The RSHM LIFE Center opened its doors in June of 1995 with the goal of responding to the needs of women and children living in Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown. A handful of young, immigrant women and children drifted in to see what was inside. The LIFE Center soon became known as a safe place where they could relax, make friends, and talk freely about the challenges they and their families faced adjusting to a new country and culture.
Over the next 25 years, a dynamic community center has evolved from that humble beginning. Today the LIFE Center delivers a wide variety of programs to the immigrant community and beyond, serving toddlers to seniors. Our goal continues to be to empower and inspire all who come through our doors.
Please join us – come visit, volunteer, get involved – be inspired!
Susan Gardella RSHM – Executive Director
About the Center
Our Mission
The Mission of the RSHM LIFE Center is to welcome the needy, especially women and children, and to create with them a culture that nurtures human development.
The Center is a special place where people of all faiths and cultural traditions are welcome. Our goal is to empower individuals and families to work effectively for their own development and liberation. The LIFE Center fosters a sense of community, uniting neighbor with neighbor, providing opportunities for connection, education, enrichment, and empowerment.
Our Historyand RSHM Connection
The RSHM LIFE Center was founded in 1995 by the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary (RSHM), an international congregation of women religious who have served in the Sleepy Hollow/Tarrytown area for over 100 years. The mission of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary is “to know and love God, to make God known and loved, to proclaim that Jesus Christ has come that all may have life.” Inspired by this call, the empowerment of women and children is a focus that unites us in fourteen countries: Brazil, East Timor, England, France, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Mozambique, Portugal, Scotland, USA, Wales, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Since our founding in 1849, this faith vision of Father Gailhac, our founder, has been implemented in different ways, according to the needs of the times in various cultures. The spirit of faith and zeal which marked our founder, and our founding sisters, urges us to respond to the needs of our time and to work with others in action for evangelical justice. We place ourselves and our resources at the service of those who are most in need of justice, especially women and children, enabling the powerless, the deprived, the marginalized, the voiceless to work effectively for their own development and liberation.
Our early days…Planning Committee…Opening Blessing…New Friends….
Here at the Center we believe that Learning Is For Everyone!
With the belief that Learning Is For Everyone (LIFE), the Center takes a whole family approach in our programs. We focus on the learning needs of the entire family, from toddlers to adults. Getting to know the families and involving them in the LIFE Center programs helps build stronger community relationships. We believe that community, the witness of unity among people of diverse ages, backgrounds, cultures, and racial origins, is at the heart of our mission in a fragmented and divided world. Together we can make the world a better place.
We have come to the end of our 25th anniversary year. There were no big parties or gatherings but I am so pleased to say the LIFE Center never ceased to be of service to our community here in Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown. We stayed true to our mission. Learning Labs ended on a high-note. …
May 1, 2021 By Barrett Seaman– The Hudson Independent Like many charitable organizations in the rivertowns, The Thursday Club typically relies on a spring gala, replete with dinner, dancing and both a silent and live auction, to raise money that is then donated to a local cause deemed worthy during the previous year. And like many, the …
It’s hard to believe that we will soon pass the one year mark of living through the Covid Pandemic. So many lives lost, so many lives changed. Here at the LIFE Center we are counting our blessings as we look back over the year. We started with food distributions last March, moved into Summer Camp …
Grounded in a belief that community requires connection, the RSHM LIFE Center relies on the generosity of friends and partners to make its mission a reality. Thank you to all who help to make the LIFE Center a place of inclusion and unity.
Special thanks to the many groups and individual donors whose generosity is vital to the mission of the RSHM LIFE Center!
The Thursday Club
MBIA Foundation
Kids Club of Tarrytown & Sleepy Hollow
Westchester Community Foundation
St. Faith’s House Foundation
NJ Community Foundation
Rotary Club of the Tarrytowns
Church of the Magdalene
Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary
Rivertown Runners
Kendal-on-Hudson
Kendal-on-Hudson Residents Association
Church of St. Barnabas
Jacob Burns Film Center
Conrad N. Hilton Fund for Sisters
Catholic Charities NY
Jewish Communal Fund
Milton Tenenbaum Charitable Foundation
Gant Family Foundation
Order of Malta
Check out the variety of ways to support the RSHM LIFE Center:
