We are excited to announce the merger of United Community Centers (UCC) and Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation (CHLDC), effective July 1, 2024. This merger unites our strengths, expands our services, and deepens our impact in East New York. Together, we are committed to building a stronger, more resilient community, providing comprehensive support and creating lasting positive change. Thank you for your continued support as we embark on this new chapter.
UCC and CHLDC, after working closely together for decades have realized that we are Stronger Together! Our two organizations share the same values and philosophy of building community with the community. Our programs, though different, complement each other. UCC has unique expertise in public health, early childhood development, and urban agriculture, while CHLDC has a strong track record of economic and housing development, youth services, and college success programs. Both UCC and CHLDC value youth leadership development and community organizing. A merged organization will allow us to better serve East New York, expand our services, share our back office, deepen our impact, and bring multiple supportive services across the entirety of the community. The newly merged organization will serve 28,000 East York residents a year with the same caring and compassionate staff and services. We are excited to offer all residents the full array of services and opportunities of both organizations, supporting even more residents in advancing out of poverty and building/preserving generational wealth.
Our Purpose and Programs
CHLDC was founded by local residents and merchants in 1983. Cypress Hills had undergone a period of rapid neighborhood change, systemic disinvestment by city government and banks, the flight of long-time residents, and the loss of local businesses that devastated the Fulton Street commercial strip. Together, these community members sought to revitalize and improve Cypress Hills through community development, organizing and services. Forty years later we are proud of the 800+ units of affordable housing we’ve built, the revitalization of the Fulton Street commercial corridor, the organizing we’ve done with parents to get new school buildings constructed and to establish alternative schools and the continuum of opportunities and support we developed for young people and their families. CHLDC now serves 13,000 residents a year.
United Community Centers (UCC) is a social justice driven settlement house and community center that has been serving the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn for over 65 years. UCC began in two NYCHA houses, Boulevard and Linden Houses in 1954, by residents looking for integrated programs for their children. Through the years, they have grown into a multi-service, settlement house modeled, organization. Their mission is to work together with residents of all ages and cultures to address our community’s challenges, celebrate its strengths, and provide services that improve lives. Through their programs, farmers markets, and outreach activities, UCC serves up to 15,000 people each year.
UCC’s Current Programs Include
An Early Childhood Education program for 120 children ages 2 to 5.
The East New York Farms! Project, an urban agriculture and food justice program that includes three large urban farms, two farmers markets, a paid internship program for 36-38 local youth and support for 200+home based gardeners.
Protecting the East, an HIV/AIDS health education and risk reduction program with a paid peer educator internship program for 12-15 local youth.
CHLDC's Comprehensive Programming and Services Include
A continuum of Youth Development Programs at 13 public schools in ENY and a beautiful new community center
College Access and Persistence Services at Franklin K. Lane and Thomas Jefferson High School campuses
Career Education and Workforce Development in the construction, tech, transportation, health care and culinary sectors
Community Organizing (including youth organizing) and tenant organizing and counseling.
Financial literacy programming.
Housing Counseling, home repair and mortgage foreclosure prevention counseling for local homeowners.
Community Development, the development and management of affordable housing.
Cypress Hills Verde, a sustainability initiative that includes small homes energy retrofits, basement apartment conversions, public benefits enrollment and nutrition education.
Cypress Hills East New York Community Center - a one stop serve hub at 276 Chestnut Street that offers a Kitchen Incubator/Teaching Kitchen, a Kingsborough Community College satellite, public benefits enrollment and a variety of youth and adult sports and wellness programming
Impact and Future Plans
Three of UCC’s board members will join the CHLDC Board of Directors, and all of UCC’s staff will be retained. UCC early childhood education, urban agriculture, and public health programs will be sustained, enriched, and expanded in the future. As we align our back offices, we will educate all residents about each organization’s services, increasing their access to greater opportunities and support. We will also utilize each other's community centers to provide services previously unavailable to all East New Yorkers because of distance and lack of public transit between the northern and southern ends of East New York.
Through the merger we hope to engage more young people and residents in our organizing for educational justice, food justice, and housing & economic justice and win more investments for the community, and fight back against policies and projects that will displace low and moderate-income, BIPOC residents and small businesses.
And, with your support, we are looking forward to repairing, retrofitting, upgrading, and modernizing UCC’s architecturally beautiful but older building at 613 New Lots Avenue so it can last for decades to come and be a central hub for services in East New York.