History

Prior to 1975, there were seven HRDCs in Montana, but they didn’t cover the entire state. Gallatin, Park, and Meagher counties received very limited services for low income people. Those services were administered through the Helena HRDC, but there was no agency committed solely to the residents of our communities.

Prior to 1975, the State Office of Economic Opportunity (SOEO) had been committed to expanding services of HRDCs state-wide and began working with the Sociology Department of MSU to prepare a situation statement that outlined the needs in the area, thanks to George Galinken and Del Samson, who donated the resources to do that work. The situation statement was then compiled by Rodger Ala along with a team of young volunteers and sent to the regional federal Community Services Administration (CSA) office as a request for funds.

In May 1975, the first CSA grant to expand HRDC services was made to a newly incorporated HRDC in our district (District IX). The grant was a minimal $40,000, but allowed HRDC to move from borrowed office space at MSU to the first HRDC office on Main Street in Bozeman.

The first programs administered by the HRDC were Youth Employment, Weatherization, Migrant Workers, RSVP, and a childcare Program called 4-C’s. During the last nearly 45 years, HRDC has expanded from a small organization offering just a few services to a full-fledged human and community development corporation that exemplifies the very best of the original Economic Opportunity concept.