The Academy took its place on the corner of East 103rd Street and 5th Avenue in 1927, when East Harlem was already a diverse, bustling community. As the years passed, and Italian Harlem became Spanish Harlem in the 1940s, then grew to become El Barrio—a sweep of city blocks stretching from 96th Street to the 140s, the Academy remained a good, but somewhat quiet neighbor.

That began to change in the 1990s when the Academy’s researchers established an office of Urban Epidemiologic Studies in the community and, along with other health institutions, began tracking urban health issues. The Academy’s partnership—Community-Based Participatory Research—was cutting-edge at the time and focused on HIV/AIDS, substance use and asthma.

The organization took on the full roll of community advocate in 2009, when we became partners, through our School Health Program, in the Strategic Alliance for Health, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-funded project created to make sustainable improvements in policies that might affect children’s health. The initiative concentrated on nutrition, physical education and wellness in East Harlem schools. The first age-friendly neighborhood was also in East Harlem.

To ensure that the changing neighborhood would offer economic opportunity and affordable housing to newcomers as well as longtime residents, the Academy became one of a group of local organizations determined to promote the health and wellbeing of community members.

“About eight years ago, there was a group of non-profits that worked together here sometimes, but it was not a formalized effort,” says David Nocenti, executive director of Union Settlement, the third largest employer in East Harlem.

Nocenti decided that bringing the group together regularly to share ideas, concerns and resources would increase their ability to address the community’s needs. “At the first meeting, we had 10 people. At the second, there were 20. It just grew after that,” he says. That organization became the East Harlem Community Alliance—as a member, the Academy leads the effort to help neighborhood businesses expand their markets. “I want to say kudos to Jo Ivey Boufford. Not everybody stepped up, but she did. When I got here, people did not see the Academy as involved in the community, but she’s been a great leader, a great partner.”

The Community Alliance is only one aspect of the Academy’s work in the neighborhood. As a member of the East Harlem Healthy Neighborhood Initiative, the Academy works with the NYC Center for Health Equity and Mount Sinai Hospital to increase the availability of healthy foods, improve the built environment, boost economic opportunities and connect residents with programs that support health-enhancing lifestyles.

As a member of the East Harlem Neighborhood Plan Steering Committee, leading the sub-committee on health and aging the Academy conducted, in 2016, the first “East Harlem Neighborhood Plan Health Impact Assessment (HIA): Connecting Housing Affordability and Health”—the first HIA ever conducted for the community. The HIA informs policy makers about how redevelopment may affect residents.

While the Academy brings resources to the community and works to raise its voice, community members also give to the Academy by sharing their stories and ideas. “The community partnership has made us more effective as we advance urban health in the state, nationally and internationally,” says Academy president Jo Ivey Boufford, MD. 

Help us continue our work in East Harlem. Support the new Jo Ivey Boufford East Harlem Initiatives Fund.