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Rich in Heritage, Alive with Commitment

When Wesley Community Centers began in 1902, a century was turning and change was everywhere. People and families were pouring into Atlanta seeking work, many of them poor and ill educated. Basic social services were badly needed. In response, women often Methodist congregations combined to create the Women’s Board of City Missions.

These courageous and dedicated women focused on a community later known as Cabbage town, which was taking shape around the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill. The mill workers had come in search for prosperity that eluded them in small towns, farms and mountain hamlets. But what they found—at least at first—was poverty, sickness and a disorienting adjustment to city life. The Women’s Board established a settlement house offering a clinic, child care and a sewing school.

Thus began a century-long tradition of Wesley Community Centers identifying grassroots human need and responding in the spirit of Christ’s command to love our neighbor. In 1928 Wesley Community House relocated to Richardson Street to serve the Capitol Homes neighborhood. Its outreach expanded in 1944 to include a summer camp. Camp Wesley offered camping, learning and fellowship to children and adolescents who had no other way to go to camp.

Meanwhile, a similar organization came into being in South Atlanta. Bethlehem Center was formed in 1944 to provide day care for mothers in the work force. Later Bethlehem expanded to provide youth programs and social services. By the late 1950s and early 1960s, Bethlehem was doing extensive service in and around the Carver Homes neighborhood.

Common concerns and shared Methodist roots led to a merger of the Wesley and Bethlehem Centers in 1967. The result was Wesley Community Centers, one of the city’s first racially integrated private social service agencies. In keeping with the heritage of its predecessor organizations, WCC has continued to grow with the times, refocusing its mission activities to address the needs of seniors as well as young people.

More than 100 years ago, the pressures and stresses of a changing society gave birth to WCC. In the first decade of the 21^st Century, the challenges seem unprecedented—but they are really not so different from the past. We still are called to love and serve our neighbor. WCC answers “yes!”