As you know, a lot has changed since Jane Edna Hunter opened the Working Girl’s Home Association in 1911.  As an agency that provided women of color with needed support in their struggle to find safe living arrangements and employable skills, the Working Girl’s Home Association which was later renamed The Phillis Wheatley Association, Inc., was referred to far and wide as the “black YWCA” and was a prominent meeting place for leaders in the African American community.  From its genesis as a residence for young women, to its new focus in 1967 as a neighborhood center, on through its continuing evolution in response to community needs, The Phillis Wheatley Association has remained an important civic resource for 99 years!

Our mission is service to the community, and with your support we can continue to provide daycare services at our Josephine Kohler Daycare Center; year round environmental education, team building and experiential education programs at our Camp Mueller residential camp (which is one of only four African-American owned and operated camps in the country); cultural enrichment through affordable quality musical training at our Sutphen School of Music; and finally a safe gathering place and luncheon program for the elderly through our Swinging Seniors Program.  But most notably we are in the middle of a historic renovation of the original 1927 building which houses our Administrative Offices and 56 residential housing units (Emeritus House) for the elderly.