Welcome!
Welcome To Southside Community Center!
We believe community is more than just people connected by close proximity— how we gather reflects & reveals our beliefs, identities, and values. We’re on a mission to affirm and empower the black community —to foster growth, to develop our strengths, to encourage unity, to unapologetically embrace and celebrate who we are as a people, a culture and a community.
Our Mission
Support Our Community
"SOLID AS A ROCK” is our motto. It’s the idea that true connection, friendship, and mutual advancement occurs when we collaborate and support each other.
Empower our Youth
“For the people” is our motto. It’s the idea that true connection, friendship, and mutual advancement occurs when we collaborate and support each other.
Offer a Platform
We share our community’s stories and build acceptance, trust, and communication by creating a safe space where Black Americans can feel loved, welcomed and accepted.
Savor the Good Times
Life’s a lot more fun when we’re free to be our authentic selves. We create programs, events, and products for inspiration and self-expression in the home, community and beyond.
Respect our Partners
We are supported by exceptional partners- colleges, farmers, creatives, producers, leaders, etc who help to make all our programs happen and bring events to life.
Our History
The present Southside Community Center (SSCC) is the legacy of the work and ideals of the Francis Harper Women’s Club, a group of Black women leaders in the Ithaca community. In March of 1927, the Francis Harper Women’s Club organized the Serve-Us League to serve the residents of the historically Black Southside neighborhood of Ithaca, NY. Founded with just $220, raised by Mrs. Vera Irvin (president) and Mrs. Gessie Cooper, the SSCC was to be a non-sectarian and non-partisan organization for the “uplifting” of every individual. For the first seven years of its existence, the Center met in a house at 221 South Plain Street, and in 1932 purchased the property at 305 South Plain Street, the current home of the Center. In 1936 the structure was razed, and in 1937 the current facility was erected by the Works Progress Administration in cooperation with the Southside Corporation and the City of Ithaca. The building was dedicated in a ceremony attended by the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in 1938.
Our Staff
Our Board
