A Jesuit priest opened Sacred Heart Center in the abandoned Sacred Heart School in 1990 with $10,000 of seed money from the Catholic Diocese of Richmond and without a blueprint. Within several months, a community-based board of directors was formed, the building was rehabilitated and furnished, several neighborhood residents were employed, and an after-school program for young children and job training for the unemployed were offered.
By the end of 1990, the Junior League of Richmond offered to collaborate with the Center on a program to provide high-quality day care for children, combined with parenting and educational training for their parents. Since opening in 1992 the program has reached over 200 families, who have received literacy and academic training, family counseling, and parenting support.
Today, the Center is a nonprofit community center for residents of South Richmond including those with multiple issues that challenge family stability. As we address the symptoms --child abuse/neglect, community violence, literacy, unemployment, safe housing, fair treatment in the workplace, financial literacy -- we also look for systemic change of the root causes that continue to threaten the fragile community that the Center nourishes.
