A variety of agencies and organizations provided information about the services they offer at what was billed as the Community Health Fair presented by Impact Duval.
Held Saturday at Bartley Temple United Methodist Church, more than two dozen vendors representing government agencies, nonprofits and health care organizations were on hand to share information with the community.
Sickle cell disease was one of the health topics featured during the event, and Angela Howard, who was diagnosed with the disease when she was 2 years old, spoke to the crowd about the disease.
“I have sickle cell and I go around advocating for sickle cell patients,” Howard said. “I was told by doctors I wouldn’t live past 18 and now I’m 53.”
Guardian Newsletter:Gainesville Guardian will transition to an email newsletter format
Sickle cell affects about 100,000 Americans, mostly Blacks, even though some white people live with it, too, Howard said, adding that sickle cell “is not contagious.”
Sickle cell disease is an inherited disorder that changes red blood cells into a C shape. People with sickle cell disease report being stigmatized due to their race and because they may be seen as drug seekers or addicts when they pursue medications to control pain, according to www.ufhealth.org.
Manning a table to the side of the podium were members of the Gainesville Police Department’s Co-Responder Team — Cpl. William “Bill” Gough and Victoria Blass. Gough is accompanied by Blass, a mental health counselor with Meridian Behavioral HealthCare, when they are needed to provide community-based solutions for people living with mental health illness or substance use disorders.
“We wanted to bring awareness and resources to the community to educate people about services that are available to them,” said the Rev. Dr. Mary Mitchell, pastor of Bartley Temple.
Though the concept of the health fair began simply to have health care providers at the event, its scope grew because the leaders of Impact Duval wanted to provide the community with as much information as possible, Mitchell said.
“We just wanted to bring more awareness of the challenges we face as a community and to let the community know we don’t have to tackle them as churches all by ourselves,” Mitchell said. “There are a lot of resources available in the community.”
Impact Duval is a coalition of four churches — Bartley Temple, DaySpring Baptist Church, Open Door Ministries and Prayers by Faith Outreach Ministries — created in October 2023 to help increase the quality of life of residents living in the Duval neighborhood in northeast Gainesville.
Areas of focus for the coalition include, but are not limited to, health care disparities, sickle cell anemia awareness, cancer disparities and education and literacy disparities, said the Rev. Dr. Marie Herring, pastor of DaySpring.
“This is wonderful and needed, and needs to be done more often,” said Jinelle Mosley, a minister at DaySpring. “Getting the word out about resources in the community is very important.”