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Positive Spin On The Move

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By LENORA LAKE

Tribune correspondent

Published: June 18, 2008

UNIVERSITY AREA - An award-winning social service agency will move from the area it serves, but the director vows it will continue to assist families in the low-income community west of the University of South Florida.

Positive Support for Parents in Neighborhoods, known as Positive Spin, must vacate its St. James Place Town Homes on 127th Avenue near 15th Street by July 31. The agency's 10-member staff has provided counseling and referrals for families, boys and girls activities clubs, tutoring programs, emergency assistance during flooding and support groups for men and women from three four-bedroom apartments at the complex since 2001.

Positive Spin's director, Harriett Scott, said the agency has been unable to secure a location in ZIP codes 33612 or 33613, which it serves.

"We have looked at property in 33612, but we would be doubling or tripling the rent. Everything we looked at didn't have enough space or cost way beyond our means," Scott said last week.

The agency, which has a $750,000-a-year budget, probably will relocate near 56th Street and Hillsborough Avenue, but a lease hasn't been signed, she said.

"We may be headquartered out of the area, but we will still work with the families of the western part of the University Area," she said "We refuse to have invested that time and energy in the community and just let it go."

St. James Place Town Homes sold recently and will offer federally subsidized housing. The new owners need to have all its units available for residential leasing as part of the federal program, Scott said.

The apartments are being remodeled, lighting and landscaping are being improved, and rent will decrease in many instances, Scott said.

Positive Spin will look to partner with faith-based groups, other agencies and private facilities such as apartments with clubhouses to continue its activities, Scott said. She hopes some residents will volunteer their homes for meetings.

"We have a powerful group of people here, a lot of volunteers and parents who are willing to chaperone and tutor," Scott said.

In April, the agency won the Children's Board of Hillsborough County's Outstanding Provider award. In 2005, two of its volunteers received the countywide Lonnie Lea Napier Good Neighbor award."We will have to adjust our vision of what we can do, where we can do it and still make a difference," Scott said.

For information about Positive Spin, call (813) 977-7677.

Tribune correspondent Lenora Lake can be reached at (813) 865-4851 or llake@tampatrib.com.

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