Street Corner Resources hosts annual Health and Wellness Fair in Harlem

Weekend summer showers couldn’t dampen the community spirit at Street Corner Resources’ annual Health and Wellness Fair on June 27.

For the past eight years, Street Corner Resources, a violence prevention nonprofit based in Harlem, has hosted the fair, highlighting the connection between physical and mental health and violence prevention.

“This is part of what prevention looks like, [which] is getting people [into] good health and helping them to manage good health,” said Street Counter Resources CEO Iesha Sekou.

The fair brought together a variety of vendors offering attendees services ranging from blood pressure screenings to first aid training, to information on healthy eating.

“One of the main goals is that people can leave with more inspiration to be well, more inspiration to go to screenings, more inspiration to eat better [and] exercise,” said Sandra-May Flowers, a social worker at Street Corner Resources who organized the fair.

Arthur Robertson parked his food truck, Renegade Vegan, on the corner outside of Fred Samuel Playground where the fair took place. He wanted to spread awareness about what he was offering to the community.

“Not too many people are familiar with alkaline vegans, so we’re here to bring awareness and educate people on food and diet, because health is everything for us,” Robertson said.

James Powell, program director of the hospital-based violence intervention program Harlem Crossroads, offered “stop the bleed” training to those who stopped by his table at the fair.

“‘Stop the bleed’ is a wound management protocol. So we talk to individuals, young and old, as a part of our community engagement, [and] walk them through the process of, if they are somewhere where an incident happens, how to activate, how to get the process started, until help arrives,” he said.

“What we noticed is sometimes kids are on their phones and recording, and they don’t know exactly what to do, and they’re feeling helpless. So we wanted to utilize this to empower the youth, to say, ‘hey, here’s my friend, let me call 911, let me try and apply pressure, get the process started, so I can help save a life,’” he added.

Street Corner Resources is also celebrating the graduation of participants in their youth programming, which operates after school and during the summer. 32 participants are graduating from the program this summer.

Chailing Jorge, a 2025 graduate of Street Corner Resources’ youth program, manned the cotton candy and popcorn machines at the fair. She was excited to give back through the fair and spoke about the impact of her time at Street Corner Resources.

“The biggest lesson was to be the most confident I can be. … The more you speak, the more you use your voice, there’s more opportunities and better things that you can do for your community,” she said.

The fair was also a chance to honor Maurice Lacey, who worked as a social worker at Street Corner for eight years and died in February.

“He meant a whole lot. He counseled our kids, he counseled their parents, family members, neighbors. Business owners would come by just for a word of support, encouragement, information. He was a wealth of information in our organization,” Sekou said.

“He was very knowledgeable, very smart,” Flowers recalled. “He loved the participants, he loved his staff, and he loved to work. … I can’t fill his shoes, but I don’t mind following in his footsteps.”

Shannon Chaffers is a Report for America corps member who writes about gun violence for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.