RESOURCE CENTER FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT INC,

Mission

In 1990, the Happy Land Social Club fire killed 87 people in the community, many of who were immigrants. Due to fear and lack of information, many of the victims' families and survivors of the fire did not receive the assistance to which they were entitled. The late Bishop Francisco Garmendia, Vicar of the South Bronx, and the late Mr. James P. McLaughlin, President of the United Parcel Service (UPS), recognized in this crisis a need for bilingual telephone counseling and referral services in the South Bronx. They responded by developing The HopeLine for poor immigrants to access emergency services, education, health care, and social services. While the immediate critical need for the hotline no longer exists, our service to the community has continued and grown.

The overwhelming poverty of the immigrant community led Bishop Garmendia and Mr. McLaughlin to establish a multi-faceted resource center with expanded programming and services, which came to be called the Resource Center for Community Development, Inc., and is commonly referred to as The HopeLine.

Our mission is to provide low-income families with the critical skills and essential resources to build resilience, to better their lives, and to become positive role models and productive members of society.