Center still seeing hundreds of clients 2 years after Pulse

The Orlando United Assistance Center to host free open house today

The Orlando United Assistance Center, created in the weeks after the Pulse massacre, has 380 “active” clients two years later, including some people who only recently sought help for the first time, the center reports.

“As the two-year mark approaches, it is a difficult time for a lot of people,” said Joél Morales, the center’s community partnership developer. “They’re realizing … ‘I have to deal with this.’ We even have certain families and parents who are in that prolonged grief period [and] they haven’t dealt with the death of their child.”

The 380 figure includes both survivors and family members who have come to the center in the past 90 days for a range of services, including counseling, case management, financial literacy training, aid in navigating immigration problems and social events for survivors, such as cooking classes.

When the center’s staff can’t help, the workers try to find someone else in the community who can.

“A lot of people are wondering, ‘Well, it’s two years ago … Shouldn’t people have moved on?’” said Orlando City Commissioner Patty Sheehan. “But what folks don’t realize is that these people lost everything — their friends, their loved ones, their sense of safety, and in some cases their jobs and their apartments . ... They have to re-establish their lives … That’s why keeping the Orlando United Assistance Center open is so important.”

The center will host a free open house today — exactly two years after the shooting — with a remembrance ceremony, holistic health remedies and food from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The center is at 507 E. Michigan St. in Orlando.

The event is open to the public.

The center — a joint venture by the Heart of Florida United Way, the city of Orlando and Orange County — is funded largely by a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice Victims of Crime Act, designed for communities that have suffered a mass, violent tragedy. Administered through the State of Florida Attorney General’s office, the 27-month contract is slated to end Sept. 30, but several people involved with the matter said the funding is widely expected to be extended.

“Based on verbal discussions with the [Attorney General’s] office, we are confident there will be an ... extension, the details of which are currently pending,” said spokeswoman Ashley Blasewitz of the Heart of Florida United Way.

The center’s annual budget is $1.4 million, much of it for the mental health professionals who provide services there. The center also recently added a case manager to work in Kissimmee, where many Pulse survivors live.

Anyone affected by the shooting who needs help is encouraged to call the center at 407-500-HOPE.