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For more information on this project, contact Samir Elmir, Environmental Health Director at the Miami-Dade County Health Department.

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT
August Little Haiti PACE-EH Project Report

 To:                Daniel Parker, M.S.
                       Assistant Division Director, Division of Environmental Health

From:             Trevor D. Coke
                       Environmental Supervisor II

Through:         Samir Elmir, MS, PE, DEE
                        Environmental Administrator

Subject:          Little Haiti PACE EH Project
 

On August 10, 2006   a scheduled meeting of the PACE EH project was held at the Center of Information and Orientation Inc, located at 181 NE 82^nd St Miami Florida 33138. The meeting was scheduled with the Little Haiti community to assemble a Community Environmental Health Assessment Team. In this meeting we requested volunteers from the community to participate on the team. Ten representatives from the community volunteered to be members of the team. All members were advised to seek input from the rest of the community on community related issues that they would like to see addressed by the project. I also explained to the volunteers that I would be providing them with access to Governmental Agencies that work within their community. The volunteers were energized; they told me that their community had been awaiting a chance to address several Environmental Health and Safety issues.  Our next meeting is scheduled for September 12, 2006. They were advised to meet with the community at large and to be prepared to discuss issues that the community has identified and want to have the assessment team address. These issues will then be placed in order of priority as determined by the assessment team and acted upon until resolved.

PACE-EH Tasks	Action	Outcome	Target Date
Task 1: Determine Community Capacity
	On April 15, 2006 we started to gather information on the community.	Completed
	The community is bounded on the North by 82nd Ave, the East by NE 2nd Ave, the West by I- 95 and the South by NW 36th St.
	We looked at the demographics of the community and found that there are several persons who will adequately represent the community.
	We already have a working relationship with the community and other Governmental Agencies.
	Several representatives of the community have expressed their willingness to participate in this project.
	This community uses the local Haitian radio station to communicate with their counter part.
	One identified weakness is the fact that several representative of the community have their own political agendas in mind.
	The First community meeting was scheduled and held on June 8, 2006.
	We were able to identify a possible person from the community who could serve a community liaison.
Task 2: Define and Characterize the Community	On April 25, 2006 we conducted a survey and found that there were several characteristics of the community such as the different community representatives, and environmental conditions affecting the community, such as trash, garbage, rodent infestation and other environmental stressors. We also conducted several field visits to determine who the key players in the community are. We found that there are several business owners, political activist, home owners, radio stations and governmental agencies that have the capacity to take on a PACE-EH program.	Completed
Task 3: Assemble Community Environmental Health Assessment Team.	At our August 10, 2006 meeting we identified a group of community residents who volunteered to serve on a committee that will coordinate the emerging issues of the community.	Completed
	We are now in the process of hiring a person from the community who will act as a community liaison.
	I have attended a PACE EH conference in Tampa Florida that was very helpful. It identified areas in the process that could slow down the progress of the project; it also afforded new project managers the opportunities to network with other counties who are further along in the process who shared information on the tasks.
	Speakers at the conference also discussed the importance of conducting and staying on target in a community meeting.
Task 4: Define the goals of the assessments.	One member of the assessment team advised me that a major issue will be the drainage system within the community	Pending	Nov 17, 2006
	Second issue they would like to address is suspicious activities at several residents (drug sales and prostitution).	Pending	Sept 17, 2006

Completed



Completed




Completed


Completed



Completed



Pending






 

As we started to implement the PACE EH project in the Little Haiti community we experience several challenges and opportunities.

1. All governmental agencies are eager to assist in addressing environmental health and safety issues that fall under their jurisdiction.

2. The administrator of the Little Haiti Neighborhood Enhancement Team is very committed to the issues raised by the community. This is demonstrated by her willingness to attend all meetings and to address or act upon all issues that fall under her jurisdiction.

3. Several attendees of the community meeting and the assessment team work with the local community news media, thus the dissemination of the news from the meetings are transmitted via the local community radio stations.

4. The local citizen crime watch association is also actively involved in the process of identifying environmental and safety issues identified by the community.

We have formed a committee from volunteers within the community. We intend to break down the community in to quadrants and have each committee representative collect the emerging issues then pass the information on to the community liaison who will in turn prepare this issues to be discussed in our monthly meetings. The idea then will be to help the committee prioritize the issues and provide accurate technical advice on how and where to find the assistance and resource to successfully resolve the identified issues.

Little Haiti Community Reports

July, 2006

June, 2006

West Perrine Community Reports

July/October, 2004

May/June, 2004