And Now For Something Completely Different.

I have a feeling that my community health experience is going to be more interesting than I initially perceived and I feel that it really will give me an opportunity to work with a population's culture completely different from my own. While extremely different from an acute care setting, it really will provide an opportunity to develop communication skills and look beyond the immediate in attending to a holistic health care approach.


From the information on the developer's website it's like our own taste of Pleasantville. Lots of pictures of people enjoying a sunny Seattle day in their ideal community. After one day of doing a fairly superficial assessment of the community, I feel that it has the potential to be a closeknit community made up of diverse cultures, socioeconomic standings, and personality types but it appears as though it has quite a ways to go until then.

Background on Highpoint: Historically this was a low-income neighborhood occupied largely by immigrants to the United States. All of that was bulldozed and in its place was built a neighborhood composed of apartments, town homes, duplexes, and single family homes. The mixed and varied cost of the living environments provide a community made up of extremely diverse persons and the green standards upon which the community are built are extremely progressive in their consciousness of the environment. The community is chock full of green spaces, playgrounds, well lit sidewalks, and community centers and services. But it seems like this project was treated like most really good ideas are when they become a reality: people are there to build the program but a lot of people abandon ship when it comes time to develop and implement the program. I also feel like there are a lot of questions left unanswered in the developing stages such as:
-Where are people supposed to buy groceries if they are on a fixed income and there isn't an affordable option within walking or convenient bussing distance?
-Where are people supposed to go to hang out, grab a cup of coffee, or a bite to eat when the only non-residential space within walking distance is a community center that caters only to providing activity space for larger groups but not more intimate settings?
-How do we accommodate for the spiritual needs of the community when there isn't a nearby religious center for them to practice their faith?
-Who builds a playground without swings? Blasphemous in my own opinion.

From the assessment today, it appears as though there really is a solid mix of cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. However, we were informed by our clinical instructor that there exists a certain amount of tension between the various groups and as recently as yesterday a community member was attacked in an act of violence by another community member.

A lot of work needs to be done in beginning the slow process of bringing together such a diverse group of views and lifestyles. And that is part of our job as community health nursing students!

The term group that was in the community before my group created an incredibly solid foundation of developing relationships with community leaders that has given my group a starting point to not only continue developing relationships with but also the ability to continue developing programs aimed at community needs and wants.

In a way, I feel as though I am an RA again only instead of helping college freshman, I'm helping families and blending extremely diverse cultures together. Luckily, my team is awesome and seem just as motivated to continue helping the community learn to work and communicate more efficiently together.

I really feel that this planned neighborhood has a lot of potential, but it's also extremely important that programs and services are developed and relationships within the community are strengthened or it could easily become a forgotten project that fell apart over time because nobody had a plan for the community once it was built.