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One Village Alliance, a Delaware nonprofit, is opening the OVA Freedom Center, Delaware’s first free urban wellness center.The center offers 24/7 access to preventative care and wellness services, focusing on holistic health and addressing health disparities.The July 15 grand opening and 15th-anniversary celebration will include live music, art, food and fundraising for further development.
On a lively stretch of North Market Street on Wilmington’s Northside, pedestrians navigate cracked sidewalks, and drivers dart in and out of tight parking lots. With the area’s buzzing convenience stores, hair salons, Jamaican takeout and late-night pizza joints, there’s always something happening.
An addition hopes to bring peace and healing into the heart of this vibrant corridor.
One Village Alliance, a Delaware nonprofit focused on advancing equity in education, entrepreneurship and the arts, is marking its 15th anniversary with a ribbon-cutting for the OVA Freedom Center, which it describes as the state’s first free urban wellness center. The new center, located at 31 W. 31st Street in Wilmington, provides accessible preventive care and wellness services at no cost, with a mission to reduce health disparities and expand community access to care.
Taking place at 4:30 p.m. July 15, the celebration event will debut a newly developed outdoor greenspace intended to promote healing, dignity and community well-being.
Executive Director Chandra Pitts said the center embraces a holistic approach to health by offering education, creative expression, green space and safe communal areas as essential elements of comprehensive well-being – free of charge.
24-hour preventive care
Unlike hospital-based facilities or school-based wellness centers, the OVA Freedom Center is designed to eliminate common barriers to care such as insurance requirements and affiliation with traditional medical systems. Access to services and facilities is available 24/7.
Instead of treating illness after it occurs, the center focuses on prevention, offering resources that help residents stay healthy before medical intervention is needed. Pitts noted that the need for this approach became especially evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, which exposed longstanding health disparities in Black and brown communities.
Building on that awareness, the new outdoor area will be one of several features available to support both mental and physical health for residents.
Celebrating 15 years of impact
Since March 2020, One Village Alliance has operated out of a 10,000-square-foot facility. Its recent acquisition of an adjacent building and lot adds more than half an acre of outdoor space and brings its total indoor footprint to over 15,000 square feet.
The expanded OVA Freedom Center will house co-working spaces, creative studios, classrooms, a licensed commercial kitchen, a conference center, and indoor and outdoor event venues.
The July 15 celebration will also serve as a fundraiser to support ongoing development of the campus. Planned improvements include renovations to the second building, parking lot upgrades and a mural arts program tied to the center’s wellness mission.
The event will feature live music, painting, a DJ, food, awards and a reception honoring One Village Alliance’s 15 years of service to the Wilmington community. For more information or to RSVP for the fundraiser, visit https://www.iamthevillage.org/.
(This story has been updated to add information.)
You can contact staff reporter Anitra Johnson at ajohnson@delawareonline.com.
