Florida Trend selected Lift Orlando as the 2022 Floridian of the Year recipient.
Lift Orlando’s work in strengthening neighborhoods so people can thrive began more than a decade ago with one simple question: What if a stadium could strengthen the neighborhoods it stood in?
Tom Sittema, Steve Hogan, and William Dymond posed this question while driving through the neighborhoods surrounding the Camping World Stadium.
Just west of downtown Orlando, these neighborhoods were once home to the city’s largest Black community. Despite segregation, redlining, and other laws targeting people of color, Black professionals built a thriving community during the 1940s and onward. Right along Orange Blossom Trail, teachers, lawyers, artists, doctors, and other professionals bought homes to raise families and build generational wealth. Among these history-making individuals were Alzo Reddick, Orlando’s first Black state representative, Belvin Perry, the first Black chief judge, and retired Navy Vice Admiral David Brewer III. These neighborhoods were a place of community, hope, and learning.
Decades later, with investments in other neighborhoods across Orlando and segregation loosening its hold, the community began to change due to disinvestment. Other areas in Orlando experienced investments in infrastructure, education, economic viability, housing, and wellness. Black professionals who might’ve moved to 32805 chose to live elsewhere to benefit from these opportunities. Over the years, the lack of resources and human capital flight left these neighborhoods falling behind the rest of the city.
By 2013, high school graduation rates, median income, resident-occupied home ownership, and life expectancy were all dangerously below Orange County averages. Only 12 healthcare access points existed in 32805 when the nearby 32789 ZIP Code, which is a community of roughly the same population, had 112 healthcare access points. Residents did not have access to adequate opportunities and resources.
With $208 million in renovations to Camping World Stadium down the street, Dymond, Hogan, and Sittema couldn’t help but marvel at the injustice. What if they could attract investment to these neighborhoods? What if residents could have a say in what happened to their community?
Together, they took action. Learning from the residents in 32805 and identifying the strengths and opportunities in the neighborhoods pointed them toward focused investment and transformation. In other words, Learn, Identity, Focus, Transform: LIFT.
Our organization, “Lift Orlando,” was officially founded in 2013 to strengthen an underinvested area into thriving communities where families had ample opportunities for success. Residents named this focus area The Communities of West Lakes, which consists of six historic neighborhoods: Lake Lorna Doone, Rock Lake, Spring Lake Manor, Lake Sunset/Luola Terrace, Bunche Manor/Hollando, and Clear Lake Cove.
Over the past decade, we’ve acted as the community quarterback to connect donors, partners, and residents with the common goal of strengthening the community so that children grow up with hope and return with joy. Through our collective efforts, the West Lakes Community Campus offers more opportunities to residents than ever before.
Today:
Pendana Residences and Pendana Senior are in their fifth year of offering high-quality, affordable mixed-income apartments.
An abandoned lot formerly consumed by waste and rubble is now the home to the West Lakes Early Learning Center. This state-of-the-art early childhood education center, operated by AdventHealth, offers comprehensive health, nutrition, wellness, and social services for children in The Communities of West Lakes.
The Jacqueline Bradley & Clarence Otis Family Branch of Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida sits next to the Early Learning Center and Orange Center Elementary. This world-class Club experience in The Communities of West Lakes assures that success is within reach of every young person who enters the doors.
The $9 million reconstruction of Lake Lorna Doone Park will provide the assets necessary to inspire a healthy and active outdoor lifestyle for families all across Orlando, including the 22,000 residents who call The Communities of West Lakes home.
Last but not least, the Heart of West Lakes Wellness Center (“Heart”) will open its doors on February 10, 2023. The Heart, affectionately nicknamed the “neighborhood’s living room”, is a state-of-the-art, resident-focused health and wellness center designed to strengthen The Communities of West Lakes and 32805 ZIP Code by providing convenient access to holistic health, financial, and lifestyle services under one roof. Connect, learn and thrive at the Heart here.
These six assets in The Communities of West Lakes totals over $100 million in investment. Not only are there 79 more jobs and counting in the neighborhood, but the opportunities afforded by these investments are impacting The Communities of West Lakes on a broader scale. Since 2013-2014, the employment rate has risen 5%, childhood poverty rates receding by 20%, and high school graduation averages have stabilized, remaining above 95%.
Our work is not finished. Chronic disease and inadequate food access in West Lakes are still severely more prevalent than in the rest of Orlando, and a low life expectancy reflects this harrowing statistic. With the Heart of West Lakes Wellness Center opening soon, along with long-term health and wellness strategies in place, the Communities of West Lakes will see a boost to quality and longevity of life. Neighbors visiting the Heart will have access to high-quality and affordable healthcare, a pharmacy, yoga classes, and more.
By listening to the community, utilizing its strengths, and seeking out the resources and programs of best-in-class partners and donors, The Communities of West Lakes are receiving the investment they have always deserved. We are thrilled to see our neighbors live in an area of prosperity, joy, and opportunity.
Although there is still work to do, we are grateful to have received the Floridian of the Year Award by Florida Trend. We look forward to further resources coming to The Communities of West Lakes, and new opportunities afforded to residents every-day. Year by year our partnerships with residents, donors, and partners are turning ‘what if’ into ‘what is’. We invite you to join us in strengthening neighborhoods so children can grow up with hope and return with joy.
Get involved by emailing Lift@LiftOrlando.org for engagement opportunities.