Healthcare, education, safety initiatives in the works for Culmore

A new project in Culmore is connecting residents to healthcare, education, afterschool programs, and much more in their own neighborhood.

The Culmore and Bailey’s Crossroads Place-Based Initiative (PBI) is creating a hub for community-serving programs at Culmore United Methodist Church.

The PBI, run by George Mason University’s College of Public Health, is a coalition of dozens of nonprofits and community-serving organizations. It is aimed at encouraging residents to identify their needs and help them develop action plans to implement solutions.

The project is in the early planning stages, says PBI project manager Katie Wilson.

Related story: GMU project engages with residents of Culmore and Bailey’s Crossroads

It’s an outgrowth of a listening session with Mason Supervisor Andres Jimenez in February at Bailey’s Elementary School. Culmore residents at that session said they wanted better access to healthcare, safe places for children and teens after school, and improved safety in the community.

Culmore United Methodist Church, at 3400 Charles St., is providing free space for the PBI project.

GMU has already established a Mason and Partners (MAP) Clinic at Culmore United. MAP offers health screenings, mental health services, immunizations, and other services for uninsured, undocumented, and otherwise vulnerable residents.

The English Empowerment Center is expanding the English language classes it already provides at the church.

Related story: Culmore residents share concerns with Mason Supervisor Jimenez

The Mason Police District is working to improve security at Olde Salem Village, the apartment complex next to the church and “a hotspot for fentanyl,” Wilson says, so people will have a safe walk to the PBI programs.

Olde Salem Village already started installing more secure first-floor windows and is updating outdoor lighting. PBI hosted a walk-through in Culmore last fall to look at street lighting and found the area around those apartments is most in need of improvement.

Bailey’s Mutual Aid and the Unitarian Universalist Church plan to create a “culturally competent food pantry” and cooking classes at Culmore United Methodist Church. “We won’t just teach residents about nutrition and cooking, but we also plan on reversing the power dynamic so that residents can teach us how to cook some of their authentic ethnic meals,” Wilson says.

The Medical Care for Children Partnership Foundation started providing dental services last month and plans to do more. The Community Services Board and the Women’s Center are working on mental health services.

Related story: Bailey’s Mutual Aid distributes food to Culmore families

Other PBI partners involved with this project include Kaiser Permanente; the Fairfax County Health Department; the Department of Neighborhood and Community Services; HACAN (Hispanics Against Child Abuse and Neglect); Neighborhood Health; the Culmore Clinic, the Crossroads and Corners Coalition; the Legal Aid Justice Center; McGuire Woods; the Fairfax County Office of Human Rights and Equity; and Second Story, the nonprofit that runs the Culmore Family Resource Center and the Opportunity Neighborhoods – Crossroads program.

“We are incredibly excited to have so many partners involved in making this idea become a reality,” Wilson says. “These are complex and interconnected challenges that we are trying to address in this community, and no one organization can do it alone.”

Additional services Wilston envisions for the hub include Medicaid eligibility counseling, mental health counseling in person and via telehealth in native languages, domestic violence and sexual assault services, career transition resources, parenting classes, legal and immigration services, and shuttle buses to the Culmore Clinic and Bailey’s Community Center.

“Residents are helping us design what this project will look like,” Wilson says. “Residents are driving our priorities at all levels.”

In addition to the listening session earlier this year, PBI has gained insights from residents at focus groups, through contact with its partners, and even chatting with people waiting in line at food distribution events.

“The most important and foundational piece of this collaborative effort is that we are not building this hub for the residents of Culmore, but with them in equal partnership,” she says. “They are the experts on what is most needed in this community and we are here to listen and take action.”