WHO WE ARE
The Greater Harlem Center for Families and Youth, Inc. - The Harlem Center - was established and incorporated as a not for profit, tax exempt charitable organization in 2001. The founders, Aubrey LeGrier and Dianne Mack, are lifelong residents of Harlem with an extensive track record of progressive human, social and community service contributions spanning four decades. The Harlem Center was spiritually conceived with a most unique vision:
"To provide the highest quality of programs, services and resources to the greater Harlem community, through a Christ-centered ethos."
WHAT WE DO
The Harlem Center is a "community-based, member-centered" organization whose mission is "reaching, serving and strengthening the greater Harlem community, one family at a time." We are committed to accomplishing our mission by applying biblical principles, precepts and practices to the design and delivery of a wide array of initiatives proven to be critical to the process of securing and sustaining lifelong survival, success and significance by all individuals.
Our primary focus is to facilitate the interests of community-based youth, and help them to fully utilize their personal strengths and talents, thereby improving their chances of realizing the fulness of their God-given potential. Secondarily, in support of the meaningful, life changing relationships established with our youth, we also seek to reach out to the parents, caregivers and adults within the households of the youth we serve, and likewise endeavor to provide them the same opportunity to take advantage of programs, services and resources available to them, both under the auspices of The Harlem Center, as well as other agencies, organizations and institutions throughout the New York City metropolitan area.
WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO
It is our conviction that unless a true holistic approach is adopted, with respect to child, youth, family and community development modalities - an approach that encompasses the body, soul and spirit of a individual - traditional interventions will continue to fall short and ultimately fail. The Harlem Center believes that root causes, and not symptoms, must be identified and addressed, in order to improve and increase the quality of life experienced by a community.
For too long, many organizations have stopped short of asserting the undeniable truth about the place and power of faith-based interventions within the scope of youth and community development initiatives. It is painfully, if not tragically, clear that at the very least some of the root causes of debilitation and degradation within our community can be attributed to the spiritual condition of individuals and families. The Harlem Center envisions itself as a vital link in the chain that serves to connect individuals and families to spiritual, as well as secular, resources that have effectively empowered communities throughout our nation's history. Ultimately, any strategy that etiher ignores or denies any dimension of our human existence, including the spiritual, is doomed to fail. For in order to make a person or family whole, you must be in a position to serve the whole person/family. And whatever serves to hinder individual and family development, inevitably weakens the community.
"As the individual and family go, so goes the community."
