Mission

Our Mission is to improve the quality of life for all residents of Central Islip, especially those with low and moderate incomes.

Goals

We work to eliminate blight; promote business in Central Islip; build and rehab housing; provide financial literacy and employment opportunities as well as emergency food and clothing for our neediest residents.

Programs

Over the years, the Council has purchased and rehabbed more than 19 homes for resale to lower income buyers or rental for low income tenants; and the construction of 10 new affordable homes for 1st time lower income buyers, with 1 home underway in 2016. The Council restored the historic 5 acre Heines Homestead in downtown Central Islip for our community. We founded the Central Islip Historic Preservation Society, the Central Islip Islandia Chamber of Commerce and the Central Islip Main Street Alliance. We coordinate downtown improvement efforts for our community and handle many code enforcement and crime control complaints. Our food pantry serves over 4000 needy people annually. We also run school programs, youth programs, and community workshops, foreclosure intervention and financial literacy counseling programs, home safety, home buying process, nutrition, gardening, career counseling and energy conservation.

History

The Central Islip Civic Council was established in 1966 and incorporated as a not for profit agency in 1980. The Central Islip Civic Council began as a coalition of neighborhood civic associations and originally our emphasis was on normal civic concerns such as traffic, zoning, and street lighting. In the 1970’s and early 1980’s, the Council worked closely with the Town of Islip to promote Central Islip and to help market homes that were built and rehabbed by the Town. The Council volunteers worked closely with the Town to make the suburban homesteading plan a big success. In the early 1980’s, the Central Islip Civic Council, was certified as a Neighborhood Preservation Company under the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal. The funding allowed the Council to be a staffed agency and to greatly expand our housing and community renewal work. It also gave us the ability to secure over one billion dollars in the last 15 years in other grant monies for our Central Islip community. The Central Islip Civic Council has been in the forefront of housing, planning and revitalization efforts for our community since our incorporation in 1980.