North Lawndale Chicago Crime and Economic Assessment

Identification of Community Assets: which potential assets in the community are important to consider and why? Based on the results of your secondary data analysis of the community, which particular assets may be important to engage? Strategies for Engaging

Community assets related to education and business development are very important to North Lawndale. Here, the community is demographics are much weaker than the national averages. Here, the economic success of the area is mixed. On the negative side, nearly 46% of the residents in North Lawndale have incomes of less than $25,000 a year. This is particularly alarming as the medium household income in the United States is roughly $63,000. Here, having an income that is much lower than the nation average may suggest a lack of needed skills within the community. This is reinforced by the fact that North Lawndale has a persistently highly unemployment rate of 16%. As a result, there is a substantial portion of the community that is unemployed and those that are employed are making well below the median household income. This is then exacerbated by rising inflation which has risen to nearly 7.5%. The higher price of goods and services, particularly gasoline, has put a much larger financial burden on low-income families, which permeate the North Lawndale market (Mulder, 2015).

As a result, a large community asset will be heavily related to education, skills training, and business development. These assets consist of Family Focus, Lawndale, Better Boys Club, North Lawndale YMCA, The Douglass Branch Public library, and the Wilbur Wright college. These assets collectively are important to consider as they provide an economic path forward for residents within the North Lawndale community. Namely, these assets can help increase incomes throughout the community, increase desirable skills to attract employers, and provide generational wealth that can be used to increase the overall quality of life within the community. This will also help in reducing crime while building stronger communities within the area as well. In North Lawndale, nearly 1/3 of residents to not have a high school diploma, much higher than the national average. Likewise, residents with college degrees are also much lower a just 19% compared to the national average of 25%. Total crime in North Lawndale is nearly 3 time as high as those of Chicago in general. It is nearly 5 time higher than the Illinois state average. Here, there are nearly 10,000 crimes for every 100,000 residents. Of these nearly 71% are property crimes. This is particularly damaging as it lowers the overall business investment necessary to help foster growth, prosperity, and improved living standards. This high crime rate ultimately undermines economic activity through the area, thus creating adverse living conditions for most of the population (Peterson, 2020).

Community Stakeholders: which specific stakeholders might be important for assessing the community’s health? Based on the results of the secondary analysis, what types of stakeholders would be important to engage? How would you build off previous documented assessments, interventions, and development initiatives in the community?

Community leaders, Religion Leaders, Education Leaders, Business Leaders, and Politicians will be critical constituents to address within the North Lawndale community. Collectively, the command a large portion of the power, influence, and financial resources necessary to help improve the lives of their own constituents. Likewise, they have the contacts necessary to help foster further collaboration and growth within the North Lawndale community. These stakeholders are also important to engage as they provide credibility to the overall development plan of the North Lawndale community. This ultimately helps to promote much more cohesion and unity within the overall community knowing that all their respective leaders are organized towards a single goal.

To build off previous assessments, I would first look to leverage a much more grass roots economic centric approach. Here, it is important to go directly to communities to express the need for behavior changes related to education, financial stability, and economic growth. Admittedly, this messaging may fall of deaf ears, particularly for poor and older residents. However, younger residents who can still be influenced can benefit from direct messaging that caters specifically to their needs. Unfortunately, due to high crime, many of these efforts are not consistent enough, thereby rendering the benefits moot. To build off of these prior assessments, it is important to use a variety of techniques such as social media and digital channels to properly galvanize the community, create like-minded groups, and ultimately improve overall accountability (Simpson, 2018).

Plan for Collecting Primary Data: what were some of the limitations of the secondary data you previously analyzed? What types of additional data would help deepen your community health assessment? How would you go about collecting such additional data and what specific questions would you want to ask? Who would you look to for answers to these questions, and what would be the best format to obtain such answers?