In addition to its many service programs, the Armenian Evangelical Social Service Center (AESSC) of Hollywood, CA, offers an effective prison ministry, which reaches out to the numerous Armenian inmates in prisons in the Los Angeles area. The ministry began in February 1998, when Mr. Bedros Hajian was added to the staff of AESSC. Mr. Hajian, a licensed prison chaplain, makes daily trips to jails where he visits with troubled Armenian youth either directly in their cells or in the chaplain¹s office. He also leads worship services and preaches the Word of God in the chapels of the prisons.

AESSC is an important home mission project of the Armenian Missionary Association of America (AMAA). Under the leadership of its Executive Director, Mr. Hagop Loussararian, AESSC provides many ser-vices in the Armenian community of Los Angeles, such as social work, information and referrals, job training and placement, immigration and naturalization assistance, fingerprinting, certified nurse¹s aide training, acculturalization programs, etc. In addition to its main office in Hollywood, AESSC has branch offices serving the Armenian communities of Glendale and Montebello.