Partnerships & Activities
Among those recommendations was the creation of a staff position within the Alachua County Department of Community Support Services, to manage a Poverty Reduction Program that would focus on a specific community within Alachua County. A small grant ($200,000) from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was available to the county to provide a variety of community development services to the Archer area, and this became the seed money for the Poverty Reduction Program efforts in Archer.
A thorough community assessment and decision making process was employed to determine community needs and how Archer residents wanted to approach poverty reduction. They decided that four major projects were needed: an employment oriented transportation system to Gainesville and back; a recreation program for after-school activities; an adult and youth literacy project; and increased access to health care for low income residents. Finally, it was agreed that funds for "mini-grants" would be made available for a variety of possible projects that would address technology access, crime reduction, job training, neighborhood organizing/development, and/or social projects to draw the community together, and other community development projects.
Using HUD funds, Alachua County has contracted with the City of Archer to establish the transportation program(initiated December 2003) and the recreation project (initiated June 2004). The county used a Request for Applications (RFA) competitive process to select organizations to provide literacy (SFCC) and health care services (UF College of Nursing), as well as projects under the "mini-grant" process.
Alachua County has been notified that the last federal budget contained an appropriation for $150,000 for poverty reduction activities in Hawthorne, Florida. The Poverty Reduction Program will implement the same types of community decision making activities in Hawthorne, as were used in Archer, to begin the planning and service delivery process for whatever types of anti-poverty efforts the residents of the Hawthorne area wish to engage in. Start time for this activity is estimated for Fall of 2005.
The poverty Reduction Program has dedicated significant time and energy to the issue of homelessness in Alachua County, organized presentations, and prepared and presented information to the BOCC in October 2004 during a special workshop of the BOCC. BOCC at that time instructed the Poverty Reduction Program to organize a community wide Homelessness Summit in collaboration with all interested municipalities, to begin the process of developing a 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness in Alachua County. Planning is nearly complete and the Summit event will occur on March 31, 2005 at the MLK Center In Gainesville, with City of Gainesville as Co-Sponsor of the event. That Summit resulted in creation of a process of committee work to establish the 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness, which will be reviewed and adopted at a Summit planned for December 1, 2005. Numerous salutary changes to the status quo are being planned, from improvements in policing to health care to shelter operations to supportive housing to services delivery, etc.
On the broader county wide scale, the poverty Reduction Program has been involved with the work of the Alachua County Coalition for Homeless and Hungry, the Community Coalition Against Poverty, the Interfaith Coalition against Poverty, St Francis House, Gainesville Community Ministries, YMCA and other local organizations and associations that address specific aspects of poverty.
The Alachua County Board of County Commission established an advisory board to report to the Commission - The Poverty Reduction Advisory Board - which had its first meeting May 8, 2003. Composed of 23 members, 11 seats are held by major local organizations such as the school district, SFCC, UF, the health department, Department of Children & Families, etc. However, 12 seats are designated as "citizen" seats representing local non-profits, faith based organizations, and individuals who are low income, individuals who are over 55 years of age, and individuals with disabilities. It has formed three committees (the Mentoring Committee, the Transportation Committee, and the Systems Improvement Committee) each of which is working to develop recommendations the BOCC.
Staff of the Poverty Reduction Program organized the Entrepreneurship Charter School Partners Summit which was held on May 29, 2003. The summit initiated the process of community planning for the charter school. It is intended that such opportunities will be another pathway out of poverty for area youth. The Entrepreneurship School began in August 2004 with 6o students split between Lincoln Middle School and East Side High School, 8th and 9th graders, respectively. Currently, plans are under way for implementation of a mentoring function for students in the school for the school year to begin in School Year 2005-2006. The number of and grades of students will also expand to 120 students in 7th through 10th grades.
