On Friday over 100 community members, elected representatives, and members of the First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica gathered to celebrate the opening of the Tree of Life Center on 164th Street in Jamaica, Queens. The Tree of Life Center (TOLC) is a mixed-use building offering 174 affordable apartment units, as well as space for programs that provide resources to the Jamaica community and building residents. The First Jamaica Community and Urban Development Corporation (FJCUDC) and the Bluestone Organization worked together to build the TOLC. The Tree of Life Center Partnership includes the First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica, the Community Healthcare Network (CHN), the Queens Public Library, and Cornell University Cooperative Extension (CUCE). CHN recently opened a full-service health center and dental clinic in the TOLC, and CUCE’s Brooklyn/Queens office is also located on-site.
Revered Patrick O’Connor, who is the lead pastor at First Presbyterian and chairs the FJCUDC’s board of directors, says the Tree of Life Center was “inspired by what the community told us.” Before building the Tree of Life Center, FJCUDC surveyed over 1,200 Jamaica residents to identify the most pressing needs of the community. Community members highlighted housing, health and nutrition – all areas that the TOLC partnership works to address.
The Tree of Life Center opening is an important milestone—not only for the partners involved, but for the entire Queens community, showing how fruitful collaborations between residents, elected representatives and community organizations can be. Borough President Donovan Richards, who spoke at the ceremony, commended the partnership, saying, “You’ve created a way in which people can relate to each other, have services and form the kind of community where people have better outcomes in our city. If it can be done here, then sure enough it can be done throughout our entire city.”