Metropolitan Development Council (MDC)

Our wraparound services include affordable housing, education and employment support, and mental health/substance use treatment. Guided by evidence-based, and person-centered care, we believe in the inherent value and potential of every individual-no matter what their journey has been or currently is, no matter what they look like, no matter what their economic conditions are.

Known by many names in the early years (e.g. Tacoma Pierce County Opportunity and Development, Inc.), Metropolitan Development Council has, for 55 years, been Pierce County's trusted operator of federal anti-poverty programs. In 1966, we were awarded a grant to enrich the summer activities of 450 low-income elementary school students. In 1969, we proposed converting an abandoned hospital as a center for substance use recovery, but the neighborhood residents rejected the idea. MDC now operates a detoxification center that has been in operation for over 30 years. We have seen what works and what does not. We have learned how to coordinate an array of programs that together form a comprehensive services web and meet the multiple needs in a family simultaneously. We have learned that a piecemeal approach, like a band aid, will delay crisis but not change lives for the long-term. We have seen dramatic and extensive improvement through our services helping entire families leave the system and live successfully on their own. We have developed a methodology that demands increasing levels of individual responsibility, provides consistent support, and encouragement throughout their transition from dependency to stability, and ultimately to independence.