Program Details

Practice Type:	Model
Program Name:	Indian River County PACE EH Program
Organization:	Florida Department of Health, Environmental Health Unit
Web site:
Overview:	Indian River County Protocol for Assessing Community Excellence in Environmental Health (PACE EH) targets a community of low socioeconomic status individuals. The goal of Indian River County’s PACE EH program was to address the longstanding environmental health issues in the community of West Wabasso. Implementing PACE EH in West Wabasso intended to accomplish a collaborative effort between the health department and the community with the common goal of improving the quality of life based in issues identified by the community. To date, Indian River County Health Department’s PACE EH program has produced over $1.5 million in improvements to the quality of life issues present in West Wabasso.
Year Submitted:	2007
Responsiveness and Innovation:	West Wabasso residents had lost faith and trust in their local government and residents were living in third world conditions. The community was made promises over the past 50 years that were not met and the community did not feel like they had a voice in their future. As county development occurred around them, they felt ignored and shunned by the lack of involvement from government agencies. The Indian River County Health Department’s Environmental Health Division (IRCHD EH) put into action the PACE EH methodology which began with surveying residents to identify what they thought were issues in their community. The identified issues were ranked, and the top five were brought before a community steering committee which helped to develop action plans to solve the issues. The issues were deemed relevant because of the fact that they were longstanding environmental health related problems that the community identified themselves. The practice addressed all identified issues and yielded improvements such as the removal of unsafe abandoned homes, an established bus route, and the construction of: street lighting, new septic systems, water mains and connections, new and repaired homes, sidewalks, and park improvements have been brought to West Wabasso. IRCHD EH’s approach to implementing PACE EH in West Wabasso was unique due to the magnitude of aid that was brought to the small community, but also the focus that was on the built environment as it relates to public health which unfolded once we implemented the process.
Agency and Community Roles:	As a result of this improved communication and newfound collaboration, all parties involved began to see first-hand how demolishing abandoned houses, installing street lights and sidewalks, and connecting the sidewalk to seamlessly link to the community park, led to people to go out and walk more.
Costs and Expenditures:	Implementation of the Indian River County Health Department's PACE EH program entailed receiving an initial $30,000 grant to fund the salary of a PACE Coordinator.
Implementation:	West Wabasso residents had lost faith and trust in their local government and residents were living in third world conditions. The community was made promises over the past 50 years that were not met and the community did not feel like they had a voice in their future. As county development occurred around them, they felt ignored and shunned by the lack of involvement from government agencies. The Indian River County Health Department’s Environmental Health Division (IRCHD EH) put into action the PACE EH methodology which began with surveying residents to identify what they thought were issues in their community. The identified issues were ranked, and the top five were brought before a community steering committee which helped to develop action plans to solve the issues. The issues were deemed relevant because of the fact that they were longstanding environmental health related problems that the community identified themselves. The practice addressed all identified issues and yielded improvements such as the removal of unsafe abandoned homes, an established bus route, and the construction of: street lighting, new septic systems, water mains and connections, new and repaired homes, sidewalks, and park improvements have been brought to West Wabasso. IRCHD EH’s approach to implementing PACE EH in West Wabasso was unique due to the magnitude of aid that was brought to the small community, but also the focus that was on the built environment as it relates to public health which unfolded once we implemented the process.
Sustainability:	There is sufficient stakeholder commitment to perpetuate the PACE EH practice because the community is empowered and enlightened enough now to take action themselves. Community and health department relations are excellent and agency partnerships have formed throughout the process that will allow the practice to be sustained over time as another community is selected and the PACE EH practice is implemented. In fact, the next community selected will already have an advantage from all the agencies now familiar with PACE EH on board and ready to find solutions.
Lessons Learned:	The PACE EH Coordinator received data results and reported them to numerous individuals. Modifications have been made in the way the survey is conducted, due to the fact that performing only an initial survey did not make it easy to measure the program's involvement and the community’s view of the project. Thus, the post-survey was recently conducted to capture this data. Lessons learned include placing the same questions in both surveys so as to provide more data results.

Back to main page.