BARTLESVILLE, Okla. — A Bartlesville community center is making sure its clients are “armed with the facts.”
It’s the reason Westside Community Center’s executive director is reading through every single page of the ‘Big Beautiful Bill.” She says it’ll help her community.
When President Donald Trump put pen to paper, signing the spending bill into law, Shavon Robles got to reading all 870 pages.
“I believe that an informed citizen makes for a wonderful city,” said Shavon Robles.
Robles is the executive director of Westside Community Center, a multicultural community hub that’s been in the city for 75 years.
“We serve seniors,” said Robles. “We serve adults. We serve youth.”
Hundreds of people walk through their doors for their services every year, including many seniors on Medicare.
“So that was a huge fear for people about what they heard about what is changing,” said Robles.
2 News explained the potential impact of the bill on healthcare with some Oklahoma hospital officials concerned about keeping rural hospitals open and cuts to Medicaid reimbursements.
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2 News also spoke with the Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma whose CEO is worried about the changes to the SNAP program.
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In a message to the people who use the center, Robles says she’ll be breaking down everything.
“We’re not for anything,” said Robles. “We’re not against anything. We really are a nonpartisan neutral party that wants to create a safe space for people to get the right information that they need to move forward.”
Robles said she’s passionate about making sure people are informed. So much so that a few months ago, she started going through all of the city council packets, breaking those down for people in her community.
“That’s usually about 100 to 200 something pages every month of an agenda that the city council goes through,” said Robles.
In August, she’ll start hosting community forums at the community center to break down all 870 pages of the bill in plain language.
She also plans to partner with other organizations and community leaders to provide the needed information to people in Bartlesville.
“I felt it was my responsibility of being a community center of Bartlesville to make sure people were armed with the facts,” said Robles.
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