Reintroducing The Urban League of Florida Suncoast
The Pinellas County Urban League (St. Petersburgh, FL) and the Hillsborough County Urban League (Tampa, FL) have now merged into one regional organization.
It’s a plan leaders said will have major impacts throughout the region when it comes to helping the communities they serve.
“Everything that we do from an Urban League perspective, we touch all of our pillars from housing to education to workforce development and help. And that’s what we do as an Urban League of Florida Suncoast now, just regionally,” said Urban League of Florida Suncoast CEO, Nikki Gaskin-Capehart.
Community block parties with resources, targeted exercise classes for seniors mixed in with financial literacy course. Those are the kinds of programs offered at the Pinellas County Urban League, and it’s an approach people will start to see on both sides of the bridge with this new merger.
“We really, truly are going to be one region, sharing one mission, as one collective, now under one Urban League of Florida Suncoast,” Gaskin-Capehart said.
At a press conference in Tampa, Gaskin-Capehart announced she will now serve as the president of the Urban League for the region, merging Hillsborough and Pinellas counties.
“We have decided to take a phased approach to bringing back what Hillsborough had already had many, many years ago. The Urban League in Hillsborough County started in 1922,” she said.
Even with that long history, Gaskins-Capehart said the Hillsborough chapter lost some of the leadership in recent years, but stopping the mission of the organization wasn’t an option. So, she began talks about the merger, taking successes from what her team has done in Pinellas County.
“We have to throw away all of the siloed mindsets that have kept us divided far too long. We’ve seen other organizations merge,” she said. “This is one of the first ones I’m aware of a historically black organization.”
Helping entrepreneurs and small businesses, churches who want to build affordable housing and assisting vulnerable populations, like seniors, are just some of the things Gaskins-Capehart said they’re focused on. Programs like Inroads will also be available for young people through the organization
It’s a welcome merger Hillsborough County leaders are onboard with, and they’re banking on it working.
“We’ve agreed to $72,000 dollars we’re investing come October 1 into this program, into the new merger, and that’s a win, win for the organization,” Hillsborough County Commissioner Gwen Myers said. “To merge and have some funding.”
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