In the 1970s and 1980s Pennsylvania closed a number of state mental centers and hospitals. In response to the Mental Health and Mental Retardation Act of 1966, a group of residents near Philadelphia began to establish a new social service agency for their community.

This organization came to be known as Resources for Human Development, Inc. (RHD) and first opened its doors in Ardmore to provide community mental health services in 1970.

The organizing group sought to give birth to a new type of agency that would have the capacity to respond to a wide range of individual and community problems. It would be an organization whose values would guide it to focus on developing a highly decentralized organization with the broadest possible service mission.

Over its years of community service, RHD has grown dramatically. In keeping with the founding philosophy, RHD remains convinced that long-term, sustained effectiveness is inextricably linked with the ability of an agency to empower its employees, who in turn empower their consumers of service. This is what RHD means by partnering.

The scope of RHD's services is extraordinary. Among its many activities:

• helping individuals with mental retardation in the Greater Delaware valley and Boston communities as they continue to develop their roles as genuine members of the community;
• assisting men and women with chemical and alcohol addiction in Philadelphia, Allentown and New Orleans to live sober and productive lives;
• supporting persons with mental illness and emotional problems in Montgomery and Northampton counties to develop the requisite life skills to live as independently as possible in the community;
• partnering with mothers in Philadelphia and Chester in the education of their sons and daughters;
• aiding persons who are homeless to secure permanent housing and often become first-time homeowners in the West Mount Airy and Germantown communities of Philadelphia;
• and delivering primary health care services to residents of local housing facilities.

These are but a few of the services that bear the special stamp of Resources for Human Development.

Over more than three decades of operation, it has grown to provide an array of services in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and New Jersey.

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