For 196 years, New York City Mission Society has been a force for positive change in the lives of New Yorkers in need.

In 1812, New York City was in the midst of a severe economic crisis. Newly arrived immigrants faced an uncertain future: disease was rampant, medical science limited, and poverty widespread. New York City Mission Society (then called The New York Religious Tract Society) was formed in an effort to inspire hope in the masses that flooded the City. At the time, the organization's mission was to provide Christian tracts to every New Yorker willing to receive them.

Working in low-income communities, Mission Society became intimately acquainted with the face of poverty and suffering. In response, it provided relief in the form of food, clothing, schooling, and access to health care to people in need. Its early efforts to attend to the physical and material needs of the poor led to the development of the Association for Improving the Conditions of the Poor (AICP), a "spin-off" organization that ultimately evolved into today's Community Service Society, one of NY's prominent human service providers.

In the second half of the 1800's, Mission Society established its reputation as an innovator in the human services field. It created ward libraries that were a forerunner to New York City's public library system in the 1850's. Soon thereafter, it started financing trips to the countryside for the urban poor that provided a model for the Fresh Air Fund, which was launched in 1877 with the strong participation of Mission Society's leadership. Other examples of our pioneering programming in the late 1800's included the development of an employment agency for women and children and the establishment of a visiting nurse service in lower Manhattan.

While Mission Society made many programmatic advances in the late 1800's, its work became increasingly defined by an institutional church approach. Through this approach, Mission Society consolidated its programming in churches, which had ample space and resources needed to serve communities of need. Mission Society maintained firm authority over its churches, overseeing their budgets, raising funds and establishing endowments for them, and hiring and supervising their staffs.

The organization's shift to an institutional church approach did not affect the essence of Mission Society's programming. Reading programs, vocational training, trips to the country for urban children, and other services continued and expanded.

Although Mission Society would always maintain a strong connection to faith-based organizations, direct work in and with churches became deemphasized in the 1920's and 1930's. At this time - and during the ensuing years - Mission Society again moved to the forefront of service delivery. The organization initiated New York City's first sleep away camp (Camp Minisink) for African-American children in 1929. By the 1950's, the Mission Society's Harlem Unit had also developed several innovative leadership training programs, including the Tapawingo Honor Society, the Order of the Feather Fraternity, and the Cadet Corps. The Cadet Corps had a particularly widespread appeal, teaching thousands of young people marching techniques, team work, and discipline over the course of four decades. Family-based camping programs established in the 1950's provided respite to thousands of people. Taken together, Mission Society's services in the 1900's were a lifeline to generations of New Yorkers, producing New York City's first black school principal, its first black district superintendent, its first black Deputy Police Commissioner, and countless other productive citizens.

Today, New York City Mission Society continues its rich legacy of service to communities of long-standing need by helping children and families to learn, achieve and succeed.  The organization provides cutting-edge programs that focus on education, financial literacy, personal growth and development, prevention, and arts and recreation.  Our school-based and community programs touch the lives of 10,000 children and families a year in Central Harlem, the Bronx and Brooklyn. These programs are conducted in ten New York City schools and the Minisink Townhouse, a thriving community center in the heart of Harlem.