POLK COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT
October PACE-EH Update

Date:     November 10, 2004

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

From:     Gloria L Graham
                Community Assistance Specialist

Subject: Wahneta Community-PACE-EH Update
                Polk County Health Department, Environmental Health Division

In the past several meetings, some realizations have been made about Wahnetas progress through the PACE-EH process. There have been some very specific issues that the community wishes to take care of and have been top priorities for many years now.

A pattern of addressing issues one by one has begun in this community and I am hesitant to change the pattern to PACE-EHs standard addressing of promises.

When PACE-EH first started in the community, the only issue that the community was concerned about was the deteriorating community association. At the time, it seemed best to address that issue immediately due to the deadline of a bi-annual election, and it was a perfect opportunity to build rapport with the community.

To address this issue, I took them through the PACE-EH process in a period of about a month and half. Meeting every week, sometimes several times a week, the community was able to develop goals, produce bylaws, solicit input from partners, and have a successful election that included voting for the changes and electing new officers.

Immediately after the election, hurricane season hit with full force. Hurricanes Charley, Frances and Jeanne hit the Wahneta community. They lost power for significant periods of time because of each storm. After each storm, the community leaders got together to figure out how to address everyones immediate needs, specifically food and water.

Once again, we followed the PACE-EH model in developing goals and identifying partners for action. The community realized that it needed to develop both a short-term and long-term emergency plan. Despite the crisis across the county, and the scandal of one of the community partner selling emergency relief food after the first hurricane, the community successfully banded together and made sure residents got food, water and ice during all three storms. As part of the action plan that they executed, they have decided that within the next year, the community will develop a long-term emergency plan to facilitate help in the future.

Now as we approach the holiday season, many of the community leaders are working on the different community events that have been a tradition in this community. When I first introduced PACE-EH to the community, I adamantly pushed for the inclusion of both cultural groups, the white and Hispanic, to participate together in the PACE-EH process. As the community is working on their events, they are looking to add new elements to those community events that will help draw the Hispanic community to the events. Once again, working from the beginning of the PACE-EH process of developing goals, identifying partners, and executing an action plan the community is well on their way to having a culturally inclusive events this holiday season.

Regarding non-holiday related concerns; the community has also set their sites on getting lighting into the community. Another unincorporated community in Polk County had successfully gotten lights in their community by the community working on it by themselves, with minimum county effort. Wahneta has decided to follow their lead and apply the same plan in order to light up Wahneta. The community has decided that the goal is to light up all of the streets in the community that have residential properties by soliciting yes/no votes from the property owners. The community residents will be going door-to-door for each vote. Right now, they are working on identifying the necessary partners to help execute this idea. The community will be meeting with the leaders from Gordonville/Gordon Heights to find out how they lit their community. Within the next several weeks, the community will also speak with TECO, the electric provider for the community. At that point the community will divide the Wahneta area into manageable areas and begin soliciting support for the lighting of the community. Once again, with this issue, the community has gone through the entire PACE-EH process for this one issue.

Another non-holiday related concern was in regards to 4th Street, which is the primary road to Wahenta Elementary School. Taking the PACE-EH group through the methodology, the community was able to identify what the specific need was of that road, define goals for improvement, develop an action plan, and are presently executing the plan. They have gained the support of several organizations within the community who will help them clean and maintain this road, sidewalks, and ditches for the safety of the students that walk down that road to school.

Regarding the survey, the community wishes to put the survey out. They have decided that the goal is to receive as many responses as possible. It will be mailed to residents as well as placed in the stores in the community. The survey will be done in English and Spanish. The main purposes of the survey is to:

look at what issues are concerning the community
identify residents in the community who are willing help in the improvement projects
compare and contrast concerns of both the white and Hispanic community.

The survey will NOT be an anonymous survey by design although people who fill out the applications are not obligated to give their personal information. Responses will be either returned to the local stores and bodegas or can be mailed back to Environmental Health.

The pros to applying PACE-EH in this fashion are that residents can see immediate action taking place. Residents are able to focus on one or two issues at a time and start working on the solutions immediately. This starts to break down feelings of apathy and helplessness. Furthermore, people who are interested in only specific issues can place their time and effort in addressing the issue of their concern. Energy has the potential to stay high as success after success takes place.

However, there are some cons to this PACE approach. Acquiring partners haphazardly can lead to burnout of those partners. This method of application can also lead to short-term vision and make addressing larger issues (i.e. water system) very difficult. Eventually, when the community attempts to address an issue that takes years to complete, they may lose interest or energy for pursuit mid-progress.