Chicago, Englewood Community Overview: The Englewood community is one of Chicago’s 77 official communities. The community is an urban setting comprised of 30,654 residents. Ninety-eight percent (98.8%) are African American. Of the population, 5,740 are youth 10 to 19 years of age, 18.7% of the population and approximately 60% of the households are headed by single women (U.S. Census, 2010). In 2011, median household income was $24,049 compared to the City of Chicago median household of $43,628. The 2010 U.S. Census did not report household income. Englewood ranks as one of the highest poverty communities in Chicago with a poverty rate exceeding 39% (Atlas of Illinois Poverty, 2003). In the year 2000 the Englewood community had high hopes community reinvestment was on the upswing. Kennedy King College was being relocated and the housing business was booming, but all of the toxic loans came into effect interest rates ballooned and residents could not make their payments. This left the community with high foreclosures and empty buildings. Therefore investors pulled out of the neighborhoods and residents fled; as a result the numbers of abandoned buildings and vacant lots on many streets outnumbers occupied buildings. Drug dealers use the abandoned houses to store their drugs; addicts break in to shoot up, and get high. Sexual predators drag victims into empty houses, and prostitutes find decrepit ruins convenient for doing business. (Chicago Tribune, 2011) Englewood is bordered by 55th Street on the north, 75th Street on the south, Racine Avenue on the west, and State Street on the east. The total area is approximately 3.1 square miles. Factors/local conditions that contribute to and/or increase the community’s youth substance use-r... ... middle of paper ... ...Justice System. Retrieved May from https://chiyouthjustice.wordpress.com Levin, R., McKean, L., & Shapiro, S. K. (2004). Community organizing in three south side Chicago communities: Leadership, activities, and prospects. Chicago, IL: The Center for Impact Research. Olivo, A., Mullen, M., & Dahleen, G. (n.d.). Vacant homes keep Englewood in downward spiral. Chicago Tribune [Chicago]. Retrieved from http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-06-23/news/ct-met-englewood-20110623_1_vacant-homes-housing-crisis-englewood-and-west-englewood Robertson, E. B., David, S. L., Rao, S. A., & National Institute on Drug Abuse (2003). Preventing drug use among children and adolescents: A research based guide for parents, educators, and community leaders (2nd ed.). Bethesda, Md: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Chicago’s Cabrini-Green public housing project is notorious in the United States for being the most impoverished and crime-ridden public housing development ever established. Originally established as inexpensive housing in the 1940’s, it soon became a vast complex of unsightly concrete low and high-rise apartment structures. Originally touted as a giant step forward in the development of public housing, it quickly changed from a racially and economically diverse housing complex to a predominantly black, extremely poor ghetto. As it was left to rot, so to speak, Cabrini-Green harbored drug dealers, gangs and prostitution. It continued its downward spiral of despair until the mid 1990’s when the Federal Government assumed control the Chicago Housing Authority, the organization responsible for this abomination. Cabrini-Green has slowly been recovering from its dismal state of affairs recently, with developers building mixed-income and subsidized housing. The Chicago Housing Authority has also been demolishing the monolithic concrete high-rise slums, replacing them with public housing aimed at not repeating the mistakes of the past. Fortunately, a new era of public housing has dawned from the mistakes that were made, and the lessons that were learned from the things that went on for half a century in Cabrini-Green.
With the rapid development of the city and tremendous progress of technology in America, gentrification becomes a universal phenomenon in every city, especially in Englewood―the south side of Chicago. As capital begins to flow into the Englewood community, many aspects of daily life are changed for better. The tremendous change brings not only the renovated facilities but arrives with the new retail and service business. Plenty of citizens who live in the Englewood community were benefiting from the gentrification. They also said that gentrification is a commendable change in Englewood to renew and develop. Thus, gentrification is beneficial to local residents because it arrives with the new retail and service business, increases employment opportunities and transform a more beautiful community.
An academic study done on violent crime in San Antonio for the SciVerse Science Direct journal analyzes how built in environmental characteristics influence such a diverse and rapidly growing city. San Antonio’s population consists of 60% Hispanics, a poverty rate of over 18%, a teenage birth rate of 39/1000, and a homicide rate of 6.9 per 100,000 (302). The results of the study indicate that residential instability, poverty and low education rates are the biggest factors contributing to San Antonio’s crime increase (not forgetting the obvious population increase contribution). Almost 7% of San Antonio homes are “vacant” while 40% are rented, not owned (Sparks 304). The author explains that rented homes are usually what are inhabited by single mothers, military members, minorities, and lower income families that have increased chances of poverty and susceptibility to criminal involvement (Sparks 305). O’Sullivan shows how the relationship between crime and wage is very elastic, so a 10% increase in wages would lead to a 10% decrease in crime. In San Antonio’s case, the unstable nature of land use creates a lower opportunity cost for committing property crimes on vacant areas. A detailed map in the study showed how the north and northwestern areas of San Antonio with more housing turnover and housing construction consequently
Los Angeles was calling out for help and they were receiving it after about twenty years of poverty expanding beyond control. Skid Row now had shelters for the homeless and clinics for the ill. However, it was affecting the surrounding communities as well, and their result was to send the people that they could not “save” in to Skid Row. This caused for the population to grow instead of stabilizing or decaying it. Skid Row’s population is now thousands of people, including children growing up in
According to Allender, Rector, and Warner (2014), public health is a combination of both an art and a science (2014). The mission of public health nursing is to promote health, prevent disease and ultimately prolong life (Allender et al., 2014). In order for this to occur an assessment must take place. An aggregate or community assessment begins with a collection of data. This includes: the community’s health needs, risks, environmental conditions, financial resources through local census data, and a windshield survey (Allender et al., 2014). Through public health nursing, communities can collectively come together to help promote an overall better health standing.
As with most major metropolitan areas urban sprawl has become an issue with Irvine, California being no exception. Byproducts of sprawl include an increase in jobs, increases in population density, increased traffic, and increased housing costs. I selected the affordable housing policies of the City of Irvine in my paper. Due to the high cost of housing in Irvine, the city has faced lawsuits and other challenges in providing housing for low income earners.
My grandmother once told me that Englewood was desolate and bleak at 20 years ago when she first came to Chicago. But now with develop gentrification, majestic and high buildings are everywhere comparing to the before dilapidated cottage as well as the building under construction. Not long ago, I visited the Englewood community with an intense curiosity about how it looks like. Finally, I found that it is more brilliant than I expected before as the bygone impression in my brain. As my grandmother said, everywhere is flourishing because of the remarkable and positive impact of gentrification. Local residents also gladly share with me about how the superb gentrification change the little things of daily life and how happy they are. I really enjoy the process they merrily share me something about joy, and hopefully, they could always
To prevent juvenile drug use communities provide programs to educate parents and children. Teens how are involved in the community and sports are more likely to not do drugs. Coming from someone who has had problems with substance abuse overcoming a problem is extremely hard. However having the support of family and friends is what gives most people the encouragement to overcome their addiction.
34 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Risk and Protective Factors for Adolescent Drug Use: Finding From the 1997 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse. Accessed: http://www.samhsa.gov. 3 May 2002.
Furthermore, he attempts to dispel the negative aspects of gentrification by pointing out how some of them are nonexistent. To accomplish this, Turman exemplifies how gentrification could positively impact neighborhoods like Third Ward (a ‘dangerous’ neighborhood in Houston, Texas). Throughout the article, Turman provides copious examples of how gentrification can positively change urban communities, expressing that “gentrification can produce desirable effects upon a community such as a reduced crime rate, investment in the infrastructure of an area and increased economic activity in neighborhoods which gentrify”. Furthermore, he opportunistically uses the Third Ward as an example, which he describes as “the 15th most dangerous neighborhood in the country” and “synonymous with crime”, as an example of an area that could “need the change that gentrification provides”.
Prescription drug abuse has become a major epidemic across the globe, shattering and affecting many lives of young teenagers. Many people think that prescription drugs are safer and less addictive than “street drugs.” After all, these are drugs that moms, dads, and even kids brothers and sisters use. The dangers are not easily seen, but the future of our youth will soon be in severe danger if the problem is not addressed,it will continue to get worse if action is not taken soon. Prescription drugs are only supposed to be consumed by patients who have been examined and have a medical report by a professional, more and more teens are turning to the family’s medicine cabinet to “get high” but what they are actually doing is severely harming themselves, kids today are turning away from the street drugs and abusing the “prescribed” drugs that are that are at their very own home.
Rothman, J. (1974). Three models of community organization practice. Strategies of community organization: A book of readings, 22-38.
Family bonds and parenting are crucial parts of a child's life. Parents should be able to provide important guidance through words and actions about the use of drugs or alcohol. According to the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC), "the more often parents interact and talk with the children about the dangers of alcohol and other drugs, the less likely it will be for their children to experiment with them." If parents can establish and maintain good communication with their children, be a positive role model, get involved in their lives, and make clear rules and enforce them consistently, it can discourage them from getting started with drugs or alcohol.
Few people deny the dangers of drug use, while many teens are curious about drugs. They should stay away from drugs because drugs affect our health, lead to academic failure, and jeopardizes safety. Drugs are used from a long period of time in many countries. The concentration of drugs has increased from late 1960’s and 1970’s. Drugs can quickly takeover our lives. Friends and acquaintance have the greatest influence of using drugs during adolescence.
(2) Some experts believe the schools’ anti-drug programs are effective. Two popular programs are Drug Abuse Resistance Education (Dare), and the School Program to Educate and Control Drug Abuse (SPECA). The project Dare and SPECA programs use uniformed police officers to inform students in 5th, 6th and 7th grade about the risks of drugs, and how to avoid negative peer pressure (DeJong 109). William DeJong ,who is an analyst for the Education Development Center, has prepared this study for the National Institute of Justice (Bernards 108).