From its inception, United Against Poverty has been advancing toward a long-term vision, one the organization is now on the cusp of fulfilling. UP has entered Phase II of its Lifting Lives out of Poverty Capital Campaign to fund its New UP Center, a 44,000-square-foot, multi-function campus, scheduled to open in the summer.
“What we have a vision for is a campus,” said founder and CEO Austin Hunt in a 2008 video, back when the nonprofit was called the Harvest Food & Outreach Center. “A campus that is large enough to house the food subsidy program that we have, but then to go beyond that by providing a medical facility and educational facility, and a social service department where we hope people can overcome the battles they face every day by teaming with them, partnering with them and by taking their burdens upon us. So that’s the dream that we have.”
Phase I of that dream was realized on June 30, when UP purchased a former citrus warehouse for $2 million in cash. Phase II is currently underway to raise $3.9 million to retrofit the building. They expect construction to begin the third week of January, funding to be fulfilled by the spring, and the building to be complete by the summer.
“We’re very much trying to produce a top-notch building for our participants, but to do it in the most cost-effective way possible,” says Annabel Robertson, executive director. “What I think is so prophetic, is it’s the goal that we’ve worked toward for the last 10 years.”
Over the years, UP has cultivated essential collaborative partnerships with various social service providers whose programs focus on such areas as services for veterans, children and the elderly, housing and transportation.
As trailblazers, UP was the first social service agency to incorporate the Department of Children and Families at its facility, reasoning that the sooner people are helped, the less time they would need benefits.
“That was Austin’s idea,” says Robertson. “It’s a great synergy and it’s a model that DCF has since duplicated across the state of Florida.”
AARP is also on site to provide assistance to seniors, who represent 37 percent of their Cost Share Grocery enrollees.
The New UP Center will continue its groundbreaking initiatives through an on-campus Primary Care Collaborative. Details are still being formulated, but include relationships with the Indian River County Hospital District, Treasure Coast Community Health, the VNA and Whole Family Health.
“The idea of having a medical clinic in the building that provides access to preventative primary care and also urgent care are the two issues that are being examined,” says Robertson.
Citing statistics from a recent Hospital District Community Needs update, Trip Snelson, UP project director, points out that low-income residents were three times more likely than mid- to high-income individuals to report being in fair or poor health, and were five times more likely to report fair or poor mental health. Additionally, 44 percent said they had difficulty accessing medical services, making it advantageous to provide greater access to medical services at the New UP Center.
While decisions as to who will provide what medical services have yet to be determined, they envision services such as primary care checkups, walk-in care for urgent needs, behavioral health and substance abuse care, and employment and school physicals. They expect some services to be provided in an on-site mobile unit offering regularly scheduled access.
“One of the aspects of this collaborative is the excitement around health education, because it is an educational center,” says Robertson.
Partners will be able to provide classes in such areas as general health, fall prevention, stress reduction and mental health. The Cost Share Grocery area will have space for cooking and nutrition lessons to help people make healthier food decisions.
UP serves a population living below 200 percent of Federal poverty guidelines, the same population its partners serve. DCF and AARP will continue to co-locate on campus, and 17 other organizations have expressed an interest in having space at the facility.
“Our goal is to ensure that we’re providing access to services that are critical to lifting families from economic instability to economic self-sufficiency,” says Robertson.
Mentioning veterans, elder care, early childhood, housing, transportation, medical, mental health and substance abuse programs, she explains, “Those are those critical building block areas that we know are necessary to create stabilization. Having those partners in a single location where we can directly help people access those services is what we’re looking to establish.”
Those collaborative partners not physically housed in the new facility may still have a presence in the space, utilizing the classrooms, common areas or community conference rooms.
They are also in the nascent stages of an e-commerce expansion program wherein clients could develop entrepreneur skills to earn revenue in the e-commerce marketplace.
“Years ago people would go down to the market in town, set up a booth and sell product. Now we have a world-wide marketplace and people need to learn those skills to be able to leverage that opportunity,” says Robertson. “This program will be about teaching those skills as well as small business planning. Being engaged in commerce is critical to people increasing their income, which for most of the population we serve is the best way to lift them out of poverty.”
UP’s focus is on both protecting income, such as through the Cost Share Grocery, and producing income, including through their STEP (Success Training for Employment) Job Training program, which currently has 322 enrollees. Around 120 employer partners provide opportunities for students to apply for jobs. Of the 105 students who graduated in 2016 and 109 in 2017, 95 percent obtained jobs.
“We would welcome the opportunity to show people our work first-hand and earn their support for this important project,” says Snelson.
Snelson says naming rights have been committed for some of the spaces, including the Kastory STEP Transformation Center, Corr Collaborative Partner Center, and Galant Social Enterprise Center, but that many others are still available.
For more information, visit Upirc.org.