The Trumbull-Mahoning DEI Collaborative hosted a resource fair at the Metroplex Expo Center to support and meet the needs of community members Friday afternoon.

Over 40 local agencies and non-profits took part in the Project AHA! Advancing Health Access Resource Fair to provide goods, services, and information to members of the public. Those included free haircuts, personal hygiene items, health and dental screenings, and a mobile market.

Chair of the DEI collaborative Carol Holmes-Chambers said the event helps further their mission of addressing disparities between those experiencing poverty and the rest of the community, by centralizing a myriad of publicly-available resources at one event.

"People are struggling on the day to day just to live. So, in order for them to actually access the resources, they have to know about them. And so this gives them the opportunity to come here, to see what's out there that a lot of people didn't even know that it existed," Holmes-Chambers told 21News.


Ahead of the resource fair, the DEI collaborative hosted an "Equity Awareness Experience." The workshop gave participants an opportunity to learn about the diverse range of situations a person living in poverty may experience, and how those factors may contribute to limited access to resources.

"What we're seeing is a lot of times, even though you're a social worker or a human services worker, we're seeing people lack empathy when they're dealing with a population who is struggling. And so this gave them the kind of opportunity to walk in their shoes," Holmes-Chambers said of the workshop.