to put things in a more "down to earth" perspective. Friars pride themselves on being accepting and non-judgmental of everyone, those who are in the faith community and those who are not.
