Erie Neighborhood House

Operations began in 1870 as a ministry of Holland Presbyterian Church, a Protestant congregation located northwest of Chicago's Loop, and the organization quickly became part of the settlement house movement that emerged in the late 19th century.

It currently offers programs and services from four locations—two in Chicago's West Town community area, a third in Little Village, and fourth at Jose De Diego Elementary School in East Humboldt Park—to a population characterized as predominantly Latino.

Emanuel Van Orden, and its members began serving their neighbors in the West Town community through a variety of programs, including kindergarten and Sunday school.

The 1950s witnessed an increase in families migrating from Puerto Rico, drawn from the island to the mainland in part by a new San Juan-to-Chicago fare promotion offered by Pan Am Airways.

Many of these families settled in parts of West Town and Humboldt Park and became connected with Erie House, thus initiating the agency's demographic shift toward Chicago's growing Latino community.

Erie House spawned several independent community efforts during the 1960s: the Northwest Community Organization, co-founded with Holy Innocents Catholic Church as a mobilizing force for social change; Bickerdike Redevelopment Corporation, an affordable housing program; and Erie Family Health Center,[5] a Northwestern University medical student-staffed health clinic serving low-income families.

In 2005, the organization founded Erie Elementary Charter School (EECS)[6] in neighboring Humboldt Park with a goal to "empower students to successfully and productively engage in the local community and broader society."

The agency's TEAM mentoring program boasts extremely high graduation and college placement rates for its participants and has placed significant emphasis on preparing students for careers in STEM fields.