Women's Housing and Economic Development Corp.

The Women's Housing and Economic Development Corporation (WHEDco) is a community development organization founded on the radically simple idea that all people deserve healthy, vibrant communities. We build award-winning, sustainable, affordable homes – but our work is not over when our buildings are complete. WHEDco believes that to be successful, affordable housing must be anchored in strong communities that residents can be proud of. WHEDco's mission is to give the South Bronx access to all the resources that create thriving neighborhoods: from high-quality early education and after-school programs, to fresh, healthy food, cultural programming, and economic opportunity.

To fulfill our mission, we have set in place the following programs and services: Affordable Green Homes: We currently provide homes for 800+ people in two housing developments in the South Bronx, and broke ground on our third and most ambitious development in 2017; Education & Youth Development: Each year, WHEDco fosters high academic achievement for over 3,100 children from infancy to
high school, through our EarlyLearn, Head Start, Home-Based Childcare (HBCC), After School and Teen programs; Community & Economic Development: Each year, WHEDco helps over 500 individuals launch and operate small businesses through our Home-Based Childcare Programs, Bronx CookSpace and Commercial Revitalization initiatives; Family Support & Counseling Services: WHEDco provides a support system to over 3,000 families each year, connecting them to physicians, mental health counselors, nutritionists, public benefits, housing and employment assistance, and emergency food; Bronx Music Heritage Center: Arts and culture give communities a sense of pride. Last year, 5,000 people attended our free and low-cost cultural programming.

For a quarter century, WHEDco has been a leader in fostering thriving neighborhoods and creating lasting economic opportunity in the South Bronx. From our deeply affordable homes to high-quality education services, workforce development initiatives, and arts and culture programming, you can find the footprint of WHEDco's vision for a greater Bronx printed across the borough. To fulfill our mission, we have set in place the following programs and services: Affordable Green Homes: We currently provide homes for 800+ people in two housing developments in the South Bronx, and broke ground on our third and most ambitious development in 2017; Education & Youth Development: Each year, WHEDco fosters high academic achievement for over 3,100 children from infancy to
high school, through our EarlyLearn, Head Start, Home-Based Childcare (HBCC), After School and Teen programs; Community & Economic Development: Each year, WHEDco helps over 500 individuals launch and operate small businesses through our Home-Based Childcare Programs, Bronx CookSpace and Commercial Revitalization initiatives; Family Support & Counseling Services: WHEDco provides a support system to over 3,000 families each year, connecting them to physicians, mental health counselors, nutritionists, public benefits, housing and employment assistance, and emergency food; Bronx Music Heritage Center: Arts and culture give communities a sense of pride. Last year, 5,000 people attended our free and low-cost cultural programming.

WHEDco, under its Founder, Nancy Biberman, pioneered a process of community- and research-driven historic and contextual development, utilizing buildings and land for a mix of purposes in addition to housing: business incubators, retail, childcare, health care, education and performance venues. WHEDco's first programmatic initiatives in its Urban Horizons building – the commercial kitchen business incubator now known as Bronx CookSpace, and a training program for family day care providers now called the Home-Based Childcare Training Institute – were launched after early findings that many women were supporting themselves by preparing and selling food, and caring for children. What began as a small organization with a handful of staff members, serving community members around the Urban Horizons affordable housing development in the South Bronx, is now a robust organization with more than 300 full- and part-time staff members that serves 40,000 individuals and families in three different neighborhoods, with programs that extend across all boroughs of New York City.