Sterling Community Center has been a cornerstone of the Town of Stratford, CT for generations, a place where neighbors of every background come together to learn, play, grow, and support one another. At Sterling House, a grand Romanesque mansion built in 1886 and donated to the Town of Stratford in 1932, our team strives to welcome all, and to serve all our neighbors with compassion and dignity.

Stratford is a wonderfully diverse town, and we are committed to making sure our programs reflect and serve that diversity of our community, and that our work is accessible to all. We believe that access to enriching activities, quality programming, and basic necessities should not depend on what you earn, and we work hard to keep our doors open to all.

That commitment comes to life across a wide range of active, dynamic offerings. Families with young children can take advantage of preschool and afterschool programs, summer day camp, and lively clubs like Toddler Time and Pokémon Club. Youth sports give kids a chance to get moving and build friendships, and our recreational youth sports are complimented by travel club teams that compete statewide and beyond. Adults find community in programs like pickleball, chair yoga, art, and scrapbooking. And residents of all ages engage in volunteerism and give back to the town they call home, working with our team to build a community we can all be proud of.

Sterling House is also home to Stratford's busiest food pantry, connecting roughly 5,000 neighbors each year with food and essential support through our Resource Connection. We welcome pantry visitors three days a week, deliver food twice a month to homebound seniors, send weekend meal and snack bags to children at risk of going hungry, and run seasonal drives to distribute back-to-school supplies, Thanksgiving turkeys, and holiday toys to families experiencing a time of hardship.

Altogether, we serve more than 10,000 individuals each year, the majority are from Stratford, and many others come to us from Bridgeport, Milford, the Naugatuck Valley, and from across our region. In every interaction and every program, we strive to offer compassion and to honor the dignity of all people. We are proud to carry forward the Sterling legacy in a town that has changed enormously over the decades — and to remain a place where everyone belongs.