The PNJ wrote about the collaborative effort to get one of the poorest areas in the community designated a HUD Promise Zone. Since then, I have done research on the initiative how it takes a more macro approach to poverty, education, crime and healthcare issues. Promise Zones are based on the position that a child’s zip code should never determine his or her destiny.
The Promise Zone designation partners the Federal government with local leaders in developing programs that can lead to crime reduction, neighborhood revitalization and workforce development. Promise Zone designees receive an opportunity to engage five AmeriCorps VISTA members in the Promise Zone’s work; a federal liaison assigned to help designees navigate federal programs; and preferences for certain competitive federal grant programs and technical assistance from participating federal agencies. The designation lasts for 10 years.
In 2014, President Barack Obama announced the first round of Promise Zones. They were located in: San Antonio, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Southeastern Kentucky, and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Last year, he announced eight more in Barnwell, S.C., Camden, N.J., Hartford, Conn., Indianapolis, Ind., Minneapolis, Minn. Porcupine, S.D., Sacramento, Calif. and St. Louis, Mo.
This spring, HUD intends to designate five urban communities. USDA intends to designate one rural and one tribal community.
The City of Pensacola, Escambia County, University of West Florida, Pensacola State College, Escambia County School District, Escambia Community Clinics and United Way are all involved in the application effort.
The 21-square mile area that has been mapped out for the designation has at its boundaries: Main Street, Barrancas Avenue, and Gulf Beach Highway on the South, N. 57th and N. 77th on the West; 8th and 9th, and Alcaniz Streets on the East, and Fairfield, Michigan and Brent Avenues on the North. Most of it is inside the city limits.
The Promise Zone is home to 47,398 residents: 46.3% Caucasian, 44.4% African-American, and 5.9% Hispanic ethnicity.
The average poverty rate is 35.42% with poverty blocks as high as 62.6%. Unemployment rates run as high as 19% in some neighborhoods. Some families spend as much as 90% of their income on rent. There are four public housing projects in the zone.
Only a third of residents attained only a High School degree and nearly 22.3% attained less. Only 7.1% of residents attained a college degree.
According to the Florida Department of Education, 55% of third graders in Escambia County are proficient in reading while Promise Zone schools range as low as 16% proficient. Middle schools in the Promise Zone score 10% lower in eighth grade math proficiency than other County middle schools.
The violent crime rate for the Promise Zone is more than double the rate for the entire City of Pensacola—1816.6 compared to 894—and nearly four times the state rate of 487.1 The murder/manslaughter rate is 27.4 in the Promise Zone, while the Pensacola and Florida rates are 13.2 and 5.2 respectively. Drug arrests in the Promise Zone numbered 534 in 2015.
Childhood risk factors contribute to educational outcomes in Escambia County. Higher percentages of African-American infants are born with low birth weight (13.9%) and/or disabilities than Caucasian infants (9.5%), and Escambia County’s rate of babies born to very young mothers per 1,000 births (11.6%) is higher than neighboring Santa Rosa County (7.1%) and the state of Florida (7.6%).
In the Promise Zone, the number of children with a designated primary care physician is extremely low. These issues are exacerbated by the fact that state funding for public health clinics has declined.
On today’s “Pensacola Speaks,” I will have Mayor Ashton Hayward, Assistant City Administrator Keith Wilkins and Escambia County Commissioner Lumon May in the first half hour to talk about the program and the application.
In the second half, I will have Dr. Kathleen Heubach, Associate Professor in the UWF Department of Teacher Education and Educational Leadership and the Director of the Institute for Community Learning. She has been the UWF liaison on the project