East Winter Garden

East Winter Garden is a vibrant community in the City of Winter Garden, Florida. The area known as East Winter Garden is home to two neighborhoods or block groups. One is a historically Black neighborhood dating to the late 19th century. The other neighborhood has changed over the years and is now home to Latino, Black, and White community members.

The East Winter Garden community is within the planning area of Community Redevelopment Agency activities conducted by the City of Winter Garden. As the CRA accelerates its activities, Polis Institute was contracted to provide services to amplify the ability of residents to benefit from the opportunities that redevelopment will present. In phase one of services (2019 – 2021) Polis Insitute delivered a range of practices working alongside community residents and stakeholders:

People First Engagement 

• Community Conversations
• Recruiting, hiring, and training Community Ambassadors
• Propel Leadership Training
• Community Engagement Campaign for Affordable Homeownership Preparedness

Rich Data Services 

• Community Asset Mapping
• Community Survey – Door to Door survey on Health & Wellbeing
• Measurement Accountability

Immediate Outcomes

Thirty-four residents completed Polis Institute’s Propel Leadership course. Graduates went on to establish nonprofits serving the community and to advance grassroots initiatives serving residents. The successful outcomes for Propel Leadership Graduates include establishing a mobile COVID19 testing program, going on to collaborate with the American Heart Association to increase access to healthy food sources, developing a program to assist parents in developing healthy parenting skills, and increasing the operational capacity of a youth workforce training program.

More than a dozen residents were recruited, hired, trained, and paid to work as Community Ambassadors who successfully help conduct a door-to-door survey of community residents on health-related topics. The survey’s response rate was over 30%.

A total of $75K of direct community benefit funding was generated for East Winter Garden residents as a result of the work of Polis Institute.

Champions:

• West Orange Healthcare District
• Healthy West Orange
• City of Winter Garden