Press release:
The Asheville Housing Authority, SNAP to Skills and Green Opportunities will host a family-friendly Community Engagement Social and resource fair at the Dr. Wesley Grant Sr. Southside Center on Thursday, Aug. 17 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
This is the fourth and final Community Engagement Social being hosted this summer across Asheville. The previous events — which took place at Hillcrest, Pisgah View, and Deaverview Apartments in June and July — each drew more than 100 people.
The Southside Community Engagement Social includes food, music and activities for kids, such as bounce houses, games, snow cones, cotton candy, fire truck tours from the Asheville Fire Department, and arts and crafts led by LEAF Community Arts.
A highlight of the Southside Community Engagement Social will be a large community resource fair where representatives of more than 30 community agencies will provide attendees with information about their programming and resources in the areas of job training, education, financial literacy, home ownership and more.
“We designed these events to be both fun and informative,” says Michael Carter, an education coordinator at A-B Tech who is also one of the lead organizers of these events.
Participating organizations that will be on-site distributing information and speaking to attendees include the Asheville Housing Authority Family Self-Sufficiency Program, A-B Tech, ABIPA, Asheville City Schools, Habitat for Humanity, LEAF Community Arts, Planned Parenthood, SNAP to Skills, Green Opportunities, the YMCA of Western North Carolina and many more. A full list of participating community partners can be found here.
“This event is a great chance for Asheville residents to learn about and get connected to the many free and low-cost resources available in our community, like health screenings, job training programs, financial planning resources, and healthy food,” says Shaunda Sandford of the Asheville Housing Authority’s Family Self-Sufficiency and Home Ownership program.
The 2017 Community Engagement Social series is sponsored by Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, Buncombe County, My Daddy Taught Me That, Self-Help Credit Union, Asheville City Schools, and the Asheville Police Department.
This event is free and open to the public. No RSVP is required.
Rain plan: In the event of inclement weather, the event will be held in the Edington Center gymnasium, located at 133 Livingston St. in Asheville.
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