Appendix D
Appendix FMarch 15, 2001
Dear _____,
We would like to personally invite you to share your ideas and perspectives at a community forum focused on the health of adolescents in Pittsboro.
We are a group of graduate students at the School of Public Health at UNC. In partnership with the Chatham Coalition for Adolescent Health, we have been working in Pittsboro for the past seven months to assess the strengths and weaknesses of this community and identify the experiences and concerns of adolescent community members. We have looked at secondary data related to Pittsboro, interviewed service providers working with adolescents, and interviewed community members (adults and adolescents), both individually and in focus groups. The upcoming forum will be a time to present the themes that emerged from our research, as well as actively discuss issues facing Pittsboro adolescents and generate ideas about how to mobilize community strengths to work on some of these issues.
The forum will take place on Tuesday, April 3, from 7:00-9:00 p.m. at the Multi-Purpose Room of the Central Carolina Community College in Pittsboro. We would greatly appreciate your presence as well as your input in this action-oriented time of discussion.
If you plan to attend this forum, please let us know by March 23 by calling (919)966-3919 and choosing extension 3. Please let us know if you would like to be a part of our planning committee. You are also welcome to invite others that you think may share an interest in planning towards action to improve the quality of life for adolescents in Pittsboro.
Sincerely,
Dana Eckroad
Michelle Manning
Heather McDaniel
Molly Pescador
Susanne Schmal
Central Carolina Community College, Multipurpose Room
Tuesday, April 3rd, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Sponsored by the Chatham Coalition for Adolescent Health and
UNC School of Public Health, Health Behavor & Health Education Department
| Agenda: | ||
| 7:00 - 7:20 | Food, mingling, icebreaker | |
| 7:20 - 7:35 | Introductions, explanation of Force Field Analysis | |
| 7:35 - 7:40 | Deciding upon issue of choice for small group work | |
| 7:40 - 8:20 | Force Field Analysis | |
| 8:20 - 8:40 | Report back to larger group | |
| 8:40 - 8:55 | Wrap up/Closing comments | |
| 8:55 - 9:00 | Evaluation | |
**If anybody would like to join a committee to pursue some of the actions steps identified in this forum to benefit adolescents in Pittsboro, please contact:
Maria Hitt, Health Educator
Chatham County Health Department
mhitt@emji.net
542-8214
Small town, lot of antiques, artsy:
"I would describe it as Mayberry. It's fairly clean and people are relatively happy. It's an easily walkable town. It's a great place to be."People are involved, committed, accessible, and know each other; oriented towards family:
"I think that people in Pittsboro fell like they're part of the community. People really care about this town. There's a lot of groups that work towards the betterment of Pittsboro."
"People here really do want to know each other. To the point of being obnoxiously nosey at times. So people do watch and I think they get a little concerned about the community at large."
"There are roots for people here."
But close to lots of other opportunities (in Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Durham, RTP):
"You've got the best of both worlds where we're at."
Therefore, more progressive, diverse, and liberal:
"It's a small town, but on the other hand, it's rather progressive for a small town. Seem like we tend to pick up things and change quicker than a lot of other places do."
Good variety of services (Health Dept., CCCC)
Good churches - Help getting things done
What I Don't Like About Pittsboro
Growth and Development
Loss of Sense of Community
Strain of Services
Uncertainty about new By-Pass
"Pittsboro is probably evolving into a community that is not as distinct and separate as it once was and is more integrated into the overall RTP economy than it was 10 and 20 years ago. My guess is that people's sense of community would be changing as a result of the changes that are occurring."
"I think the strain - the changes - would put a strain on any community, and that Pittsboro as a town is - its overall options are controlled as a result of its location within the county."
"Pittsboro's probably going to be a ghost town when this new road goes through!"
"15-501 will kill us - the commercial growth you see around interchanges is going to happen - I wouldn't doubt that there's going to be a McDonalds and Burger King and all that stuff. And that's what's kind of kept this town apart from Cary and Apex."
Doesn't really have resources or power to make a difference
"I think that a small municipality is not necessarily intended to, nor does it have the resources to really take the initiative in addressing many of the societal problems that it might well be aware of."Distinct splits in town (between old and new, haves and have nots)
"There's still some people who kind of would like to live in the former years, where things were different - everybody just accepted this good old South, but that's not the way it is."
"Small townish with some very distinct splits in it. One group wants to keep it the way it's been for years and the other wants to make changes and have them done in a certain way so sometimes that's really hard."
Very politic - hard to get things done
"There are people that do hold a lot of power and if you get on the wrong side, maybe, or don't know how to approach them in the right way, then it could get in the way of getting things accomplished."
"The town as well as the commissioners are run by old, white men. It's the old boy's club, until they die off or something, we are stuck with it."
How to Make Pittsboro a Better Place for Teens
More recreation - need after school recreation, a Rec Center or Youth recreational facility, more entertainment (shopping centers, movie theaters)
"There is no place to be entertained in Chatham County and people left to their own devices tend to choose inappropriate or poor ones at best."
"Their free time, where they don't have anything to do, is so dangerous for teenagers."
"Ideally, more people at home with their kids would be nice or someplace for them to go cheap enough that everyone could afford it because what happens is, the people who can afford it have somebody and the ones who can't, they leave them by themselves."
"You have to have an adult who cares about kids, who's going to be the leader, form the group, and really make it happen, so a lot of kids really don't get into those kind of things because they just don't have the opportunity to participate."Education - lower high drop out rate, raise college attendance rate
"Parents need to get more involved in PTA, particularly at the high school level. It's notorious for no parent involvement. But that's the typical way, I think - parents are more involved in elementary and as their kids get older they get less and less inclined to attend those kind of meeting."
"We have the school boards - many of the members of our school board have been on it forever. And the county does not elect anybody new, so you know, things aren't going to change there…so, we've had candidates to run who are parents of younger children who are really interested in seeing change occur and they're not elected. So people just prefer the status quo."
Transportation - need better system
Teen Council - to involve all three high schools, to organize Teen Trips
Health Clinic - teen clinic for older teens, clinic like Horton's Body Shop but in other schools
Church involvement & activities - increase awareness of the spiritual aspect of teens' lives
Various other opportunities for youth
Counseling - drop-out & drug prevention services & diversity training county-wide
Policy changes regarding abstinence only education in school
QUOTES AND ISSUES (from Interviews)
· "It's a lovely place - God's country. It's a great place to live."
· "It has the small town atmosphere, small enough school so that pretty much everybody knows everybody… Close enough to Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill to get all those benefits, whereas a lot of small towns don't have nearly as much as we have. I mean, we've got a lot of good things that come from the influx - we've also got a few bad things. But I mean, otherwise, you've got the best of both worlds where we're at."
· "I think that people in Pittsboro feel like they're part of the community. People really care about this town."
· "There are roots for people here."
· "There's something about this place that attracts people who want a laid-back, quiet lifestyle, who want to be out in the country."
· "I think that there's a wide range of people here, and a wide range of cultures and a live and let live atmosphere."
· "It's a small town, but it's rather progressive for a small town."
· "Most people who live in Chatham County don't live in either of the metropolitan areas, because Chatham County is so big and the people are so spread out that it's hard to feel a sense of community…"
Chatham County Population Increase 1990-2000: 27.3% (17th fastest growing county in state)
Pittsboro Population Growth 1990-1999: 38%
· "Pittsboro is a small town that's afraid to get big."
· "Within the next 15 years we're going to be Chapel Hill's Cary."
· "I think that a degree of development is inevitable and making it positive as opposed to negative seems like the opportunity which is at hand."
· "I would discourage them from moving here, if I could, keep them away so we could keep to ourselves."
· "I feel like there's a lot of white people in this community that are not very accepting of the Black people."
· "I don't see it as too much of a problem right now. There is always going to be separation."
· "I'm sure that we have the same kind of racial divide that you have anywhere I've every been in the South. And that certainly impacts everybody, and I think that there probably is racism. But it isn't like, blatant - other than the all-White swimming pool. I think it's much more kind of under - just sort of an undercurrent of life, that people just sort of accept."
· "Young people are more willing to say, "Oh, the differences are okay, you know, this Black - he's my friend." But then when it starts moving beyond that, then the parents start freaking out. And so it's a real struggle, because some people in this community probably would not approve of sort of intermixing of races, they would actually disapprove very strongly, and so it's very touchy."
· "It's a challenge sometimes to get the community to recognize and be culturally aware and just value the wonderful flavor that we have because we are so many different colors and we bring so many different pieces of our culture to the larger community with us."
· "It would be nice to see Point-to-Pint public transportation in the mornings and the evening that would allow people in Pittsboro to get from a terminal here to a terminal in Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Durham, or RTP within a reasonable amount of time."
· "People that do not have driving privileges or automobiles are very constrained in terms of being able to take advantage of human services or employment opportunities."
· "If you have a care, and parents are willing to take you places, then there are lots of activities for you. If you don't have parents that have the time or the means of transportation, there is nothing."
· "What I'd like to say, too, is that in Chatham County we're not able to pay our teachers as much as other schools, like in Alamance and Durham and all those other counties. So what happens is the good teachers might come here for two years and they can just go 30 minutes away and make a lot more money, so…"
· "There are a number of kids who fall between the cracks. Kids who are dropping out of school at age 16 and working for just anyone, and having problems."
· "The schools here are not as good as they could be, although a lot better than they used to be. They are challenged by the growth, I think, to a large extent, so they've built a lot of new schools; they have tried to upgrade when they can, but they are limited to some extent."
· "The primary challenge that I face is with the current atmosphere of school accountability. Teachers are scared to death about doing anything other than what's being tested. As a result, it's been much more difficult to get teachers involved in other kinds of activities."
· "Yeah, it seems like the quality of the schools, it's not that good, and that's really important and it definitely seems to me like a lot of young people are marginalized."
· "There's also very few job opportunities in this community and a lot of the kids that are working are working in Chapel Hill because there's just no work down here - whether that be child employment while you're in school or future potential stuff."
· "A lot of our kids get caught up in working after school, which keeps them from doing some of the community service, but a lot of these kids have to, if they want their own car, they have to pay their own bills. I think it's great that they are willing to work for what they want. It's a two-sided coin - it's good if they want to get out and work, but it keeps them from some volunteer work in their community."
· "This isn't an area where if people have prospects for their future - they're not going to hang around here, they're going to go somewhere else."
· "I'm kind of in a mentoring relationship - and the one young lady, she is bored beyond bored - bored to the point of being angry about being bored."
· "Drugs are a problem here just like they are anyplace else."
· "The drug problem has gotten a little worse - I imagine it's going to get a whole lot worse with the 64/15-501 breezeways passing through here."
· "Drugs and alcoholism. That's the problem. Last year my daughter could walk home from school because we live right downtown, now I have to provide transportation because there are open beverages on the street, there's drug dealing on 15-501."
· "They're experimenting in things that they may think they're ready to try and handle but they get in over their heads a lot of the time."
· "I haven't heard of many keg parties like they do in Chapel Hill, thankfully, you know…teens and alcohol and males and females together don't mix."
· "Most of the youngsters that I talk to don't want to quit getting high - they like their life, they like getting high - they don't think they're in that much trouble, and they don't care much about what I say."
· "I think a lot of parents still have their heads stuck in the sand, saying that their child's not doing that. Because people think it's in bigger cities. It's everywhere."
· "That little bridge there at Horton Middle School, you know here you cross over that little bridge near the Laundromat…a lot of girls go down there and lose their virginity and smoke pot under that bridge."
· "If I had my druthers, I would prefer to teach something besides abstinence just because I know these kids are not abstaining and the thing that scares me is the multiple partners. I could probably handle them being sexually active a little bit better than I could handle 'This is my sixth or seventh person I have been sleeping with.'"
· "I think it's just totally absurd that we just put our heads beneath a bushel basket over here and act like if we say abstinence is the best policy then nobody is going to have anything."
· "Teens may be afraid to come to the health department, they think they might be seen by someone they know, not sure if it is really confidential."
· "If there were more activities for teens to take part in, they might get into less trouble."
· "Teens don't want to take the time to help, they are involved in sports, too much homework, don't have time."
· "More programs at the middle school level, sports, big brother-big sister, would encourage teens not to get started on bad behaviors like smoking and drugs."
· "There's very little recreational activities besides the organized sports and stuff like that - there's not a lot offered for kids especially."
· "There is no place to be entertained in Chatham County and people left to their own devices then to choose inappropriate or poor ones at best."
· "Their free time, where they don't have anything to do, is so dangerous for teenagers."
· "Ideally, more people at home with their kids would be nice, or someplace for them to go cheap enough that everyone could afford it because what happens is, the people who can afford it have somebody, and the ones who can't, they leave them by themselves."
· "They need a place and that's why I said it's sort of shocking to me in a sense knowing that we do have something just around the corner, a Teen Center just for them and they're not going there… so I don't know why they're not going to the places that's made for them, you know. That'll be something to check into."
·"I think they are pretty well respected and well tolerated."
· "I think there is a lot of opportunity for teens to have a voice."
· "I guess I think their value system is messed up, but that's partly me being older, I guess, too."
FORCEFIELD ANALYSIS
The Current Situation:
· Adults are not talking about racial issues, thus giving tacit approval in the face of a rapidly changing population.
· Differential treatments of different races in school and community.
Goals:
· Community forum for racial issues - discuss things such as interracial relationships
· Make the "all white" pool a community issue (as a reflection of what's going on underneath)
Hindering Forces identified:
· Pool is private
· Money issue with pool; economic issues
· Focusing on pool would narrow and obscure the larger racial issues underneath
· Unspoken rules
· Historically, deeply rooted issue
· Community forum would end up "preaching to the choir" - people with racist attitudes wouldn't come
Helping Forces & Suggestions:
· Publicly challenge the "all white" pool
· Provide a public access pool open to all
· Intentionally work and work and work
· Use triggers and "SHOWED" method of discussion at community forum
· **Give youth a voice - they're most likely to have an integrated voice**
Action Steps towards giving youth a voice:
· Have focused discussions in after-school groups
· Have a film & discussion series open to the public or in the schools
· Get kids involved in decision making processes at community level
· Have vans available to get kids to community forums
Selected idea:
**Have Town Hall in school - hold a School Forum - give kids a chance to let their voices be heard in an organized fashion & record their voices - no need to attack or debate their views, just let them be heard (problem with this: no political/school board support for such an event; need voices of parents too & parents may not come.)
TRANSPORTATION
Current Situation:
Lack of transportation for teens in the area.
Goal:To provide teen transportation to programs.
Hindering forces identified
:· Racism
· Liability issues
· Cost
· Classism
· Tight politicians
· Idea is too practical
Helping forces identified:
· Writing a transportation grant
· Expanding Chatham Transit
· Providing gasoline vouchers
Action steps:
· Popularizing this view of the need for transportation
· Educating people on grant writing
· Signing petitions
· Having a community forum on the issue
· Getting press coverage
· Performing a research study or "fact finding" mission to get the facts on the issue.
Current Situation:
An overall lack of opportunities for recreation among youth.
Goal:
To provide basic recreational facilities
Hindering forces identified:
· Lack of money
· Security
· Lack of adult support & youth support
· Lack of transportation.
Helping forces identified:
· Increased growth in the area
· Organized sports leagues
· The community college and non-profit organizations as potential resources
· Having caring commissioners in the area
Action steps based on growth:
· Increasing the percentage from developers toward recreation
· Having caring commissioners to increase the allocation of funds
· Having non-profit organizations provide recreational programs
· Providing art and theater events at the Central Carolina Community College
· *All of these action steps depend on increasing parental support and volunteers
DRUG AND ALCOHOL USE
Current Situation:
Alcohol is the most commonly used drug followed by tobacco and marijuana among school age youth.
Goal:
To delay the use of these substances until age 21 and to prevent alcohol use while driving
Hindering forces identified:
· School failure in the educational system
· Difficulty in finding people to do this type of work such as special education teachers or teachers in general
· Need for/lack of an adolescent day treatment center
· Lack of consequences for using these substances
· Easy availability of these substances
Helping forces identified:
· Increased education on the subject of substance use
· Increase in alcohol free events such as Project Graduation
· Positive attitudes related to Project Graduation and negative attitudes to substance use in general
· Increased information and activities related to delaying substance use
· Having a clinical and therapeutic resource position available
· Police department involvement
Action steps towards changing community attitudes/ promoting substance-free messages:
· The use of the parent-parent training program in the community which is designed to help parents talk to their teens about these issues
· Changing the signage in convenience stores (part of targeting marketing literacy)
· Educating grocery store employees to be more aware of inhalant, alcohol, and tobacco sales to minors
STDs AND TEEN PREGNANCY
Current Situation:
The existence of these issues in Pittsboro
Goal:
Having no unplanned "teen" pregnancies
Hindering Forces Identified:
· The existence of the abstinence only school policy
· Teens not using birth control· Limited access or perceived limited access to birth control for teens
· Lack of parental involvement
Helping Forces Identified
:· Having a comprehensive health education curriculum in the school system
· Continuing current classes given in schools by the health educator
· Existence of the Body Shop at Horton Middle School
· Having more school based health clinics
Action steps towards instituting a comprehensive health education curriculum:
· UNC School of Public Health students put together a report on the costs of unplanned pregnancies to Chatham County such as foster care and premature births
· Create a coalition of parents and teens to speak to the school board, churches, civic organizations and teachers
· Add a Hispanic liaison to the coalition
· Lobby individual school board members through more informal means in addition to formal presentations
· Offer all programs in Spanish as well as English
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Appendix D |
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