Union Settlement Association


Union Settlement Association is one of the oldest settlement houses in New York City, providing community-based services and programs that support the immigrant and low-income residents of East Harlem since 1895. It is one of East Harlem’s largest social service agencies and serves more than 13,000 people annually at 17 locations, through programs including early childhood education, youth development, senior services, job training, the arts, adult education, nutrition, counseling, a farmers' market, community development, and neighborhood cultural events.

History

Union Settlement was founded in 1895 by members of the Union Theological Seminary Alumni Club. After visiting Toynbee Hall in London, and inspired by the example of Hull House in Chicago, the alumni decided to create a settlement house in the area of Manhattan enclosed on the north and south by East 96th and 110th Streets and on the east and west by the East River and Central Park. Known as East Harlem, it was a neighborhood filled with new tenements but devoid of any civic services. The ethos of the settlement house movement called for its workers to “settle” in such neighborhoods in order to learn first-hand the problems of the residents. “It seemed to us that, as early settlers, we had a chance to grow up with the community and affect its development,” wrote William Adams Brown, Theology Professor, Union Theological Society and President, Union Settlement Association.
With millions of immigrants arriving in the Union States in the late 19th century as the two elevated subway lines were completed, East Harlem quickly equaled the Lower East Side as Manhattan’s predominantly immigrant community. Until the 1920s, it was New York’s true "Little Italy," claiming the largest population of Italians outside of Italy. The neighborhood had a progressive, reformist commitment: Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia lived in East Harlem, spoke often at Union Settlement, and personified the political activism of the area.
Union Settlement’s work has helped tens of thousands of children, youth and adults, many of whom have gone on to become leaders in the community and beyond, including New York Secretary of State Lorraine Cortes-Vazquez and City Council Member Robert Jackson. Hollywood movie star Burt Lancaster played sports, acted in theater productions and learned circus arts at Union Settlement as a boy. He credited Union Settlement for "saving him from the streets," and supported the organization all his life.
In 1895 Union Settlement opened at 202 E. 96th Street, on the second floor of a tenement building. Union Theological Seminary student William E. McCord was appointed its first "headworker". It moved twice in 1895.
In 1899, Morris K. Jesup purchased five houses for the Settlement.
In 1901, McCord resigned as headworker and Gaylord S. White replaced him, serving in that position for 22 years.
In 1917, Union Settlement established three campgrounds in Palisades Interstate Park: Camp Nathan Hale for boys, Camp Gaylord White for girls and Camp Ellen Marvin for mothers and young children. The camps exposed tens of thousands of inner-city youngsters, from 1917 to the 1960s, to the natural world.
In 1932, The New York Committee of the American Birth Control League opened a Birth Control Clinic at Union Settlement. The clinic is one of the first in the city and in East Harlem.
In 1957, Union Settlement Federal Credit Union opened its doors for business. The credit union is a financial cooperative where members pool their assets and lend money to each other at low interest rates.
In 1961, a $1 million Astor Foundation grant enabled Union Settlement and six other settlement houses to implement the Pre-Teen Delinquency Prevention Project.
In 1965, Union Settlement became the site of one of the country's first Head Start Programs, the federally sponsored preschool initiative launched as one of the Great Society undertakings.
In 1974, Settlement Health and Medical Services, part of a federal initiative, provided primary health care to East Harlem residents in a free-standing clinic. The program is separately incorporated in 1976.
In 1992, Union Settlement was selected to serve as the lead agency of the East Harlem HIV Care Network, a coalition of over 100 social and health service agencies that address issues of AIDS. Network members serve people who are HIV positive or are living with HIV/AIDS, and their relatives and partners

Programs