Shantiana Perez, an original member of the Thelma Gibson Health Initiative's Girls' Group shows off her high school ring to Merline Barton at the the 2nd annual Family Fun Fest at Elizabeth Virrick Park on Friday, May 21. "Right now I am very proud because four of our girls who started in the girls group are in college today and even more have graduated high school," said Merline. "That is just proof that we can break the cycle of poverty, of violence, and of hopelessness."
When Merline Barton walks down Grand Avenue in West Coconut Grove she recalls a once vibrant urban neighborhood in which people would spend evenings in their suits and Sunday best, enjoying the local ambiance. She thinks of the time when the first African-Americans, Jamaicans, and people from all over the world made Coconut Grove the quirky, historic town it is today.
The Grove Barton remembers was incorporated 91 years ago. And, while some areas in the West Grove have experienced a decline, she is hopeful that the area will become vibrant once again.
Although not a Miami native, Barton has spent the last 22 years working to improve the neighborhood through economic development and social services. She is the first Miami-Dade resident to win the General Mills Feeding Dreams Community Champion award. The award honors her for her years of work in the Coconut Grove community.
Barton, born and raised Jamaica, arrived in Miami in 1980 to work as the Assistant Human Services Administrator for Barnett Bank of Miami. After briefly returning to Jamaica, she returned to make Miami her permanent home in 1990.
Merline Barton holds a meeting with the Thelma Gibson Health Initiative’s intern, Katrina Davenport, to discuss activities and goals for the upcoming days and weeks. On any given day Barton and the rest of the Initiative will visit with their home-bound clients to bring them food and company, work with the children of the Youth Prevention Intervention Program, give health screenings to people of the community, and much more. Photo by Megan Terilli
David Alexander, the Executive Director of the Coconut Grove Local Development Corporation, hired Barton as the Assistant Executive Director and project coordinator for the award winning “Grove Point 1 & 11” affordable housing site along with the Wind & Rain housing development.
“When I came here to work I never thought that I would fall in love with this community,” Barton said. “But David [Alexander] told me I would and yes, I did. I’ve worked so hard to change the area and I’ve seen the community grow up.”
When Barton and Alexander worked together Grand Avenue was considered a “smash-and-grab” area where one could not comfortably walk down the street. Barton vowed to change that and helped launch the Coconut Grove Family, Youth, and Intervention Center.
“We were building houses, working with merchants doing commercial facades, job training programs, you name it. We were like a one-stop-shop,” Barton said.
Barton worked with the Coconut Grove Local Development Corporation until 2001 when Alexander left and the group changed directors.
“I felt like I didn’t have a place, like nothing was happening anymore,” Barton said. “So I asked the licensed social worker at the center to help me start a new organization.”
The idea for this organization was presented to Thelma Gibson and funded by her Theodore R. Gibson Memorial Fund; it opened in 2001 as the Thelma Gibson Health Initiative.
The Initiative is a social service program that focuses in youth and family services, senior services, and HIV/AIDS, homelessness, mental health and substance abuse.
Merline Barton visits with Mr. H. Bogan; a client of the Thelma Gibson Health Initiative’s Senior Services program; on a Friday afternoon at the Billie Rollie Domino Park on Grand Ave. On this particular Friday; the Initiative; in conjunction with St. Stephens’ Church; is passing out sandwiches to members of the community while giving information about sexual health and HIV prevention.; Photo by Megan Terilli
Soon the children of the Initiatives’ clients started to come to the office for help with school and counseling, demonstrating the need for a youth program. Consequently, Barton and the others started the Girls’ Group, which grew into the Youth Prevention Intervention Program that now serves boys and girls with the ultimate goal to “of breaking the cycle of poverty through personal and financial empowerment.”
Today the Youth program serves over 175 kids ages five-18 with mentoring, tutoring, and empowerment.
As those original clients became older the need for an elderly program became clear. Barton and the Initiative took on that new task and helped with delivering food, doctors visits, and bills. They even held workshops on subjects such as depression, and healthy eating habits.
“When you’re in a small community like this you find that you will start with one idea and whenever anything new comes up you have to take it,” Barton said. “We do everything from infancy to death.”
As the General Mills Feeding Dreams Community Champion award recipient for Miami-Dade, Barton is eligible, along with 9 other U.S. city Champions, for the national award, which would entitle the Thelma Gibson Health Initiative to $10,000 that Barton plans to use to help fund the youth and elderly programs. The first runner-up will receive $5,000, the second-runner up will receive $3,000, and all other contestants will be awarded $2,000 for the charity of their choosing.
The winner is selected through a voting process, which begins in August and ends on October 31. People from all over the world can cast their vote online, once day throughout the voting period. The winner will be announced in Atlanta this December.
“I feel very proud and honored for Merline because I know she has done a lot,” said Monteca Rahming, a resident of Coconut Grove and Barton and Alexander’s second successful homeowner through the Local Development Corporation.
“She is so special, she is a very caring person. If she cannot change something herself she will find a way, she will work with others to make a difference,” Rahming said.
“My passion is to see this community healthy again,” Barton said. “I know that I’m doing something good because at the end of the day when the students look at you and say ‘I got an A’ and the mothers write to you and the little old ladies thank you, that is what touches you. Coconut Grove is a wonderful community. I love what I do, I really do.”
To vote for Merline Barton and learn about the other contestants visit www.Feedingdreams.com
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