Mission: West End Neighborhood House provides programs, services, support and advocacy when and where they are needed to ensure our families become self-sufficient, and our communities thrive. Vision: that every Delawarean will become self-sufficient. History: Founded on Wilmington’s West Side by Emily Bissell in 1883, West End Neighborhood House first assisted newly arriving Italian, German and Irish immigrants in the areas of Americanization, literacy, housing and employment. Services subsequently evolved to meet the needs of the West Side’s predominantly African-American and Hispanic residents. At the advent of World War I, the agency served as a barracks and club for the United States Navy Patrol in the City of Wilmington. During the Great Depression, West End became a center for employment and relief fund assistance by implementing programs of the Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) while initiating a prenatal health care clinic and the area’s first Girl Scout Troop. During World War II, the agency began collaborating with the Wilmington Board of Education to expand nursery school programs and joined the Red Cross in establishing a home-nursing program to train women in first-aid. Starting in the 1960s, as the agency’s staff and community became more diverse, West End modified its services to more effectively meet the needs of its by adopting a ‘multi-service center’ approach to resolve social problems. From the 1970s to the 1990s, federal employment and training programs, crisis alleviation, full-day childcare, tutoring and housing programs were implemented in response to federal anti-poverty initiatives. Since the early 1990s, West End has transformed the lives of thousands of low income families through innovative programs that have become models for other communities across the nation, including the following: Infant Mortality: In the early 1990s, West End, in collaboration with St. Francis Hospital, created a model prenatal clinic Tiny Steps to address infant mortality in low income families. St. Francis made the program permanent, and the Federal Government adopted and replicated the program nationwide. Micro Lending: In 1993, to encourage community home ownership, WENH created a security deposit loan program that to date has provided more than $1.7M in financing to low income clients. Housing and Home Ownership: Since the late 1990s, WENH’s Cornerstone West organization has harnessed over $60 million in capital to renovate, construct and sell nearly 400 new homes to low and moderate income families to address vacant property blight and encourage home ownership: in sixteen years, only two owners have defaulted on their mortgages. Foster Care Youth: Since 2001, WENH has led the state and impacted the nation in creating transitional and permanent housing, employment training and mentoring for youths at age 18 who have been emancipated from foster care. Today, approx. 25% of Delaware’s foster care youth participate in West End’s programs designed to help them obtain self-sufficiency. Payday Lending Alternatives: In 2005, to combat predatory payday loans that trap low-income customers in debt, WENH created an innovative short term loan program, Loans Plus, that allows customers to borrow up to $500 for payback over three months. The program has been so successful that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) adopted it for rollout to 25 states. Community Revitalization: In 2011, WENH led the creation of West Side Grows Together, a 10-year $35 million Revitalization Plan to transform housing, employment, the physical landscape and social condition of Wilmington’s West Side. The Plan’s target area covers one square mile, a population of over 13,000, and includes one of the city’s most economically, ethnically and socially diverse communities. Social Entrepreneurship: In 2014, in collaboration with Sir Speedy Print and Marketing Services of Wilmington, WENH launched Popdot, a sign creation and installation business that employs foster care and other disadvantaged youth at least 75% of whom are low-income. Also in 2014, WENH expanded its Cool Spring Farmer’s Market into an urban agricultural program which now grows on two acres of land and sells locally grown produce at four farmers’ markets in Wilmington and New Castle County, including low and mixed-income communities. Bright Spot Farms is the second social entrepreneurship project created under the Bright Spot Ventures social enterprise initiative, which began in 2010 thanks to seed funding from Barclays. Local Entrepreneurship: In 2016, West End created an entrepreneurship program focused on educating aspiring entrepreneurs in Claymont and on Wilmington’s West Side about the fundamentals of starting their own businesses and helping existing businesses expand. At the request of others, the program has since expanded to serve the Hispanic community as well as residents of Dover. The program is based on four primary components: (1) business training, including classroom instruction and one-on-one mentoring focused on the basic elements of starting a business; (2) business support, such as topic-specific workshops taught by local experts; (3) loans/access to credit, provided by local Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI); and (4) technical support. Grow Delaware Fund: In October 2017, West End Neighborhood House, in partnership with The Longwood Foundation; Discover Bank; National Development Council; Division of Small Businesses, Development & Tourism, created the Grow Delaware Fund. The fund is a unique partnership that will provide $5 million to support loans to small businesses in Delaware seeking to strengthen their operations and grow jobs. The initiative offers flexible financing to Delaware-based businesses through long-term fixed rate financing designed to minimize monthly principal and interest payments, maximizing a business’ ability to grow. This will allow Delaware businesses to both add and retain jobs. Specific attention is paid to businesses in low-income communities and to women/minority-owned businesses in the state. Re-Entry Program: In 2020, West End began partnering with 12 local organizations to provide subsidized housing and supportive services for ex-offenders re-entering society post-incarceration. West End coordinates rental assistance payments for ex-offenders participating in case management (which includes supportive services and employment training) with such partner organizations.
