TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Brighter days are ahead for families in Tallahassee's Southside.
All thanks to a partnership expected to improve life for people who live there.
"Too many of our neighborhoods are not healthy and that's why we are here today to make sure that we are standing behind an effort to make this community and return it to the vibrant community that it once," said Rep. Loranne Ausley, Co-Chair of South City Foundation.
City, county and community leaders came together Tuesday in Tallahassee with a big reveal, a plan they hope will transform the city's Southside into a thriving neighborhood.
It's all with the help of Purpose Built Communities Network. The organization aims to create pathways out of poverty.
"I guarantee you it is going to be dynamic and it is going to change the direction of the Southside," said Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey.
The partnership will focus on affordable housing, along with making improvements to education of the children in the community.
"They'll be public infrastructure investments that will be going on in this area," said David Edwards, CEO of Purpose Built Communities. "We'll be looking at the early learning strategy to get a learning center to help serve the kids in this neighborhood."
People who live there say this new partnership is right on time.
"I think it's going to benefit our community real well, because we need this kind of stuff. Our young kids, and older people..even me, we need somewhere safe to live and things to do," said Eyvonne Williams, a Southside resident.
Edwards says the group is committed to putting in the work to improve this neighborhood.
"We are not here to put band-aids on problems," said Edwards. "We are here to actually solve fundamental issues and part of that is creating what we all know are dynamic healthy neighborhoods, we know what they look like but they don't become that way overnight."
Tallahassee is one of 20 cities in the nation to be part of this program.
Other cities in Florida include Orlando and West Palm Beach.
