In 1983 St. Rita’s Center for Immigrant and Refugee Services opens its doors in the Bronx. The ministry has resettled over 17,000 families, adapting to different ethnic groups in newer waves of refugees and immigrants from Albania, Bosnia, Russia, Ethiopia, Mexico, Central America, Ecuador, and the Dominican Republic. Founding director Sister Jean Marshall received the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award for her steadfast efforts on behalf of vulnerable newcomers to America, presented at the White House by President William Clinton and Mrs. Hillary Rodham Clinton.