James Weldon Johnson Community Centers (New York, N.Y.)

In 1948 the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) and the East Harlem Council for Community Planning assembled a coalition of community service organizations and settlement houses to develop social service programs for residents of the newly opened James Weldon Johnson Houses. This “Headworkers' Council” included representatives of Union Settlement, Casita Maria, 110th Street Community Center, The Junior League, Girl Scouts of America, and Community Service Society. These agencies provided funding and staff to establish recreation, education and group work programs at Johnson Houses in rent-free space provided by NYCHA. Mildred Zucker, a social worker who had volunteered at Madison House during the 1930s, was paid by the Community Service Society to coordinate the work. In the following year a board of trustees was recruited, and James Weldon Johnson Community Center, Inc. (JWJ) was independently incorporated. Board members included Lewis Isaacs, son of City Council member Stanley M. Isaacs; Bert Beck of the Community Service Society; and William Kirk, Headworker of Union Settlement. In 1952 JWJ formalized its identification with the settlement house tradition by joining United Neighborhood Houses, the umbrella organization of New York settlements.

The problems of juvenile delinquency and gang activity among East Harlem teenagers were of primary concern to the new agency. JWJ staff reached out to neighborhood young people by forming a “Teenage Committee on Narcotics.” In 1959 JWJ worked with the Youth Committee of East Harlem to establish a Youth Employment Service providing vocational guidance and job placement for teenagers. Other programs established at JWJ in its early years were clubs, athletics, and scout troops for children, and classes in english, sewing and carpentry for adults. In 1953 JWJ became a pioneer among settlement houses by launching a mental health clinic. Staff psychiatrists met with children, teens and adults referred by JWJ group workers and NYCHA staff. The Monticello Day Care Center was opened under JWJ auspices in 1955; that same year the settlement broadened its area of service by sponsoring a community center in NYCHA's new Jefferson Houses.

...