PEACE

People Engaged in Active Community Efforts

Past Accomplishments

The following is a list of some of our accomplishments and current work:

PARKS AND RECREATION: P.E.A.C.E. successfully worked with the City of Delray Beach to allocate over $500,000 to make necessary repairs and improvements to Pompey Park.

EDUCATION (Direct Instruction): P.E.A.C.E. successfully worked with the school district to begin a pilot program with a reading curriculum called Direct Instruction, to address the problem of far too many children in our schools not learning how to read.

CRIME & DRUGS: P.E.A.C.E. has worked with local law enforcement groups to get them to clean up “hot spots”, or locations of drug activity.

EDUCATION (Alternative Schools): P.E.A.C.E. held an Action Assembly in March 2007 where Superintendent Johnson agreed to improve information sharing on the Dept. of Alternative Education website, set in place a student tracking system that will track students’ academic progress, graduation rates and job placement, and ensure that 50 percent of all alternative education schools will earn at least the equivalent of a Grade C school, by June 2009.

CURRENT WORK

AFFORDABLE HOUSING: P.E.A.C.E. is working to address the affordable housing crisis in Palm Beach County. We are currently working to secure the appointment of five housing allies to the County’s Commission on Affordable Housing, who will in turn work in concert with us to get the County Commission to explore enactment of a local affordable housing trust fund.

EDUCATION: P.E.A.C.E. is currently working with the School District to monitor the progress on improvements to be made to the Alternative Education Program.

HEALTH CARE: At our Action Assembly this past April, Health Care District CEO Dwight Chenette committed to significantly increase the number of residents enrolled in its services. He also committed to hire additional navigators and streamline the enrollment process as means to making this happen. We are currently monitoring the progress toward fulfillment of these commitments.

Year End Report

PEACE had a year of great growth in 2007-2008, the highlights of which can be found in the covenanting of six new congregations, the engagement of over 800 people at the group’s Nehemiah Action Assembly, and significant gains in issue work.

The work of the year began in the Fall, with over fifty congregation leaders hosting small group meetings for the group’s Listening Process. As a part of this process, problems were surfaced, discussions took place around existing issue work, and the group’s Justice Ministry Network was strengthened. The conclusion of this Process was the Community Problems Assembly held in November; nearly two hundred people attended and voted to prioritize Homelessness as something for the Affordable Housing Committee to examine more closely. The group also voted to continue its work in the areas of Health Care and Affordable Housing.

Much research ensued. Around Health Care, the group discovered a huge gap between the numbers of uninsured residents of the County, and the numbers enrolled in the Palm Beach County Health Care District’s services. In the area of Affordable Housing, the group came to the conclusion that a local Affordable Housing Trust Fund would go a long way towards solving the County’s affordable housing crisis.

On April 7th, over 800 people attended the group’s Nehemiah Action Assembly – the largest turnout in the group’s seventeen year history. The group secured a commitment from the Health Care District CEO Dwight Chenette to make the most significant increase in enrollment in their programs than had ever been achieved previously. He also pledged to work with the group over the summer to come up with a specific target, and return to the Community Problems Assembly in the Fall to publicly announce the target.

In the area of Affordable Housing, only one Commissioner attended the Assembly, but the following day’s round of hundreds of phone calls to Commissioners’ offices, good tv and print press, and the culmination of a year’s worth of pressure finally resulted in some progress. Several Commissioners instructed senior staff to work with the organization on what we wanted. We have been doing that since that time, and expect over the summer to be successful in having appointed five housing allies to the County’s Commission on Affordable Housing. This Commission will in turn come up with recommendations for the creation of a local affordable housing trust fund.