TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 The Pinellas County Urban League and the Hillsborough County Urban League have now merged into one regional organization.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a plan leaders said will have major impacts throughout the region when it comes to helping the communities they serve.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything that we do from an Urban League perspective, we touch all of our pillars from housing to education to workforce development and help. And that\u2019s what we do as an Urban League of Florida Suncoast now, just regionally,\u201d said Urban League Florida Suncoast<\/a> CEO, Nikki Gaskin-Capehart.<\/p>\n Community block parties with resources, targeted exercise classes for seniors mixed in with financial literacy course. Those are the kinds of programs offered at the Pinellas County Urban League, and it\u2019s an approach people will start to see on both sides of the bridge with this new merger.<\/p>\n It\u2019s an announcement that warranted a celebration Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cWe really, truly are going to be one region, sharing one mission, as one collective, now under one Urban League of Florida Suncoast,\u201d Gaskin-Capehart said.<\/p>\n At a press conference in Tampa, Gaskin-Capehart announced she will now serve as the president of the Urban League for the region, merging Hillsborough and Pinellas counties.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have decided to take a phased approach to bringing back what Hillsborough had already had many, many years ago. The Urban League in Hillsborough County started in 1922,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Even with that long history, Gaskins-Capehart said the Hillsborough chapter lost some of the leadership in recent years, but stopping the mission of the organization wasn\u2019t an option. So, she began talks about the merger, taking successes from what her team has done in Pinellas County.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to throw away all of the siloed mindsets that have kept us divided far too long. We\u2019ve seen other organizations merge,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is one of the first ones I\u2019m aware of a historically black organization.\u201d<\/p>\n