POLK COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT
March PACE-EH Update

Date:      March 30, 2007

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

From:     Jill Weinischke
                Community Assistance Specialist

Subject: Skyview PACE-EH Updates

Project Summary

The attendance at each monthly Skyview Neighborhood Association meeting continues to increase. The community business meeting is very short allowing time for guest speakers and PACE reports.

During March, three beautification projects were conducted. The first, Operation Clean Sweep was held on Saturday, March 3rd. This was a FREE curbside pick up of large bulky items and tires. The residents expressed their thanks to the county for doing this pick up. The communication plan to residents was multi-tiered and included a resident mailing by the Office of Neighborhood Partnerships and a door to door campaign targeted at residents with visible code enforcement violations. During the door to door campaign, we received feedback from residents that they did not receive the mail out. In addition, the nearly 700 residents who reside in area mobile home communities did not receive notices either as they were all sent to the MHP managers with little to no distribution. The PACE coordinated door to door campaign was what made the clean up a success. The second project was held on March 10th and was the communitys Great American Cleanup activity. Keep Polk County Beautiful had to order a second tire roll-off as we filled the first one in 2 hours (we were aggressive with targeting tire recycling notices). Skyviews third beautification project was a KIDZ CLUB planting project held Saturday, March 24th. Close to 70 youngsters and a few parents assisted with planting trees, flowers, and shrubs along side streets off Skyview Drive, Reynolds Road and a 39 circle along Goodyear and Jupiter streets. Volunteers and local businesses supported the project through donations and preparing food for the volunteers.

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
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 April 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	May 7, 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: With regard to the survey we are optimistic that 20% of our 500 randomly selected residents will return the surveys. Our efforts are ongoing with a Phase II planned with college students to boost the survey results. Dr. Estevez and Southeastern University Social Work students will meet with PACE coordinator during first week of April to discuss plan of action for remaining surveys.

Miscellaneous

Camera malfunction. We are hoping to retrieve pictures.

Also, a media representative took lots of pix and interviewed PACE coordinator and kids at length. We anticipate the good news issue to come out in the near future and will attach at that time.