A Positive Step of Monroe County Steps Up to Fill Gaps in Community Services

As the worldwide COVID-19 virus pandemic assaults lives and livelihoods, many local organizations have found themselves having to rapidly adapt for unprecedented circumstances, redesigning their programs and redefining their missions, sometimes on a daily basis.

One such program is A Positive Step of Monroe County, a 501(c) (3) non-profit founded by social activist and Key West resident Billy Davis in 1999 to serve Monroe County’s highest risk kids and their families.

APSMC’s cornerstone programs are its Southernmost Fatherhood Initiative, a multi-component program largely supported by the Ounce of Prevention Fund of Florida, the Keys Open Door Foundation, and the United Way of Florida that coaches dads, including incarcerated ones, in improving their parent, co-parent and child relationship skills, and its Idle Hands Summer Youth Program which, in partnership with the City of Key West and additionally supported by grants from CFFK, Key West Sunrise Rotary and other organizations, provides Key West High School students with summer employment in a variety of City jobs.

“When APSMC was alerted at the end of March that due to financial uncertainties the City would not be able to support the Idle Hands program this year, the Community Foundation of the Florida Keys gave us the opportunity to redirect their grant commitment to community COVID-19 relief efforts,” said Davis. With those funds APSMC has been able to provide financial assistance for six high-risk youth and their families living in the Florida Keys, and has teamed up with Sunrise Rotary and Destination Catering to provide relief supplies including prepared meals, groceries, cleaning supplies and laundry-room cash-cards to Jack T. Murray Senior Citizen Complex residents every Monday and Friday through May.

Davis expressed gratitude to the Ounce of Prevention Fund, which continues to support APSMC staff as they map out ways to proceed remotely with Southernmost Fatherhood Initiative program services, and The Keys Open Door Foundation which has allowed APSMC to cover expenses such as rent, groceries, psychological evaluation tests, and other family essentials for Southernmost Fatherhood Initiative participants.

“COVID-19 has created a whole new set of challenges for our community,” said Davis. “We have our established programs, but part of our APSMC mission includes filling gaps in community services, and that is where we are directing our energies now.

Thanks to the Ounce of Prevention Fund of Florida and the Keys Open Door Foundation, A Positive Step of Monroe County has been able to provide additional support to some of the organization’s Southernmost Fatherhood Initiative Program participants, including William ‘Trey’ Ashing III, a single father pictured here in a ‘selfie shot’ with daughter Madilyn Nicole, 6. Ashing lost five weeks of work on account of the pandemic and credits the Fatherhood Initiative program with providing the tools needed to put his life on a new path.