About

Mission
“Inspiring Excellence Through Music”

Vision
“Molding the Futures of the Next Generation”

Mission Statement
Highbridge Voices is an after-school music and academic program that seeks to inspire excellence in our students of the South Bronx through the example of excellence in our programs and staff, in collaboration with their families and the community.

History
It began as a vision…
When Monsignor Sakano, Director of Housing for the Archdiocese of New York, Jorge L Batista, J.D., and their associates set out to initiate housing projects on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and Harlem in 1984, they could not have imagined how their vision would evolve and bloom. Eventually, their work took them to the South Bronx, a neighborhood ravaged by abandoned buildings, high crime rates, and underperforming public schools. In response, the Highbridge Community Development Corporation (HCDC) was born. Its main goal was to redevelop the area through affordable housing and support for at-risk families, many of whom had been living in shelters. For the community, HCDC represented a lifeline, an opportunity for families who had previously been forgotten or overlooked.

 A unique solution…
One of HCDC’s prime concerns was how to extend that lifeline to the children of the Highbridge community. Overtaxed public schools simply couldn’t provide the additional support structure parents needed in such an economically challenged environment. In 1998, Highbridge Voices held its first rehearsal in a converted parking garage beneath an HCDC housing project. Initially considered a program of HCDC, Highbridge Voices became an independent nonprofit organization, incorporated in 2001. What started out as a novelty quickly developed into a neighborhood fixture, a place where at-risk young people could find and hone their own voices; both through an eclectic music curriculum and an academic component focused on remediation, skill development, and sustained achievement.