Highbridge Community Life Center (HCLC) is a not-for-profit, community-based organization providing a wide range of educational and social service programs to the poor. Those served are mostly minority, single-parent families living in an area rampant with unemployment, illiteracy, drug abuse, crime, and AIDS.

Since the agency was incorporated in 1979 by two Dominican Sisters, HCLC has grown to a non-sectarian, multi-service agency of over 100 staff, utilizing six locations and $4.7 million in federal, state, city, private, corporate, and foundation funds. Throughout over 20 years of service, HCLC’s basic mission has remained the same: to enable the residents of the Highbridge Community to take complete charge of their own lives and to empower them to use their new-found strength to improve the lives of their families and neighbors.

Lasallian Volunteers have been part of the staff of HCLC for 20 years. They have held positions as English as a secondary language (ESL) teachers, social workers, newspaper writers, children’s service providers, and after-school tutors. In recent years, they have staffed family and community retreats at the rural Empowerment Center in Goshen, NY.