OKEECHOBEE — Our Village just keeps growing and growing. The newest expansion will include a miniature medical clinic located in the building Our Village occupies now.

Our Village is a non-profit founded by Leah Suarez in 2015 to provide families in Okeechobee with a hand up, not a hand out. In 2019, they achieved their dream of having a dedicated space where they could hold workshops and activities. They moved into the little white house on Southwest Second Avenue and filled every inch of space with donations and crafts and books and art and of course — people, lots of people. Soon, Suarez realized they needed more room, and she began to pray for a bigger space.

When a new, larger location became available, they jumped on it and moved in right away.

Once in the new facility, they were able to offer more to the community such as an education room, where students could go to be tutored or to play games, a small kitchen where they are able to prepare emergency food bags for families in need, an area to display art from local artists and peer counseling.

One of Suarez’ dreams was to open a medical clinic that could offer a variety of services including mental health. This dream is getting closer and closer to becoming a reality as Our Village partners with a non-profit ministry called The Least of These (LOT). Co-founder and Executive Director Maggie Rodriguez-Louis said LOT was begun in 2013 in order to meet needs in under-served areas — rural areas, subsidized housing areas, any place that is under-served in health care. “We step in and provide intakes like a primary care. We do a physical/psycho/social intake to assess the needs of that particular community.” As they discover what the needs are, they bring in various other health services like vision, food pantry, mental health — basically whatever the need is in that community.

The Okeechobee site will be the third started by LOT but during COVID-19 one of them went on hiatus. They hope to open in January and will have primary care/urgent care services every day and specialty services as needed. LOT uses a sliding fee scale for charges.

Right now, Our Village and LOT have been trying to raise funds to purchase medical equipment for the clinic, but with or without the equipment, they intend to start in January. It just won’t be full service until they are able to get everything they need in the office. “We will just come in with our little doctor bags until then,” said Rodriguez-Louis.

Last month, they held a bake sale and raised quite a bit to go toward medical equipment. “You’d be surprised how much stuff you need to stock a clinic,” Suarez said. Suarez has a fundraiser going on now using sign sales. Each sign reads, “I am a part of Our Village” and goes for a $50 donation. This money will be used to purchase the needed equipment such as an exam table and a sink.

If you’d like to help, you can visit Our Village at 205 N.E. Second Street and ask for Leah.