HUDSON, Fla. — For people living in Hudson, access to resources can be tough due to the rural nature of the area. One new center is changing that for both students and residents.
The Hudson Community Health and Resource Center offers students medical services just steps from their classroom. The new center is also open to anyone in the community, providing food and clothing at no cost.
The center opened at the Hudson School Complex in August of 2023. It started out with a food pantry and clothing closet, but has since grown.
"We built from that to encompass all the of the services we have here, medical, dental, mental health, closet, food pantry," said Mark Clairmont, who serves as the Pasco County Schools Health and Wellness Community Liaison.
The center was funded by the Pasco County School District after a needs-analysis was done, showing the area didn't have access to resources.
"We did as a district team did a needs analysis. We looked a socioeconomic level for the community, access to healthcare, access to food pantries, those types of things," said Angel Hernandez, the Senior Supervisor of Student Services.
While the center stands because of district funding, nothing on the inside would be possible without partnerships. A number of organizations have come together to offer different services at the center.
Metropolitan Ministries is a partner and they help connect people to resources as well as serve hot meals.
The community clothing closet is being stocked through donations from Molina Healthcare and those in the community. This is open to the public and completely free.
The food bank is stocked through donations from Feeding Tampa Bay. There are a number of nonperishable items anyone in the community can come and help themselves to.
There are also educational opportunities serviced by Saint Leo University. There are 18 laptops anyone in the community can come use. The center is also working on different educational opportunities that will be open to the community. In the near future, the center hopes to offer tutoring as a service as well.
There are a number of services that are exclusively available to the students. Premier Community Healthcare runs the medical services. Students can get medical and dental care inside the center.
They also offer mental health services. This service is the most popular among students and the center is now looking to expand to help everyone in need.
The goal is to allow students to get the help they need without having to miss school. Hudson is in a rural area, meaning resources can be quite a drive for some.
"There’s not a lot of options within this area of the school. Some people go all the way out to Tampa, which is pretty far away from here," the Director of the Hudson Community Health and Resource Center, Manuel Mayor stated.
The new complex offers students on the Hudson Complex Campus a full-service community school. It also gives the community some much needed resources without having to drive so far.
"For this area it’s a low funded, low socioeconomic," Clairmont added.
For the organizations involved, they love that this community based center is really connecting people. That includes all the organizations coming together to provide the resources.
"What you’ll find is, there are never enough resources and there never are too many," said Jalem Robinson, who serves as the Director of Community Collaboration for Metropolitan Ministries.
The amount of people in and out of the center is proving that the center is needed.
"At last count we had over 500 people come through our doors for the food pantry alone," Clairmont added.
Those with the center are finding their mental health services are currently the most needed. That's why they are looking to add staffing in that area to help supply the help that's needed.
"We’ve seen all of our numbers jump. For mental health we’ve had over 80-something appointments last month," Clairmont said.
Those with the center are thankful for the partners who are working together to help provide all the resources.
"Gone are the days when one organization can do it all and I don’t know that was even a day," Robinson added.
The center is always looking for additional partners. Right now they are assessing how they can expand and add more resources.
If you would like to receive any help the center offers, anyone can visit the center during school hours.