Our Mission
The Red Hook Initiative works to confront and affect the consequences of intergenerational poverty through an approach that offers support in education, employment, health and community development. We believe that social change comes from within individuals. The momentum to improve the quality of life for Red Hook's residents - as well as the community at large - must come from the people living in the community. Currently over 95% of our employees live in the Red Hook Houses. We are creating a model for social change that does not exist anywhere else in the city.
Kayaking in Red Hook
History
The Red Hook Health Initiative began in 2002 as a project of Long Island College Hospital in an effort to reduce the growing health disparities that exist in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The Red Hook Houses are home to nearly 10,000 people; it is a community that has struggled with intergenerational poverty, unemployment, and low levels of high school completion. These challenges made it clear that in order to create change, a non-traditional approach was needed that could work at the deepest level, starting from the root of the community. In 2006 the Red Hook Initiative formed as a community-based non-profit in order to address this wide-range of community needs.
Peer Health Educators
Our Work
The Red Hook Initiative provides residents with training and employment so in turn, they can create their own programs and provide support services to their neighbors, family, and friends. Not only does this practice provide livable wage jobs in a community known for a lack of employment opportunities, it also keeps all of our financial resources within the neighborhood. The Red Hook Initiative provides programs and services for residents of Red Hook starting at age nine. Our center is open 9am - 9pm, Monday through Friday and a half day on Saturday.
