PACE-EH_Escambia0307

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PACE EH (Protocol for Assessing Community Excellence in Environmental Health)

For more information on this project, contact Robert Merritt, Environmental Health Director, or Mary Beverly, PACE EH Coordinator at the Escambia County Health Department. All pdfs open in a new window

ESCAMBIA COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT
March PACE EH Project Update

Date: March 19, 2007

To: Daniel Parker, MSP
Assistant Division Director, Division of Environmental Health

From: Mary Beverly
PACE-EH Coordinator

Through: Robert Merritt
Environmental Health Director

Subject: Kupfrian Park PACE EH Project

1. Project Summary

The March meeting was held on March 12th at the Lakeview Activity Center from 3:00-4:30.

Thirteen attendees (9 Governmental and 4 Residents) were present.
County Commissioner ?Marie Young? was able to attend along with the ?Director? of County Engineering, ?Chief? of County Redevelopment and an Emerald Coast Utility Authority Engineer.
The Director of County Engineering briefed us on the road work project for storm water improvements and traffic calming. The private engineering firm is starting the survey work now and they hope to have plans drawn up in the next few weeks.
The Chief of County Redevelopment gave us the results of the Gulf Power research on lighting. She informed us that twenty one (21) new lights will be added to the neighborhood in the next few weeks.
I contacted ?Clean and Green? and discovered that they will remove abandoned vehicles for ?free and they will help us start a neighborhood cleanup. We will announce this at our next meeting and will begin outreach for this.
I have been in touch with a local Pastor who is very interested in helping. He has introduced me to the president of a nearby neighborhood association (Britton Place), who I plan to meet with and walk with in the neighborhood. They are both working together to help me plan my next meeting at the Pastor?s Church Hall.
We are going to try alternating between monthly ?governmental meetings? at the Activity Center from 3:00-4:30 and a monthly ?neighborhood gathering? at the Church during early evening hours. We hope this will help get more residents involved.

2. Work Plan and Process Update

PACE-EH Tasks	Action	Outcome	Target Date
Task 1: Determine Community Capacity	-Specific resources, skills and capacities needed for the project have been identified.	All complete	August 21, 2006
	-Obtain inservice training.
	-Review State of Florida PACE-EH projects to use as models.
	-Establish new working relationships with other agencies, businesses and organizations.
	-Identify potential strengths and weaknesses of community.
	-Determine community capacity
	-Conduct first community meeting
Task 2: Define and Characterize the Community	-Assess community partners to help determine community involvement	All complete	September 30, 2006
	-Describe the community?s characteristics, composition, organization and leadership
	-Refine the definition of the community as needed
	-Conduct a pre-pace survey
Task 3: Assemble Community Environmental Health Assessment Team	-Clarify expectations and duties of ECHD EH team members	Started formation but want more members. Need to define governing structure and ground rules.	February 10, 2007
	-Identify community partners for CEHAT and clarify expectations and duties
	-Determine a governing structure, decision-making structure, and ground rules
Task 4: Define the Goals of the Assessment	-Establish goals and objectives for the assessment	Very nearly finished with this! We are waiting on surveys and construction plans!	February 10, 2007
	-Describe the vision that will guide the process
	-Describe the scope of issues to be addressed by the assessment
	-Define key terms
Task 5: Generate the Environmental Health Issue List	-Collect data on community concerns	Nearly finished. I believe that I need to reach more people.	September 30, 2006-November 2006
	-Collect data on community knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions
	-Create a manageable list of issues
Task 6: Analyze Issues with a Systems Framework	-Understand the framework.	Pending	February 30, 2007
	-Identify the connections among health status, affected populations, exposure factors, environmental agents/conditions, contributing factors and behaviors, and public health protection factors for selected environmental health issues.
Task 7: Develop Locally Appropriate Indicators	-Develop a list of potential indicators	Pending	July 31, 2007
	-Identify key indicators based on selected criteria.
Task 8: Select Standards	-Identify standards that will assist us in determining the EH status of the community	Pending	February 28, 2007
	-Agree upon locally appropriate standards.
Task 9: Create Environmental Health Issue Profiles	-Adopt a standardized format for organizing information.	Working on now. May be able to combine survey with "Front Porch" results	February 28, 2007
	-Gather information.
	-Collect data for locally developed indicators.
	-Develop a summary statement.
Task 10: Rank the Environmental Health Issues	-Determine the purpose of ranking.	All complete	August 2006
	-Decide on ranking criteria.
	-Select a method for ranking.
	-Rank the issues.
Task 11: Set Priorities for Action	-Determine local priority-setting criteria.	All complete	November 2006
	-Select a method for prioritizing
	-Determine priorities.
Task 12: Develop an Action Plan	-Develop goals and objectives.	Working on now	February 28, 2007
	-Identify contributing factors.
	-Identify possible interventions and prevention activities.
	-Identify community assets.
	-Identify potential barriers.
	-Select an intervention/activity.
	-Determine resource needs.
	-Identify potential partners.
	-Provide training.
	-Develop timeframe.
	-Determine measures of success.
Task 13: Evaluate Progress and Plan for the Future	-Agree on the questions to be answered by the evaluation.	Pending	July 2007
	-Evaluate the success of the assessment process.
	-Begin preparations for ongoing community based environmental health assessment activities.

3. Outstanding Issues/Concerns

Concern still exists over the small representation from the neighborhood residents, and we are trying every way we can to get more interest. The newspaper article should be coming soon, and I feel the connection to the Neighborhood Association will be a good one.