TAMPA, Fla. — A former nightclub in East Tampa previously associated with crime has been given a new lease on life as a cutting-edge health center.
The facility is now dedicated to providing top-of-the-line health services.
The Tampa Community Redevelopment Agency awarded a development grant of up to $350,000 for the project, called "The Well."
The wellness hub owned by Pharmacist Dr. Vondalyn Wright is fulfilling a critical healthcare need in the community
According to Wright, the building has various meanings and experiences for the community of East Tampa.
“They remember when it was this club or that club,” said Dr. Wright. “We realize sometimes clubs and younger people bring out a lot of violence with alcohol.”
By transforming this former nightclub into a wellness hub, she said she hopes this space will be associated with a more positive experience.
“When we talk about health, we don’t just talk about medications,” she said. “We talk about mental health and we talk about doing things, like events on the patio and taking care of the full patient. We want people to walk into, feeling a way and when they walk out they feel better.
“Whether it’s with your medication or coming here to do some arts and crafts or being that neighborhood place that East Tampa was lacking.”
Every resource offered at this one-stop shop is an intentional effort to address healthcare gaps.
“Here at ‘The Well,’ we offer transportation, we offer insurance help and we have a primary care provider.”
Her own health scare has inspired her to go further and offer breast cancer awareness education to women of color through her Fight Wright Foundation.
“So I feel like I’ve been given a second chance on life after dealing with breast cancer, not knowing if I was going to live or if I was going to die,” she said. “I wanted to make sure that our patients have the best chance that they have.”
Wright says she is glad to give back to the community that raised her.
She is currently inspiring and empowering the next generation of pharmacists while ensuring that patients in East Tampa receive not only adequate care but also the right information.
In addition to her role as a lead pharmacist, Wright also teaches pharmacy technician courses.
“It’s very important for us to have representation in our neighbourhoods,” she said. “With all the odds against me. Here I am today, just being a positive influence on other people that I can see in my shoes. I see potential in people that other people may not because nobody saw that potential in me.
“When I was in high school, I wasn’t on college track. It took me having two kids and then going back to school and saying, ‘You know what, I can do this.’”