The staff and volunteers at SCI's Seafarers' Center in Port Newark welcome over 57,000 seafarers, port workers, and truckers each year in a comfortable, friendly environment for relaxation, recreation, and spiritual refreshment. Trained chaplains and ship visitors provide social and pastoral services to seafarers entering the port of New York and New Jersey, visiting nearly 3,000 vessels each year.

Chaplains and staff also provide social services and pastoral care to over 7,000 cruise ship workers at the New York Cruise Ship Terminal in Manhattan and at Cape Liberty in Bayonne, NJ.

Inland, mariners working on America's rivers and waterways endure long periods away from home and family. SCI's Ministry on the River is the only network of pastoral care available to the more than 30,000 of these inland mariners. SCI's chaplains visit mariner onboard vessels from Pittsburgh to Houston.

From its headquarters in New York City, SCI provides a center for research, legal assistance and training on issues relating to seafarers' abuse and exploitation. It offers free legal counseling, assistance and referrals to merchant seafarers and seafarers' welfare agencies worldwide. SCI's lawyers regularly handle cases ranging from denial of shore leave and unpaid wages to preparing a petition to the International Court of Justice to free a ships' crew held hostage for over two years by an African warlord. Addressing an issue of great significance to today's mariner, SCI is helping authorities develop reliable seafarers' credential systems that strike a reasonable balance between security and seafarers rights.