Nova Sorella<\/a> held the first annual Community First Resource Fair, bringing together organizations including Serving Hope and The Open Door Network to connect community members with services.<\/p>\nPJ Jones, founder and executive director of Nova Sorella, said the event was meant to bring hope to a community that is underserved, undervalued, and often overlooked.<\/p>\n
Jones organized the fair in honor of her son, Ty Jr. Jones, who was killed by gun violence in January 2017. Saturday marked his birthday.<\/p>\n
“It’s something that I know that he would love. He loved giving back one of the last things that he said before he died because he’s seen a lot of death, and he was seeing an increase in gunshots and people killing each other was that we need to do better as a community which is why I did this for him today,” Jones said.<\/p>\n
Manuel Crespo attended the fair and said the event helped him explore his options.<\/p>\n
“Help me to decide what I want to do and like, work or what. And I’m looking for job still, so I’m out here trying to look for work and a place to live,” Crespo said.<\/p>\n
Crespo said he was grateful for the organization’s efforts.<\/p>\n
“I’m happy that they are helping out with people because people,” Crespo said.<\/p>\n
Jones said she was encouraged by the turnout and the impact the fair had on attendees.<\/p>\n
“Fed a couple of families, you know. We’ve handed out a couple of hygiene products so far, so it’s slow, but it’s, you know, it’s overwhelming to see that the few that we’ve helped so far. And I look forward to helping so many in the future,” Jones said.<\/p>\n
Jones said she also hopes the fair can draw attention to the rise in violence in Kern County.<\/p>\n
“Seeing the rise in and increasing a lot of gun violence as we’re seeing in this community today, we need to do better as a community,” Jones said.<\/p>\n
Nova Sorella plans to make the Community First Resource Fair an annual event.<\/p>\n
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.<\/p>\n
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