Wabasso: Utilizing the PACE Methodology as a Tool for Improving the Quality of Life in Communities Presentation by: Julianne Renk Indian River County Health Dept. division of Environmental Health 9/19/2018

Introduction What is PACE EH? How is the methodology applied? Does it work? PACE stands for Protocol for Assessing Community Excellence. The basis of the methodology is to get to know a community and identify what THEY think are environmental health issues in their community. This methodolgoy can be applied by making direct contacts with residents of the community and assessing and investigating their responses. Yes PACE WORKS! I’ve been doing it for one year and I’ve seen tremendous improvements in the community of Wabasso. 9/19/2018

The Community of Wabasso Demographics Lack of infrastructure Mistrust of government Census figures indicate that West Wabasso… Lack of infrastucture was visually apparent the first time I drove off the main road. The roads weren’t paved, no streetlights, no sidewalks, no legal access to properties, condemned houses, etc. There was a history of mistrust between the people and the government due to a history of broken promises for improvements to the area. 9/19/2018

Implementing PACE in Wabasso Identify issues Build partnerships Low hanging fruit Identify issues by making door to door contact and through distributing surveys to everyone. Take the top five most common responses and rank them by prioirty as indicated in the surveys. There is a correlation between the issues that will arise and the county departments that exist. For example, safety issues such as streetlights can be addressed by contacting the public works departments traffic engineer. Drug trafficking can be addressed by the local sheriff’s department. The PACE process allows interagency communication so that issues are addressed and effective action plans are composed to address each problem. Taking advantage of low hanging fruit is advantageous for the community to observe. Many communities have been promised or led to believe that improvements were to happen and nothing every materialized. They have no reason to believe that PACE will bring them results, so you have to look for issues that you can yield quick, visible results. An example is streetlights. The number one issue identified by Wabasso was streetlights. They had been trying for five years to get streetlights. Upon learning this, I went to the traffic engineer to investigate. The project had been sitting on his shelf for years and I convinced him that it really was necessary for streetlights to be installed for safety purposes in Wabasso. 9/19/2018

Results Streetlight Project Project Hope World Changers Water Project Sidewalk Project Park Improvements 9/19/2018

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Lessons Learned Empowerment Agency cooperation Building Bridges, Burning Bridges, Repairing Bridges 9/19/2018

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Real Life Mrs. Black- new home, water, paved road, streetlight PACE Process= Drastic improvement of quality of life for the community of Wabasso 9/19/2018