June Community Connection Event at The Village at Washington Terrace: Health and Wellness

Our Resident Services team plays the important role of engaging with our residents and connecting them to valuable community resources that they may not otherwise know about. Over the past two years, the Resident Services team has been missing the chance to host large gatherings, as we’ve all been doing our part to help slow the spread of COVID-19. 

This summer, we’re thrilled to be able to safely get together once again as we hold a series of Community Connection Events. The first event, centered on Health and Wellness, was held on June 11th in the community and was open to all of the residents at The Village at Washington Terrace. 

During the event, we partnered with organizations and service providers to bring information and resources related to health and wellness including smoking cessation, COVID-19 vaccinations, mental health resources, and healthy eating tips. Of course, helping our residents stay safe at this event was of the utmost importance, and we took proper safety precautions throughout the day. We also partnered with Alliance Medical Ministry, which gave out important information about COVID-19 vaccinations for children and adults and distributed home test kits to all of our residents. 

As part of our ongoing initiative to encourage healthy habits for our residents, our team also promoted strategies for smoking cessation and distributed materials from QuitlineNC with tips on stopping tobacco use. Beyond that, our resident leaders recruited The Village at Washington Terrace residents for the GirlTrek walking team. Our current membership consists of about 15 people, who are all committed to walking for at least 30 minutes per day. 

One of the highlights of the event was hearing from Raleigh native, Terrell Midgett, whose daughter, Aja runs a local lemonade stand. Terrell took the time to speak to our residents about Vitiligo Awareness Month, giving a short talk about his story and raising awareness about the condition, while Aja handed out refreshing drinks. 

Throughout the event, residents also received educational materials and services from the following community partners:

• North Carolina Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP), which provided free cooking utensils with recipe cards for healthy meals.
• Raleigh Dream Center, which distributed food boxes with fresh fruit, beans, etc. to residents. 
• WAKE Up and Read, which donated children’s books. 
• NCWorks, which had a community engagement outreach coordinator on hand to provide employment resources. 

Of course, no Washington Terrace event would be complete without harvesting the community garden. Resident volunteers recruited families to participate in the community’s Gathering for Growth garden club, picking out fresh fruits and veggies that were ready for harvest. 

While this was the first of our Community Connection Events at The Village at Washington Terrace, it certainly won’t be the last. In July, we have a second event planned that will focus on Youth Services and in August, we’ll hold events for National Night Out. We plan to continue holding these resident events quarterly after that. 

Stay tuned for more information about upcoming events in the following weeks!