POLK COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT
July PACE-EH Update

Date:     August 23, 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

Summary:

Wahneta is going through a major state of transition. Since our first meeting on July 8th, the community has shown an intense passion to move things in a more positive directions.

My initial impression of the community changed immensely after our first community meeting. We had 12 community members attend the first meeting. I gave a preliminary explanation of the PACE-EH process and why Wahneta had been chosen to complete the neighborhood assessment. When given the opportunity to explain what issues they were most concerned about, they focused on the organization of the present neighborhood association. Officially named the Wahneta Sports and Neighborhood Association, members felt that not enough time was spent on addressing neighborhood issues. The residents further claimed that lack of accountability of the leaders to the community kept the residents from being informed about current events in the community.

After doing some research about the community, I found out that the community was a 501(c)4 neighborhood association. At the time of inception, the neighborhood association was changed into the Sports and Neighborhood Association because the same residents were involved in both aspects of community building. However, over time it has led to a major focus on the sports program, alienating residents who were not interested in the childrens sports league. Furthermore, the present bylaws relinquish all decision making abilities to the Board of Directors, leaving no room for change except on the election year which takes place every other year.

Fortunately, this is an election year and the community is attempting to breath new life into the organization by making a drastic change to the organization. In summary, the organization will divide into two separate boards under the 501(c) 4 umbrella. This will the residents an opportunity participate exclusively on desired goals and residents that want to participate in both may do so. The bylaws are getting a major overhaul that will give residents more say in the running and decision making of the organization. By working on this project with the community, it gives me a chance to understand some of the recent history of the community and build a working relationship between the community and EH.

In order to complete the necessary work by August 28th, election day, Wahneta has been meeting 1-3 times a week to finish the major work that will ease the transition as much as possible. This has placed the PACE-EH process in ultra slow motion. However, regular PACE-EH work will resume by the second week of September.

Regarding the PACE-EH process, we have completed the following work.

The community has defined environmental health as the state of a person surrounding as they go about day-to-day living. This includes social, financial, mental, and traditional environmental entities. They have decided that in order to improve environmental health, it is necessary to improve all aspects of a person's quality of life.
The community has started to consider what they would like to establish as goals. I have assigned several homework assignments that we will be able to utilize after the election process is completed. Please see below for an explanation of the Hunks, Chunks, and Bites model that Im using to identify goals

Though we have made little progress, I have been gathering a vast amount of information for the community to use as they consider goals. As I explained the PACE-EH process in depth, I informed them about the Wahenta Neighborhood Assessment that was completed by Post, Buckley, Shuch and Jernigan and requested from Polk County Neighborhood Services. They have chosen to use that neighborhood assessment in conjunction with a neighborhood survey.

The Effects of Hurricane Charley:

Community organization work came to a halt because of Hurricane Charley. Though the community suffered some structural damages, the majority of the problems arose from the lack of electricity in an urbanized poor community. Down trees and debris created a mess for many residents. After spending the whole weekend helping residents cleanup up debris, I held a meeting with some of the leaders of the community on Monday, August 16 at Helping Hands Ministries, who is a member of the PACE-EH process. We briefly discussed the long term and short term needs in the community regarding disaster preparation and help.

This really gave several of the PACE-EH group members an opportunity to work together to get the community organized. It was very helpful in developing cohesion in community members that had worked and lived in the same neighborhood for some time and had never worked together before. Because of the storm, the residents worked together to get water/ice distributed to their area, provide an evening meal to residents, and locate homebound residents who could not get to needed items.

I assume because of the timing of Hurricane Charley, the residents will incorporate disaster preparation in their upcoming goals for PACE-EH.

Final Assessment:

Im encouraged by the energy that the community has shown in the past month in the half. However, Im monitoring them closely because it is easy to burnout when running on this level of energy. After the elections, I will insist on going back to 1 meeting a week at least for the next couple months to preserve the energy that the community is expending.

We have been very fortunate in getting both the White and Hispanic community working at the table together. I informed them right from the very first meeting that if they could not work together, I would not work in the community. I have been very careful to place the responsibility of keeping both parties at the table on the residents' shoulders. Because of the history of not working together, if I kept the responsibility of involving both groups to myself, it would be easy and unnatural for both parties to continue to work with each other after I retreat from the community. I insisted on discussing the racism issue at the very first meeting. Throughout the process thus far, as opportunities arise, I have taken the opportunity to show how subtle behaviors and ideas cause a break down in communication. For example, the community organization wasnt exactly sure what kind of activities that the community side of the organization would do because they have so long focused on the sports leagues, there was no activity on the other side. I mentioned that many organizations have speakers come and talk to them about laws, events, and changes that effect and enhance their community. However, I informed them that it is their (the community's) responsibility to make sure that when they do have speakers, the speakers are made aware of and prepared to communicate with both English and Spanish speaking residents.

Resources used:

Kirst-Ashman, K.; Generalist Practice with Organizations and Communities, Second Edition
Kretzmann, J. P. & McKnight, J. L.; Building Communities from the Inside Out
Kanfer, F. H. & Goldstein, A. P.; Helping People Change
Community Tool Box - http://ctb.ku.edu
National Community Building Network- http://www.ncbn.org

Appendix 1

Goals are your hunks.

These give you a broad vision of what your outcome is going to look like. For example, a goal may be that you want the people in your PACE-EH area to be healthier. Goals are reachable but vague. They are supposed to be that way.

Objectives are your chunks

. They are a bit smaller than goals in that you will begin to lay out a plan on what issues need to be addressed. Following the previous example about a healthier community, you may decide your objectives may be to make sure that

Families are informed about how to make healthy choices
Public is informed about local health risks and
Health Service are provided to the indigent.

Finally, come your bites.

This is where you lay out step by step exactly how you plan on reaching your objective. This is where your PACE-EH group will be able to tackle the specific "soap box" issues that they are concerned about. Take Objective 1 from your previous example. The steps to keep families informed about healthy choices may include:

The city will sponsor a health activities fair for the next five years
Provide annual grant funding for local community groups willing to sponsor physical activity days
Partner with schools to remove candy and soda machines from schools, etc....

Your bites list can be as long or short as you deem necessary.