Our Community
The Village of Port Chester with a population of about 35,000 is located in Westchester County, 45 minutes away from New York City. Despite the suburban setting of Westchester County, Port Chester has a much more urban feel.
Our People:
Our community consists of predominantly White and Hispanic/Latino residents. Although the population is 45.2% Hispanic/Latino, 72% of our school population are Hispanic/Latino. The median income for a family of four is 34,000, though the median income for the entire county is 103,000. We are a somewhat younger community: 25.2% Youth between the ages of 0-19 and 15.9% Senior’s age 60 +
Our Strengths:
As a community we are proud to boast many strengths and assets:
- Our physical location
- Our many services
- Manageable size
- New political leadership
- Many faith-based groups
- Many civic and fraternal organizations
- Engaged school district
- Diversity
- Restaurant capital of Westchester
Our Challenges:
Along with our strengths, our community has a number of challenges:
- Overt racism and lack of respect for each other
- Substandard housing – absentee landlords
- Drugs and violence
- Growing gang involvement
- High teen pregnancy rate
- High dropout rate
- Low employment
- Lack of community self esteem
- • Lack of cross cultural awareness
- Limited information and referral resources
- Not enough English as a second language opportunities
- Inability of citizens to participate in government dialogue
- Lack of interaction between houses of worship
- Lack of civic engagement
Our Communities for All Ages:
In 2007, Communities for All Ages created a coalition of individuals and organizations to help explore and organize around the issues Port Chester faces After meeting with over 115 local residents to discuss our community’s strengths/assets and challenges, the Communities for All Ages coalition began to develop a range of initiatives to address our community concerns.
