Iris Sotomayer, a resident of OakBrook Homes, shares the results of a 2017 survey of Oakbrook residents’ needs at a community forum Tuesday.
READING EAGLE – MICHELLE LYNCH
Iris Sotomayer explained the most pressing needs of residents of Reading’s Oakbrook Homes.
Sotomayer, a 15-year resident of the public housing development, was one of the volunteers who helped identify those needs.
Five years ago, she assisted the United Way of Berks County in a door-to-door survey of residents.
She provided a recap of that survey during a community forum held last week in two sessions at the Reading Housing Authority’s William W. Willis Center.
Called Oakbrook Speaks, the forum in the center at 400 Hancock Blvd. was a chance to update residents and other stakeholders on the work that has been going on since 2017, said Jennifer Tinsman.
Tinsman is a community impact associate for United Way, which has served as the anchor organization for the collaborative.
“The goal is to share with the community where we’ve been and where this is going,” she said.
Residents and others participated in roundtable discussions and visited information stations to review the survey’s findings and discuss the progress of the past five years.
“It has been exciting to work with Oakbrook residents and OCIC (Oakbrook Collective Impact Council) partners to achieve several meaningful accomplishments,” said Tammy White, United Way president. “Together, we have created summer learning programs focused on retaining or increasing reading skills, provided ESL (English as a second language) programs for residents and increased access to healthy and fresh food through a community garden and access to Helping Harvest’s mobile market.”
White said the accomplishments are the result of inviting more voices to the table to develop actions focused on what is most important to residents.
To carry out the survey, the United Way partnered with the Oakbrook Collective Impact Council, a collaborative working with residents who live in Oakbrook Homes, and Project REACH, an acronym for Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health.
“I wanted to help the community,” Sotomayer said, through an interpreter, “so I helped with the survey.”
As a resident ambassador, she and other volunteers went door to door, interviewing more than 500 heads of households in the Oakbrook Homes community.
The 530-unit development was built in 1952 and is owned and managed by Reading Housing Authority. It offers garden-style town houses for individuals and families.
The residents primarily identified needs and barriers in the areas of food security, education, employment, transportation, safety and sense of community.
The results of the survey were compiled as the “Oakbrook Community Needs Survey Report, 2017.”
As a major stakeholder, the housing authority is using the report to help provide the resources the community needs.
“The survey solidified the thoughts the Reading Housing Authority had on what the community needed,” said Jack Knockstead, resident services director for the authority.
The authority plans to convert the former boiler house and current administration building at Oakbrook’s heart into a combination neighborhood resource center and family services center.
Plans include a child care center, small grocery store and business center, said David C. Talarico, the authority’s director of capital improvements.
The $10 million project also includes new safe access from the child care facility to an existing playground and tot lot; rubber surfacing for playground areas; a resurfaced basketball court; and new trees, benches and picnic tables.
The timeline for the transformation and phasing of the project are dependent on funding, Talarico said. Construction could be broken into three phases, if necessary.
Talarico said the project should be ready to put out for bids early next year for a potential construction start in spring.
