Created in 1987, The East New York Urban Youth Corps (ENYUYC) is a neighborhood based, non-profit, community development organization serving East New York, Brooklyn. This historic 5.6 square mile area was a thriving community in the 1940s and 1950s, but went into a decline in the 1960s, with “white flight” and a correlating loss of services. The 1970s and 1980s brought further divestment and deterioration with the area losing one-fifths of its housing, and much of its retail businesses and industrial jobs.
By the late 1980s, decayed and ravaged buildings, dominated East New York’s landscape, and the community had the highest homicide rate in NYC. While there have been marked improvements in recent years, especially in the area of housing, East New York remains one of the poorest communities in New York City and a multitude of social ills still prevail.
Since our inception, ENYUYC has become an anchor agency in East New York, growing from a staff of two in one location, to a staff of over 75 employees working out of multiple locations throughout the neighborhood. Today, we provide valuable Housing and Education services to thousands of residents annually, with a vision of continued growth.
We began operations with gut-rehabilitation Housing Developments where we renovated rather than destroyed existing housing, and the “community” each represented. These were turned over to us to manage and we quickly realized that sustainable results could only be achieved in partnership with our residents. This meant that residents needed to appreciate their community dynamics and, their individual roles and responsibilities in the process of rebuilding.
As a result of this recognition, ENYUYC branched into Education with the goal of equipping residents with the knowledge necessary to create their own successful solutions. These education services took the form of organizing residents to take an active role in creating solutions for the community, providing youth development programs that foster academic and social growth, health and human services, including individual and family counseling and referrals to existing resources.
Organization History
