POLK COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT
May PACE-EH Update

Date:      May 31, 2007

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

From:     Jill Weinischke
                Community Assistance Specialist

Subject: Skyview PACE-EH Updates

Project Summary

During May, PACE met with local residents to report the results of the community survey. All those present at the May 5th meeting were given three different colored dots to indicate their top three issues to undertake in addressing community concerns. At the June meeting we will provide the results as well as solicit volunteers to address these first three issues. Also, fact sheets are being prepared to present at the June meeting. There were 33 residents in attendance.

Work plan and Process Update

PACE-EH Tasks	Action	Outcome	Target Date
Task 1: Determine Community Capacity	Develop partnerships with the various city and county governments as well as supporting non-profit agencies which serve the area	Ongoing
	Potential strengths and weaknesses of community outlined.	Ongoing
	First community meeting conducted.	Completed	Sept. 11, 2006
	Training for new board	Not Scheduled	July, 2007
Task 2: Define and Characterize the Community	The area for this project is known as the Skyview Community. The area is in an unincorporated part of the county directly adjacent to the City of Lakeland. *With an area of approximately five square miles, it has a population of around 5,000. The population is estimated to be 72% white, 8% black, and 20% Hispanic/Mexican. There is a higher than average (for Polk County) population of seniors aged 55 and older.	*Ongoing
Task 2: Define and Characterize the Community	Staff have photo documented the area and identified areas with significant code enforcement concerns.	Completed	Dec. 22, 2006
Task 3: Assemble a Community-based Environmental Health Assessment Team	Our group currently has a technical advisory committee which will serve in this capacity. As partners surface, they will be included in the process.	Ongoing
Task 4: Define the Goals, Objectives, and Scope of the Assessment	The below survey will help us better define the community assessment.		April 30, 2007
Task 5: Generate a list of Environmental Health Issues	On February 1^st, our Environmental Health office is scheduled to mail a survey to 500 randomly selected residents. This survey was used in the past with 2 other communities in our county so it only had to be revised slightly. We will coordinate with local businesses to supply gift certificates and prizes to send to residents who complete the survey.	Phase I completed (Phase II is going door to door)	February 1, 2007 Postponed until Summer Session of College (June 1)
Task 6: Analyze issues within a systems framework	PACE-EH Coordinator will work with community teams and project partners to develop each environmental health issue as identified by the community and research.	Scheduled	June 30, 2007
Task 7: Develop appropriate community environmental health indicators	PACE-EH Coordinator will work with community teams and project partners to develop measures. In the PACE-EH process, indicators are used in developing issue profiles (Task 9), ranking and prioritizing the community's environmental health concerns (Task 10 and 11), and ongoing evaluation.	Scheduled	June 30, 2007
Task 8: Select Standards	PACE-EH Coordinator will work with community teams and project partners to select standards such as Healthy People 2010 against which local status can be compared.	Researching	May 8, 2007
Task 9: Create Environmental Health Issue Profiles	PACE-EH Coordinator will work with community teams and project partners to create profile fact sheets of each identified environmental health issue	Researching	June 30, 2007
Task 10: Rank Issues	From the beginning of our involvement with Skyview, residents have indicated that Cleaning Up their neighborhoods is a priority. See task 11 for more details.	Ongoing	June 30, 2007
Task 11: Set Priorities for Action	Representatives from Code Enforcement, Office of Neighborhood Partnerships in conjunction with Keep Polk County Beautiful, the Sheriffs Dept and PACE EH have all been involved with education as it relates to how residents can take back their community and address sanitary nuisances, trash, overgrown lots, tires, etc. which litter the neighborhoods represented in this community.	Operation Clean Sweep Next Phase	March 3, 2007 Following May 7th mtg.

Outstanding Issues/Concerns

Survey: We will partner with Dr. Estevez and Southeastern University Social Work students during June and July. This is a Junior/Senior level Research Methods class and we plan to collect additional data from the Spanish only neighborhoods to ensure that we have their issues prioritized.