For more information on this project, contact Cindy Morris,Environmental Health Director, or Alexandra Fitos, PACE-EH Coordinator, at the Hillsborough County Health Department.
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT
July PACE-EH Update
Date:
Aug 16, 2004
To:
Daniel Parker, MSP, GAL
From: Alexandra Fitos, MA
PACE-EH Coordinator
Subject: PACE-EH Grant Update for Palm River,
June-July-August 2004.
Since the previous up-date the Hillsborough
County LEGACY Team has met three times. The team has a proven to be
fluid, with new members joining at each new meeting. Several
community members have complained that the PACE-EH book is difficult
to understand and the language is not familiar to them. We were able
to get the only supermarket in the Palm River area Winn-Dixie to
donate refreshments for our meetings and hope that they will
continue to support our effort. Additionally, we are getting
t-shirts made for our team members and as raffle prizes for those
who participate in the survey.
The first meeting held on June 14th was very productive with
approximately 10 community members attending, along with Alexandra
Fitos PACE-EH coordinator and Cindy Morris Environmental Health
Service Program Administer. Those present were given the opportunity
to introduce themselves to other participants at the meeting. The
group had 6 residents and 4-community activists with 9 attendees
choosing to commit to the LEGACY Team.
The first order of business was to introduce the PACE-EH program to
the group. A brief power point presentation was given that covered
the basic methodology of the PACE-EH process from the beginning steps
that have already been completed to those that the LEGACY Team will
perform. Additionally, the time commitments and responsibilities of
those who join the team were explained along with why Palm River was
selected for PACE-EH.
A ten-minute question and answer period followed the power point
presentation with those at the meeting inquiring into what kind of
results the process could have and what kind survey possibilities
there were. Some suggestions included distributing surveys from the
WIC office and through Community Action Plannings representative
Debbie Curry. The group was interested what other PACE-EH teams have
accomplished and what kind of surveys were given out. They requested
case studies of other PACE-EH communities for the next meeting.
With the conclusion of the question and answer period the group was
asked to commit to the LEAGACY Team pledge (below), 9 out 10 chose
to participate as new team members.
PACE EH Legacy Team Expectations:
- L ong-term commitment to completing
the PACE EH process
- E agerness to see positive changes in
environmental health through use of community initiated
participation
- G enuine concern for the communitys
environmental health
- A cknowledging the communitys ability
to solve its environmental health issues
- C onsistently attending and
participating in community meetings
- Y earning for a healthy, safe and
successful future
All together these traits spell LEGACY, which
expresses the primary goal of the PACE EH process of empowering
communities to develop short and long-term environmental health plans.
A legacy of community empowerment and cooperation between concerned
individuals and governmental organizations, allows for facilitated
problem solving of environmental health issues.
If you share these traits and believe that you can fulfill the
commitments required of the Palm River Legacy Team member, please sign
your name below to join us. By signing you demonstrate that your
community is important and together we have the power to change
environmental health conditions that are important to Palm River area.
________________________________________________________
Signature Date
________________________________________________________
Print Name
________________________________________________________
Street Address City
_________________________________________________________
State Zip Code
Phone Number____________________________________________
Email Address____________________________________________
Community Affiliation_____________________________________
Several other members who had previously committed were not able to
attend because of another obligations. The current team is comprised
of members and partners who will participate at varying levels
throughout the process and are as follows:
| Name |
Community Affiliation |
| Gary M. Anzulewicz |
Palm River Economic Council and Resident |
| Shelley Blood |
Hillsborough Cnty. Neighborhood Relations |
| Connie L. Boone |
Palm River Weed and Seed Hillsborough
County |
| M. Martin Bosman |
University of South Florida |
| Jayajit Chakraborty |
University of South Florida |
| Deborah Curry |
Coordinator for Targeted Community
Action Planning |
| Joan Davis |
Civic Association and Resident |
| Valerie R. Francisco |
Resident and Environmental Consultant |
| Ralph Grualan |
Deputy in Palm River |
| Liz Gutierrez |
Palm River Point |
| Jane J. Hanis |
Palm River Point and Resident |
| Delaney Pittman |
Palm River Point/ Progress Village Civic
and Resident |
| Dorothy Tilden |
Palm River Point and Resident |
| Dottie Tildo |
Palm River Resident |
| Sharon Thornhill |
Resident and Realtor |
| Mary Yeargan |
Environmental Protection Commission |
The future meeting schedule was discussed along with the suggestion of
moving to new location or perhaps changing the seating arrangement of
the meeting room.
At the conclusion of the meeting two homework assignments were given:
1.) Think about what Environmental Health means to you and read
through the PACE-EH Guidebook
2.) Invite someone who would like to participate.
The July 16th meeting was very different from the initial PACE-EH
meeting in June. The team after reviewing the PACE-EH Guidebook was at
first suspicious of the whole process. Members started to voice their
opinions about the whole process of being surveyed. The major
complaint was that they had already been surveyed to death by
numerous organizations. With each survey bringing disappointment to
residents hoping for results and improvements in their quality of
life. Questions as to why another survey had to be conducted were a
constant theme throughout the meeting. It was suggested that the small
turn out could be an outcome of disenchanted residents being tired of
getting little or no responses to indicated concerns from previous
surveys and organizations.
Additionally, there was brief discussion on what kinds of issues could
be included and the team developed a vision statement for the PACE-EH
process:
Identify environmental issues that could deter or be detrimental to
the quality of life of the community or residents.
There was consensus on the survey being broadly based on quality of
life issues. The teams definition of environmental health was
anything that effects the quality of residents life from social
aspects such as drug and alcohol abuse to environmental issues such
air pollution and lack of access to the recreation space. For the next
meeting a rough draft of a survey similar to the one used by Polk
Countys Combee PACE-EH project that contains issues specific to the
Palm River area would be presented.
To motivate the group a summery was given out of what Polk and Indian
River Counties PACE-EH communities had accomplished, along with a list
of what services the Health Department offers. The examples of other
communitys success had help to move the group slightly away from the
matter of why a survey had to be conducted and redirected them towards
what could be included in the survey. This produced an interesting
discussion of what we can possibly accomplish before the survey goes
out by using some already collected data from other focus groups. The
list of issues from the Palm River Point meeting (April 6th, 2004) was
disturbed and used as a starting point.
Several members decided to take on issues that they had information
about or held specific knowledge on. The intent was to show the
disenchanted Palm River community that there was some progress is
being made.
The final issue that addressed was how we can make our survey
different from what others have done in the area. For the next meeting
a sample of the survey will be constructed so that members have an
idea as to what kind of issues and topics will be measured. It was
suggested that the survey group similar topics together, rate
residents responses on how serious an issue is, if they want it
resolved and keeping the survey short. It was decided that they like
the format that Polk County had used.
The most recent meeting on August 9th was the most productive meeting
up to this point. Real progress was made with the survey and as
planned will be distributed to community members and residents in
September. The LEGACY team members discussed the content of the survey
and suggested some language and content changes that would make the
document easier for respondents to understand. A list of access that
team members have to Palm River residents was circulated so that an
alternative distribution of the survey could be constructed. It was
agreed that a team would receive the final copy of the survey before
the next meeting on September 13th.
Other PACE-EH Hillsborough Updates
Current PACE-EH Update
May/June, 2004
Media Coverage (.pdf files)
June 12, 2004 -
County
Chooses Place to Perform Area Environmental Health Study
June 11, 2004 -
State
Asks for Environmental Input
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