Hand-N-Hand Community Services Foundation, Inc. exists to serve East Palatka — a rural, underserved community in Putnam County, Florida whose Indigenous American and Gullah Geechee inhabitants have faced decades of redlining, infrastructure disinvestment, and economic exclusion.
Our approach is not a single program or a one-time grant. It is a Longitudinal Revitalization Strategy — a deliberate, sequenced, multi-phase framework designed to build permanent institutional infrastructure that converts generational poverty into generational wealth across multiple generations.
The East Palatka Community Development Corporation, formed in March 2026, is the community-governed vehicle through which that strategy is executed — controlled by community members, accountable to community members, and building assets that remain in community hands permanently.
Redlining → Capital Access
CHDO designation, HOME funds, USDA Section 504, CDFI financing, New Markets Tax Credits, and LIHTC create the capital access that redlining systematically denied for 80+ years.
Eminent Domain → Site Control
Community-owned land at 160 W. Louis Broer Road — 0.93 acres, no acquisition cost, no title risk — anchors the strategy in assets that cannot be taken without due process.
Gentrification → CHDO Ownership
When the East Palatka CDC is the development entity — governed by community members — any appreciation in value benefits the people who were always here, not outside investors.
