The Brookland-Lakeview Empowerment Center (BLEC) invites the community to participate in several upcoming programs that promote health, education, and family well-being throughout August.

The Senior Supplemental Food Box Distribution will be held on Friday, August 14, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon at the Brookland-Lakeview Empowerment Center, 1218 Batchelor Street, West Columbia, SC 29169. The program serves senior citizens age 60 and older. Participants should enter through the rear of the campus to pick up their food boxes.

The BLEC Annual Community Health Fair will take place on Saturday, August 15, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. This free public event will feature health screenings, a Back-to-School Bash with backpacks, school supplies, and hygiene items, a Community Baby Shower providing diapers, diaper bags, and baby bottles for the first 100 mothers, expectant mothers, and grandparents, a Community Resource Zone, Healthy Food Zone, Kid Zone with a bouncy house, free fish fry, hot dogs, and ice cream. The event is sponsored by Brookland-Lakeview Empowerment Center, Molina Healthcare of South Carolina, Brookland Baptist Church at Monticello, Lexington School District Two, and the South Carolina Oral Health Action Network. For information, contact Dr. Jacqueline Betancourt at (803) 744-7944 or [email protected].

The Healthy Futures Afterschool Program begins Monday, August 24, from 3:30–6:30 p.m. for Northside Middle School and East Point Academy students. Enrollment remains open. Contact Tori Seymour at (843) 478-5175 or [email protected].

BLEC’s free PREP Youth Advisory Council continues to enroll youth ages 10–19 in Lexington and Richland counties. Participants explore leadership, healthy relationships, financial literacy, career readiness, life skills, adolescent development, contraception education, and reproductive health. To enroll, contact Dr. Cindye Richburg Cotton at (803) 744-7943 or crichburgcotton@brookland.cc.