Sacred Heart Center

Our mission is to be where diverse people come together to create community and prove what is possible. The

Our Shared Values are...
We believe we can fulfill our mission and accomplish our strategies by daily living these shared values which are rooted in Catholic Social Teachings.
Respect of Human Dignity - Every person is worthy of respect by virtue of being a human being.
Respect for Human Life - Every person has an inherent dignity and a right to life consistent with the dignity that is ours as human beings.
Principle of Association - We find diversity as a cause of liveliness rather than of division. We are our true selves when we relate well to others, not when we are isolated.
Principle of Participation - People have a right, indeed a duty to participate in shaping a more just society. All people need to take an active role in the development of socio-economic, political and cultural life. They should be shapers of destiny, not just passive recipients of other people’s decisions or charity.
Principal of Preferential Option for the Poor and Vulnerable - In our community we put the needs of the poor and vulnerable first.
Principle of Solidarity - We are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers. Solidarity is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good; that is to say, to the good of all and of each individual, because we are each really responsible for all.
Principle of Stewardship - We show respect for the Creator by our stewardship of creation. We have a responsibility to care for the world’s goods as stewards and trustees, not primarily, let alone merely, as consumers.
Principle of Subsidiarity - The word subsidiarity comes from the Latin word subsidium which means help, aid or support. The principle of subsidiarity means clearly determining the right amount of help or support that is needed to accomplish a task or to meet an obligation: “not too much” (taking over and doing it for the other: thereby creating learned helplessness or over dependence) and “not too little” (standing back and watching people thrash about, thereby increasing frustration and perhaps hopelessness).
Principle of Human Equality - Given that every human being is entitled to respect and dignity by virtue of being human, it follows that there is a radical equality among all human beings.
Principle of Common Good - A community is genuinely healthy when all people, not only one or several segments, but all people flourish.

A Jesuit priest opened Sacred Heart Center in the abandoned Sacred Heart School in 1990 with $10,000 of seed money from the Catholic Diocese of Richmond and without a blueprint. Within several months, a community-based board of directors was formed, the building was rehabilitated and furnished, several neighborhood residents were employed, and an after-school program for young children and job training for the unemployed were offered.
By the end of 1990, the Junior League of Richmond offered to collaborate with the Center on a program to provide high-quality day care for children, combined with parenting and educational training for their parents. Since opening in 1992 the program has reached over 200 families, who have received literacy and academic training, family counseling, and parenting support.
Today, the Center is a nonprofit community center for residents of South Richmond including those with multiple issues that challenge family stability. As we address the symptoms --child abuse/neglect, community violence, literacy, unemployment, safe housing, fair treatment in the workplace, financial literacy -- we also look for systemic change of the root causes that continue to threaten the fragile community that the Center nourishes.

 Contact Aaron Samsel for volunteer opportunities