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About Us
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The work continued to grow and expand as the residents clearly
had many needs and were anxious to improve themselves and their
circumstances. As it became apparent that rented rooms and church
space would not be adequate to house the program, Rev. DeLuca approached
the business leaders of the community to gain their support in
consolidating the programs of the school together with the Visiting
Nurses Association and United Charities under one roof. He reminded
them of how workers were being seriously injured and even killed
because they could not read the signs in the factories. He spoke
of the wide range of difficulties the newcomers were experiencing
and of their ardent desires to establish themselves as members
of the community and citizens of America. Persevering with his
message, he won their support, and a fund raising campaign to raise
$15,000 was mounted. By 1918, the new building on East 15th St.
was complete. A single story building, it included room for the
Visiting Nurses (who would soon leave to find their own quarters)
and United Charities as well as an assembly room, a chapel, a club
room, an office and a reception area. The purpose of this new Cosmopolitan
Community Center, as stated in its constitution, was to advance "the
moral, intellectual and industrial" development of the people
of Chicago Heights.
With the continued backing of the church, the Center would be
run in the spirit of the settlement houses springing up across
the country and in Europe. The principle of the movement was to
help others, not by patronizing them, but by joining their community.
By settling in the community, one can best understand and help
in solving community problems. Established in many cities in Europe
and America by churches and social activists, settlement
houses, as they came to be called, would become the key
means by which immigrants and the less fortunate would be welcomed,
enriched 'and encouraged toward stability and self- sufficiency.
With its own newly constructed building, the Center made an auspicious
beginning. Miss Elizabeth Logan became the first head resident.
She ran the center with oversight from the original board of 15
members, consisting of 5 members of the Chicago Presbytery, 5 members
of the Manufacturers Association of Chicago Heights (which provided
early financial support for the Center) and 5 members of the citizenry
of Chicago Heights. In keeping with the settlement house principle,
Miss Logan lived at the center, as did other center staff. A second
floor of sleeping quarters was added in 1921 to make this possible.
This new upstairs also contained additional clubrooms to accommodate
the burgeoning activities of the Center.
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