East Hampton Community Involvement Measures: A Case Study

Family, Friends, Faith, and Philanthropy are words commonly used to describe Matt Brinson. Born and raised in Millen, Matt is a well-recognized face throughout the rural town due to his high level of community involvement. The Jenkins County Chamber of Commerce has taken notice of his charitable acts, naming him Citizen of the Year in 2014.

The Downtown Eastside struggles with many complex challenges including homelessness, poverty, affordable and quality housing,

Operation Safety Net is a local program for the city of Pittsburgh that strives to better the lives of individuals who are homeless. As described on the program’s website, Operation Safety Net provides its consumers with necessary health care and an increase of hope and self-esteem (Operation Safety Net, 2015). This program has proven to help close the critical health inequity of homeless individuals living without healthcare. Healthy People 2020 define a health disparity as, “a particular type of health difference that is closely linked with social, economic, and/or environmental disadvantage.” (Disparities, para 6, 2015). This includes individuals having access to safe housing, culturally aware health care professionals and the opportunity to have health insurance. Therefore, there is a clear rationale for the Operation Safety Net program to be assisting people in Pittsburgh experiencing these inequities.

As Americans, individuals take the small comforts of life for granted daily. The everyday individual overlooks a growing dilemma in the U.S., and goes home every night to the comfort of their family. The homeless population has increased over the years, and continues to grow by the day with the increase of the cost of living. Healthcare needs, and the availability of facilities to the under privileged is a major problem in the United States. Up to 610,000 individuals and families are living on the streets each and every night. All of these individuals are at a greater risk of contracting an illness simply because of their living situations, as well as not having the means to financially afford the cost of a doctor’s visit.

Community residents of all ages and ethnicities are the foundation of Esperanza’s grassroots work. Esperanza seeks to create opportunities for community residents’ growth, security, participation, recognition, and ownership through developing and preserving affordable housing, promoting accessible health care, stimulating involvement in arts and culture, ensuring quality education, pursuing economic development, and advocating for progressive public policy. Through partnerships with churches, schools, block clubs and other community institutions, Esperanza helps to strengthen the social infrastructure of the neighborhood. In all of our actions, Esperanza strives always to build hope with

New York City has a massive community of people who are struggling with many issues. People today are struggling to find a job, or having financial issues. Other people are struggling with health issues like mental, emotional or

A small town in Findlay, Ohio has always had programs in place for those affected by poverty. However, the programs were spread throughout the town making it difficult for those in need to reach them all. In order to fix this problem, they combined all their outreach programs into one building in order to make it much easier for people to reach it. The largest obstacle that those in need of these programs face is being able to have the humility to go and ask for help; some people view this as embarrassing. The programs include medical care with pricing based on income, dental work, career assistance, and also food and clothing donations. Programs like this are beginning to have more and more publicity which opens doors for others to give to them. Although programs like this have their limits, they still help those in need at least get a start towards a better life - and also give them something to hope for.

In the United States, one is constantly hearing of the “struggle low-income communities face.” While it is often alluded to on large scale news channels, such as Fox and CNN, and is spoken of on daily talk shows, not very many people often take the time to discuss what the problem with these low income communities actually is.

The idea behind the community needs assessment for the town of Wallingford, Connecticut was to critique the overall nutritional needs and health of the community. While preparing a community needs assessment, some factors to consider are: government, programs both profit and non-profit, demographics, and the economy of the community.

As I walk down Main Street of my hometown, I peer into the darkened windows of the numerous empty buildings. Not so long ago, Rutherfordton, North Carolina was a bustling little mill town; everyone and their mother had a job working at the local textile mills. Now, since the textile companies moved overseas in the WHATYEAR, the town’s economic situation and sense of community spirit is as nonexistent as the mills themselves. Here, there are little to no job opportunities. Young people graduate from high school and go off to college, never returning to the dry well of opportunities that is Rutherford County. There are a lack of services and support for the underprivileged in Rutherford County, and there are a lot of underprivileged. Parents

Economic segregation has lead to many negative implications for those living in separate areas. Often times they are limited in terms of institutions that support collective efficacy. Mill Street Loft could work to empower young people to join the community and help make it better through their programs. Perhaps they could even do community outreaches and paint Main Street, or clean up a park and display a piece of artwork they have created. If people see a positive change in the city they will inevitably want to help and in turn, gain more control over the negative aspects of the city. This ties in with the “broken windows” theory; if Poughkeepsie continues to benefit from MSL’s work and the city is cleaned up, crime rates may decrease, in part because of the theory and due to the people working together to unite Poughkeepsie. If the community is knit together (social cohesion) the social order will follow. Another area presenting a challenge to collective efficacy is immigration. Many people who are new to this country are lacking a sense of community and a place in the environment. If MSL could cultivate a deep sense of belonging within Habilidad, the kids would likely get involved and in time, this purpose would influence the

In conclusion, we found that urban areas need a support system that offers assistance to children, families, and senior citizens lacking basic resources. East End Neighborhood House is a light in a dark place. Their services help to reduce the negativity within the Cleveland community. EENH also is a resource that attempts to hold families together by providing sustainable tools for living. Their three main values of Prevention, Community Development, and Advocacy are reflected in all the services they have available. Their three specialized services of dealing with kids that face behavioral/mental problems, tools to help when foster care gets involved, and family reunification give a sense of hope to families going through the lowest times

1. BBC partner updates and check-in: United Way, City of Boston Office of Economic Empowerment (OFE), LISC, IASP

Poverty is an issue in this community. 30 percent of the residents in this community have an income below the poverty level compared to 21 percent in NYC (King, 2015). The old houses are not well maintained probably because of the lack of money. The issues with the houses and poverty go together, which affects the health status of the people in the community. The restaurants are mostly fast food and no fancy restaurants seem to be around. The clinics don’t have air conditioners probably because of their budgets. The phones people use aren’t the latest phones. Some of the phones seem to be issued by the government. A lot of the bodegas and deli stores accept food stamps.

This population is among the low-income and low socioeconomic population in New York and their poverty level is very high. Some of the potential factors that have contributed to the community’s needs and assessment were dietary habits, not having healthy food around, lack of physical activities and less recreational facilities. The nutritional needs of the population was not having variety of choices when it comes to food items and the right choices happen to be expensive according to the couple of people interviewed among this population.