Tallahassee Community College hosted their annual Black History Health Fair in their campus ballroom Friday.
There were several health organizations and companies there to spread health awareness to students and residents.
Organizations like American Red Cross, Anytime Fitness, Big Bend Hospice and Bond Community Health were all in attendance.
Tallahassee Memorial Hospital (TMH) was also in attendance to give the community information about programs and techniques that can assist with different disorders.
“We are here today to help people treat things like anxiety and mood swings. We are giving them assessments on the different disorders so we can figure out what’s the best solution,” Brittany Griffin, intern at TMH’s Behavioral Health Center, said.
Not only did the vendors take this time to inform the community about health related issues they also offered free testing. Walgreens administered free blood pressure testing to the community as well.
The health fair did not only focus on health services and health programs, vendors also promoted prevention services.
The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice brought pamphlets and brochures that described the many prevention programs they are associated with, such as Big Brothers Big Sisters Association of Florida, Practical Academic Cultural Education Center for Girls and Faith Community Network and Chaplaincy Services.
They also provided vital information to the community about SB 0070, bill that can help a child clear their record.
“Last year there was a bill that was passed that stated if a child gets three civil citations they still will not have a record,” Verla Lawson-Grady, manager of the special projects unit at the office of prevention and victim services, said.
According to Lawson-Grady, about 80 percent of the law enforcement statewide will issue a civil citation for a misdemeanor instead of making an arrest.
This has been more beneficial to the state because this has saved millions of dollars that would otherwise be spent if children were arrested and required to go through formal delinquency processing.
The people in the community were not the only ones who received the benefit from attending the health fair.
The Vendors were also able to share information with each other. They took the time to network between each other and share innovative ideas that could help the community in the future.
“It is a great event because I did not know about all of these agencies before this, so it was great for us to network and share ideas to create new partnerships,” Paul Knoll, Ph.D.,director of the Behavioral Health Center, said.