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local business community. But it soon became apparent that the Harlem Commonwealth Council had a more important role to play. Not only could HCC help change the fact of Harlem, it could change its spirit as well. 

In 1969, HCC received a special grant from the U.S. government establishing HCC as a Community Development Corporation with the dual mandate of improving both social and economic conditions in the Harlem area. Reasoning that from economic stability social progress would follow, HCC concluded that the key to stopping the flow of workers and cash from Harlem and to renewing confidence and activity in the Harlem business community lay in community ownership of viable and vital business operations.

To meet the goals of developing Harlem's economic potential, HCC created the Commonwealth Holding Company, Inc., a for-profit corporation which would in turn acquire and hold the stock of the various commercial and industrial for-profit subsidiary corporations. Today CHC owns eleven profitable, Harlem-based subsidiaries, including manufacturing plants, wholesale/retail outlets, real estate, and service related businesses. 

But HCC's impact on the community has not been solely an economic one. Committed to improving the quality of life for Harlem's residents, HCC instituted job training programs, youth employment programs, and made periodic financial contributions to important community projects. The recently established Harlem Commonwealth Council Foundation, Inc., which has been set up to distribute a percentage of the profits from the subsidiary corporations of the Commonwealth Holding Company, will succeed in these endeavors to an even greater extent. This is the sort of profit-sharing that benefits every facet of community life, including its hope for a better future. 

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