On a hot Sunday afternoon, families of East Gainesville gathered for free food, music and a back-to-school backpack giveaway to celebrate the launch of the One Community Family Resource Center.
The resource center was formed after surveys conducted within the community presented needs across five different social disparities — social economics, social assistance, transportation, housing and education.
Alexa Strawder, a 54-year-old Gainesville resident, is the center’s resource manager. The vision for the organization is to “empower communities through resources and support to foster change,” she said.
“All the resource centers that we do have, here in Alachua County, they can’t all do it alone,” she said. “There is a great need.”
The community’s creation came from major public demand, Strawder said.
“The people in the community asked,” she said. “We’re all in agreement that we want to help fulfill the calls.”
The organization is supported alongside Partnership for Strong Families, a community-based care agency providing child welfare and family support services, as well as Children’s Trust of Alachua County, an independent special taxing district and funder of programs that support children and families.
Marsha Kiener, a Gainesville resident and executive director of Children’s Trust of Alachua County, said the center was important for families in east Alachua County to have nearby.
“That’s not only the technical support that you might need but that’s the emotional support,” she said. “I truly believe that if we want strong families and specifically healthy children, then we as a collective need to do more.”
The One Family Community Resource Center works in tandem with the Pleasant Street Civil Rights and Cultural Arts Center, who provide a program called “Food is Medicine.”
The program features weekly classes with nutritional scientists from Feeding Florida and physicians from around Gainesville gathering data about participant’s health, such as their glucose levels, to get an understanding of how to improve their health baselines through quality food.
Erinesha Hamilton, a 31-year-old Gainesville resident, is a community health worker and coordinator of the “Food is Medicine” program promoting nutritional science and wellness.
Even though the “Food is Medicine” program started in October 2023, the event launch also celebrated their transition into the family resource center, she said.
Hamilton said 34 participants already graduated from the program, and most continue to volunteer in the resource center’s “food pharmacy,” which gets healthy food deliveries to food pantry-like services in the community.
Marion Coleman, an 83-year-old Gainesville resident, was Gainesville’s first Black firefighter to retire, and volunteers every day at the One Community Family Resource Center. His main responsibility is signing families up to receive groceries, he said. The most rewarding part of volunteering is “being alert and being alive,” he said.
“I’m trying to stay young,” he said. “I just like helping people.”
Sarah Williams, a Gainesville resident, is an educator for a program called “Books and Cooks” and recruiter for the education program New Worlds Reading. She tabled for the programs at the launch event.
New Worlds Reading is an at-home literacy initiative for all children in a public or charter school in ages VPK through fifth grade for those who aren’t reading at grade level. The program is done through the UF Lastinger Center for Learning.
New Worlds Reading delivers books once a month throughout the school year along with reading guides for parents to support their kids, she said.
“Books and Cooks” is a partnership between UF IFAS and the Lastinger Center for Learning, available to families already enrolled in the New Worlds Reading program.
Williams is the Alachua educator for the “Books and Cooks” program, she said. The program combines parenting, literacy and nutrition lessons for families across weekly meetings in a seven-week program in fall and spring. Classes are divided by grade levels.
“Books and Cooks” features parenting support groups and literacy strategies, where parents can practice in real-time with their child present, she said.
“The idea is to emphasize that the parent is the child’s first and best teacher,” she said.
The class transitions into a cooking demonstration, where kids and parents get to participate. Each week features a different focus on cooking, such as nutrition and knife skills.
Williams hopes the future “Books and Cooks” program classes will be held in the new community space at the One Community Family Resource Center, she said.
“It’s really beautiful to see the kids bond and become friends and parents taking numbers and meeting each other outside of class,” she said. “We all get kind of vulnerable together.”
Boradesha Bryant, a 51-year-old Gainesville resident, attended the launch event with her 7-year-old daughter, La’Lee McClendon, after a friend told her to come, she said.
Bryant enjoyed how the event allowed her to meet new people.
“That was a challenge for this side of town,” she said. “You get to know people and it’s kind of a neat thing.”
Malcolm Askew, a 36-year-old Gainesville resident, is the founder and CEO of BXE real estate. He tabled at the launch event to educate people about real estate through resources, consultations and community tools, such as the resource center.
“I love meeting the community where they are at, because I remember days where I was some of these kids and I needed these resources,” he said. “I feel like I have a unique perspective of real estate, of how we as real estate agents can help the community.”
BKE holds homebuyer and homeseller education seminars to help others understand the importance of real estate. The company also previously spoke to students at P.K. Yonge, teaching financial literacy.
Askew finds the real estate business to be “misunderstood,” so his team formulated informational sessions to “give people valid and empowering information,” he said.
“[We’re] taking an educational approach, as opposed to ‘hurry up and buy or hurry up and sell,’” he said.
Wendy Mandell, a 28-year-old Gainesville resident, is a counselor and case manager for CDS, a nonprofit social services program providing counseling, shelters and drug and violence prevention. She tabled for CDS at the launch event.
CDS provides counseling services regardless of transportation issues by offering Zoom and community events, she said.
“If there are any individuals here at the resource center who need counseling services, we could come here and meet with them,” she said.
Mandell has high hopes for CDS partnering with the resource center, she said.
“I see it only doing well,” she said. “I think once that community trust is developed, it will be wonderful.”
Contact Sara-James Ranta at sranta@alligator.org. Follow her on X @sarajamesranta
Sara-James Ranta is a third-year journalism major, minoring in sociology of social justice and policy. Previously, she served as a general assignment reporter for The Alligator's university desk.
