 "With $5 'seed' money and the taming of the West under her belt, a little Italian
nun set out in 1897 to see what she could do to lick the Cincinnati Basin's problems. Her name was Sister Blandina Segale,
and if Cincinnati has forgotten her, it has forgotten one of its most colorful figures, and founder of what is now Santa Maria Community Services.“
(excerpt from The Cincinnati Enquirer in 1975 by Rosemary Davis).
* * *
 The Sisters of Charity established Santa Maria in 1897 as a settlement house to serve Cincinnati’s Italian immigrant population. Beginning in the 1940’s the primary service population shifted to
the new immigrants to Cincinnati, the people of Appalachia. In 1972, Santa Maria became a private not-for-profit. Today, the original Appalachian families, their descendants, and African Americans comprise a large segment of Santa Maria’s service population. Since the mid 1990’s, a rapidly growing Hispanic/Latino community is making their home in Price Hill, and Santa Maria has assisted this population since 2001. Santa Maria currently provides services to more than 3,000 individuals and families annually.
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