P.E.A.C.E Polk Ecumenical Action Council for Empowerment has scheduled the Rally and the Action

 

First Presbyterian Church, 175 Lake Hollingsworth Dr, Lakeland  - 6:30 sign in, 7:00 PM meeting

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The P.E.A.C.E Action April 27 - the county commissioners meet with the members

 

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Polk Ecumenical Action Council for Empowerment

Mission

The Polk Ecumenical Action Council for Empowerment (PEACE) exists in Polk County as a vehicle for congregregations to do effective and powerful justice ministry.

Our constitution preamble & Mission statement is as follows:

The purpose of the organization is to build a strong coalition capable of negotiating the interests of our community with a special concern for the involvement and issues of low and moderate-income people. The organization will be composed primarily of Christian congregations.

Having been founded by Christian congregations, the organization will be based on the values of justice and compassion as founded in the Holy Scripture and the moral, spiritual, and
democratic ideals of our society.

The general goals to be achieved are as follows:

The build strong relationships among congregations toward fulfilling Jesus? mandate to ?love one another as I have loved you?

To develop a responsible vehicle to address local issues of concern to the member
congregations through processes of education, action, reflection

To strengthen participating congregations by training existing leaders in organizing skills and identifying new leaders

To enable congregations to act powerfully on shared values of human worth, dignity, and
justice.

Past Accomplishments

PEACE member congregations have taken successful action on several community issues. Listed below is a sample of some of the issue victories of the organization.

Health Issue

An estimated 120,000 people in Polk County (25% of the population) are uninsured or underinsured. Four years ago, PEACE began exploring the issue and at that time heard a great deal of concern from the Spanish speaking community about treatment at the Health Department clinics. At PEACE?s insistence, Dr. Haight created customer services cards in Spanish, signs in Spanish, and made translation services more readily available.

In continuing years, healthcare was still of great concern to our members. However, funds for indigent healthcare from the county were dwindling and it was planned for them to be cut entirely. An outside consultant gave a ½ cent sales tax referendum a 5% chance of passing, but PEACE and other allies in the community jumped on board. The sales tax was passed with 62% of the vote, allowing more than 26 million dollars a year to care for the 120,000 uninsured or underinsured in our conunty.

With funding secured, PEACE began to monitor the spending of the money.. Currently, the 26 million dollars a year is caring for approximately 2,000 people and is slated to care for no more than 12,000-14,000. This is because the money is being spent primarily on high cost specialty care with no emphasis on primary care. PEACE won commitments in May 2005 from Ed Smith, Director of Community Health and Social Services and Commissioners Senft, English and Wilkinson to begin opening clinics, at a rate of one per year for the next 5 years with the first clinic open by September 30, 2006. These clinics would work towards seeing 45,000 patients a year, be in areas of high need, be open evening and weekend hours and have bilingual staff. The county even hired an outside consultant who agreed with PEACE?s claims that we need to use these tax dollars to open and operate primary care clinics. In April 2006, with over 1000 members, Commissioners Senft, English, Wilkinson and Johnson offered their renewed commitment to work towards these goals and at the present time,the first of five indigent Healthcare Centers was opened November 1,, 2007 in Lakeland, FL that will provide primary care for both uninsured and underinsured residents of Polk County. These clinics have the capacity to treat over 7,000 patients annually. The next clinic will open February 2009 in Winter Haven, FL.

Education Issue

From its first year, PEACE members have been concerned about education.. In the area of education, PEACE has been most concerned with the low percentage of students who are reading on grade level in high poverty schools across the county. PEACE members have told stories about their children falling farther and farther behind and about children in Sunday School class struggling to read ?Moses?.

In their research, PEACE members looked at low-income schools across the US that were doing extremely well. There were many differences in these schools, but one thing they had in common in reading was a curriculum, called Direct Instruction, that had a track record of working very well to bring children who were far behind on grade level with their peers. Polk County even had one such school that uses the curriculum in its own backyard- Inwood Elementary is above 75% free and reduced price lunch and in 2005, only 2% of children failed the FCAT Reading section. PEACE fought for four years and at its May 2005 Action, secured a commitment from Superintendent Gail McKinzie to broaden and expand the county?s use of this program. Because of PEACE, the curriculum is now used in 9 different elementary schools with over 250 second graders. Since the 2005-2006 year is the first year they?ve used the curriculum, we don?t have the full data to say exactly how much gains these students have made throughout the year. However, initial results look wonderful. The district is so pleased with the success of the program thus far that they?ve already started to expand the curriculum and use it with more students and are excited about continuing to expand the program next year.

Drugs Rehabilitation

As a result of a PEACE campaign in 2006 drugs and crime became a major problem to be addressed in Polk County. No one knew the scope of the problem, so at PEACE’s April 3, 2006 Action, with 1,000 people present we asked for a study to identify the need and possible solutions for substance abuse treatment in the county. These studies showed that 40,000 people in Polk County need access to substance abuse treatment services and that about 10,000 people would voluntarily attend substance abuse treatment after leaving jail if it was available. At our Nehemiah Action on April 7th 2007, with over 1,300 people present three county commissioners agreed to a 22 month plan to add additional 100 beds for inpatient treatment and an additional 1,000 slots for outpatient treatment by February 2010.
Other victories include