Henry Street Settlement Continues the Vision of Founder Lillian Wald

​Stephen K. Robert and his wife, Pilar Crespi Robert, lead the Source of Hope Foundation to address international humanitarian needs. They support a range of arts, education, and social welfare causes. Henry Street Settlement in New York City has honored Stephen Robert and board member Pilar Crespi Robert for their generous financial gifts and advocacy.

In 2022, Henry Street helped more than 44,000 people find healing as they sought to access medical care, find safe housing, get an education, build careers, overcome trauma, and expand their horizons through the arts. Henry Street was founded in 1893 by Lillian D. Wald, the 150th anniversary of whose birth the organization celebrated in 2017. The daughter of a prosperous Jewish family, Wald established Henry Street to offer nursing care and social services to poor immigrants living in crowded, unsanitary, and unsafe tenement housing.

Wald was born in Cincinnati in 1867. At the age of 22, she moved to New York to train as a nurse, then worked in an orphanage and with new immigrant families. Her first-hand knowledge of the effects of poverty, overcrowding, and lack of medical care led Wald to dedicate herself to the needs of the tenement community.

Wald coined the term “public health nurse” to describe the visiting nurse service she co-founded, which grew to provide hundreds of thousands of home visits annually. She also created one of the first public playgrounds in the city. Apart from her work with immigrant communities, she served as chair of the Red Cross fight against the 1918 influenza epidemic. She also advocated for the rights of women, children, workers, and Black Americans.

Stephen K Robert, Source of Hope Foundation, Longest Wait Times for Hospital Patients

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