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In early summer of 1987,
Dennelisse Chief Executive Officer Luis Pons was the featured guest
on a popular New York, Spanish Language, radio talk show and
announced a new, community-based, homemaker/home health care program
for children and their families. Developed by the Lower West Side
Household Services Corporation, a 20 year old neighborhood program,
the Dennelisse Corporation was starting on its own with a contract
from the New York City Human Resources Administration.
Response was immediate. Soon the
new agency had 150 applications to work para los niños—for
the children– a phrase heard again and again from callers who had
been moved by Pon’s description of the children’s need and the
agency’s determination to help. Para Los Niños—in
several languages—quickly became the unofficial motto and focus of
the Dennelisse Corporation, now the third largest agency for
homemaker services in New York.
Dennelisse, a nonprofit
corporation, describes itself more positively as an agency for social
profit. It is named for the late Father Dennis Cornelisse of Our
Lady of Guadalupe Church in Manhattan’s Lower West Side.
Dennelisse has supplied nearly 2,000 families with
a weekly average in of 40 hours of homemaker services. At present,
280 homemakers and a multicultural, multilingual social work staff
of 14 professionals work with more than 1,000 parents, children, and
other family members—more than 40% affected by HIV/AIDS —in an
atmosphere of trust and community. |
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