Two Tampa Bay chapters of a national civil rights advocacy organization are merging.
The Pinellas County Urban League and the Urban League of Hillsborough County are teaming up to form the Urban League of the Florida Suncoast, which will serve west and central Florida.
The National Urban League helps underserved neighborhoods achieve equality through career training, housing development, health initiatives, tutoring, and more.
The Pinellas chapter had already had it in their strategic plan to expand, and the Hillsborough chapter was unable to fill vacant leadership positions.
It's circumstances that Florida Suncoast Urban League President/CEO Nikki Gaskin-Capehart said came at the right time.
“It just felt like the perfect match to come together in this what we call Sankofa season,” she said, referring to a phrase in the Akan language of Ghana meaning to go back and get.
"The Sankofa concept is really one that looks at honoring our past as we move forward in our future.”
Pinellas County Urban League has more than 28,000 members, while the Urban League of Hillsborough County has been in existence since 1922.
While Hillsborough County officials already had plans in place to invest $72,000 in the new merger, Pinellas does not.
“Right now we don't have any funding commitment from Pinellas County, (but) we have other funding sources through philanthropic groups,” Gaskin-Capehart said.
As a nonprofit serving a community that faces challenges with housing and food affordability, Gaskin-Capehart encourages neighbors to donate to the Urban League.
“It won't happen overnight, but we do need those investments from our community to help sustain us so that we can continue to do this work for the long term,” she said.
The first undertaking of the new organization will be partnering with INROADS College Links, a program that focuses on college preparation and workforce development for high school students. INROADS' mission is for students to graduate from college with both a degree and a job offer.
The program is especially important to Gaskin-Capehart as she was once a College Links participant.
“When I was in INROADS, our training took place at USF. So, we would go there on Saturdays, and we would participate in Toastmasters, we do mock interviews,” Gaskin-Capehart said. “All of those things really helped to train us to be ready for corporate and community leadership.”
The new Urban League of the Florida Suncoast will serve Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco, Hernando, Marion, Seminole, and Lake counties, with plans to expand into Sarasota, Manatee, Charlotte, and Lee counties.
It will host a Food Truck Friday event on October 2 at its headquarters at 333 31st St N in St. Petersburg at 5:00 p.m.
