About Us
Through Diakon Child, Family & Community Ministries and affordable housing, we offer a range of programs and services for children, youths, families, and adult individuals of all ages in Pennsylvania and Maryland. Separately from its program divisions, Diakon administers the Pennsylvania Statewide Adoption & Permanency Network, or SWAN. In 2023, Diakon’s programs directly serve nearly 70,000 people.
Its name meaning “one assigned by the church to minister to the needs of others,” Diakon was formed by the Jan. 1, 2000, affiliation—and later merger—of Tressler Lutheran Services of Mechanicsburg, Pa., and Lutheran Services Northeast—itself an affiliation between The Lutheran Home at Topton, Pa., and LWS of Northeastern Pennsylvania, Hazleton. With its deepest roots originating in 1868, Diakon’s history includes the legacy of service of such additional organizations as Lutheran Social Services of Maryland, Baltimore. In June of 2024, an agreement was finalized to combine Diakon's senior living operations with Lutheran Senior Services (LSS). The transaction had to go through rigorous regulatory approvals and Diakon Senior Living operations and staff at its four campuses became part of LSS.
Working in nearly 25 service centers and affordable housing communities, approximately 400 Diakon staff members daily bring hope, hospitality, and healing to thousands of people, reaching out, as part of Lutheran Services in America and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, to serve those in need.
