TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) - Tallahassee leaders announce six new initiatives today aimed at investing $100,000 to support residents of the city's Southside.
These initiatives focus on key areas like education and job creation, but they also tackle issues like crime prevention and being able to access fresh food.
In fact, one of the initiatives involves community gardens and partnering with nearby farmers' markets to deliver fresh food to the neighborhood.
City Commissioners laid out these plans this afternoon, alongside community partners, including one woman who's lived in South City for forty years. Marie Bryant said she's grateful the city is focusing on her longtime neighborhood, "I am ready for a change... We need to show these people in Tallahassee that they don't have to stand around and look at the violence. They don't have to stand around and look at our young people not having. They need to know that what we have, they should have. What we have to offer, they should have to receive. And what we need to do is give back."
Other plans the city has for Southside include working on the area's infrastructure and focusing on giving summer jobs to a hundred local teens.
The summer jobs program will give Southside youth an opportunity to learn financial literacy and skills training. There is also currently a entrepreneurship program for juveniles in the court system.
Mayor Andrew Gillium says, "Help our young people who have made mistakes, as we all do. Find themselves correcting, earning for themselves. Not only a little bit of money, but also self-worth again and being able to contribute back into this community and into their futures."
