Henry Street Settlement @ 125

People who do bad make lots of noise. Just look at the news.

People who do good usually do it quietly. Just look on the Lower East Side. 

For 125 years the Henry Street Settlement has been going great things.

Founded by a New Yorker named Lillian Wald in 1893, the Henry Street Settlement is a living legacy of its founder and time. Before the New Deal, before the government thought that it had the moral obligation to take care of the less fortunate (at least in some capacity), settlement houses sprang up in the late 19th to serve the needs of their neighborhoods and communities. They were social service agencies before they ever existed. They helped the poor, immigrants, and others to get jobs, get medical care, get care for their children or elderly parents, resolve disputes with their landlords, learn to read and write English, help people negotiate life in this big and confusing city. They were a lifeline to those who desperately needed help and had nowhere else to turn.

Much has changed in the world of social services and philanthropy in the last century, but the Henry Street Settlement endures. It continue serving the Lower East Side and helping its citizens improve their lives (although there are probably less poor people there than back in the day). 

In a city where things change every day, where old institutions vanish all the time, it's great to know that the Henry Street Settlement has stuck around -- and hopefully will for another 125 years.