DEARBORN — Leaders Advancing and Helping Communities (LAHC), a long-running human and community services agency, held a ribbon cutting ceremony for its new headquarters in Dearborn on Tuesday.

For some 40 years, LAHC’s mission has been to protect and empower the local community through direct services, and it plans to launch more initiatives to further advance that mission with new expansion.

LAHC cut a gold ribbon on its new headquarters, located on Kenilworth Street in Dearborn. LAHC CEO Wassim Mahfouz was joined in support alongside the LAHC board of directors, Wayne County Executive Warren Evans, U.S. Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit) and Debbie Dingell (D-Dearborn), Michigan Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud, Dearborn City Council President Mike Sareini, Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, Dearborn Heights Mayor Bill Bazzi and several other area officials and community members to commemorate the special occasion.

“We are extremely proud to open our doors to Southeast Michigan families and provide them with quality programs and services,” Mahfouz said.

“This new facility broadens the opportunities to expand our reach and serve more families who otherwise do not have access to such services,” he added.

One of LAHC’s latest programs launched at the site includes a secluded exercise room that accommodates the privacy of Muslim women.

“This program is just one of many in our mission to empower communities and bring social, health and economic well-being through our services of education, public health, substance use prevention, mental health, human services, housing assistance, English as a second language classes to newly arrived immigrants and refugees and youth development,” LAHC said in a press release.

The LAHC offers one of the largest school scholarship assistance programs in the area. Throughout the past 33 years, it has awarded more $2 million dollars in academic scholarships to area students. The organization also recently received federal funding for its Advocate, Collaborate, Treat and Reduce (ACT) Program to help prevent youth substance abuse.

For more information on the current resources LAHC has to offer, visit lahc.org.