The Urban League for Bergen County, Inc. (“ULBC’) is a non-profit, non-partisan civil rights organization serving the diverse communities of Bergen County and its surrounding areas since 1918. A local affiliate of the National Urban League, ULBC is dedicated to the empowerment of economically disadvantaged residents in order to elevate the standards of living in historically underserved urban communities. ULBC has come a long way in its 94 year history.Today, it is one of the county’s largest service organization, assisting more than 2,000 people a year through a variety of programs. But while the organization has grown in terms of its structure, its budget and the scope of its activities and the issues it addresses are the same as it faced in the beginning: housing, jobs, education, health and social inequalities. As it was in the beginning, ULBC is dedicated to the idea of an open, pluralistic, integrated society, with economic opportunity a reality for all. ULBC’s origins go back to September 1918, when the League for Social Service Among Colored People was started to help newly-arrived black immigrants who had left the ravages of poverty and segregation firmly entrenched in the south. During its formative years, ULBC implemented forums in education, housing, employment, health and welfare. After World War I, ULBC began to operate night school to train people in the basic skills of reading and math. For the past 35 years, ULBC has continued to expand its services and advocacy programs. With more than $60 million raised from non-traditional funding sources, ULBC has been able to continue programs providing guidance and counseling in Housing Development and Foreclosure Prevention, Youth and Family Services, Teen Pregnancy Prevention, Education, and Job Training and Placement.

ULBC was established in 1918 with the mission to enable minority group members and disadvantaged people to cultivate and exercise their full human potential on par with middle-class Americans.

To accomplish this mission, ULBC intervenes at all points in the social and economic structure where the interests of racial minorities and the disadvantaged are at stake; to train members of these communities in the strategies and techniques for securing change, in the status quo; to advocate for and with the major sources of power, both public and private, in order to bring about positive and rewarding changes in the lives of all seeking to participate equitably in the American experience. ULBC will remain true to this fundamental task to assist those it serves in the achievement of social and economic equality. Strategies for achieving this mission will be through academic and social development of children, fostering of economic self-sufficiency, and promotion of racial inclusion. The strategies will evolve continually to meet the challenges confronting our constituency.