WHO WE ARE
New Life CDC was founded in 1994 by Pete and Geri Scazzero and a team of committed volunteers from the New Life Fellowship congregation who reflected God’s loving heart for those on the margins. Though their peers moved toward suburbia, they moved toward the urban poor. Relationships were built among neighbors in need as they believed the church should exist not just for its congregation but to serve the surrounding community.
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Today, New Life CDC continues to provide relief, cultivate restoration, and models reinvestment in the neighborhood. We work with neighbors across the spectrum of poverty, including those who are homeless, housing or food insecure, and working class and upwardly mobile. Our clients engage with different programs as they rise out of poverty and achieve stability in different parts of their lives.
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Annually, we serve over 1,400 children, youth, adults, and seniors through culturally and linguistically accessible programs and services. We provide holistic support to our community through direct service, referrals, and resources to those that are food and housing insecure, undocumented, un- and underinsured, unhoused, linguistically isolated, and marginalized.
We are working towards an Elmhurst and Corona where every neighbor has the financial, emotional, and social resources to thrive, and every neighbor is valued and recognized as worthy, capable, and deserving of investment and support.
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD
ELMHURST & CORONA
Loving people AND place
We love our neighborhood - both the people AND the place. Elmhurst and Corona is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse communities in the United States. Our neighbors come from across the globe, speaking a multitude of languages and dialects from Latin America, Asia and beyond.​
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families in the district living in or near poverty
of the population is foreign-born
linguistically isolated households in which no one over the age of 14 speaks English very well
of the population does not have health insurance
42%
63%
31%
17%
Our neighbors also face a myriad of challenges as our neighborhood changes, many of them getting priced out as it becomes less affordable. 57% of households are moderately or severely rent burdened, and shockingly, only 3% of all housing built in Elmhurst and Corona from 2010 and 2024 is affordable to low income families (<80% AMI), one of the lowest rates in the city. We regularly encounter neighbors who fell behind on rent and are experiencing homelessness for the first time, navigating living out of their cars or living on the street. Our neighbors also face a lack of systemic resources and opportunities, especially for those who are undocumented, and many of them are socially isolated from mainstream systems and networks.
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