Community Voice

Lack of consistent consumer involvement, perspective, or voice in Palm Beach County community systems resulting in policies and practices unintentionally re-traumatizing or creating missed opportunities to prevent and mitigate trauma.

Recommendations:

Continue to support, as well as build on and partner when possible, with the existing opportunities for quality community involvement strategies

Examples of available Palm Beach County strategies include the Healthier Together initiative and BeWellPBC

Other recommendations include ensuring community voice and decision making in philanthropic, county, and foundation funding, collaboratives, or initiatives The Fighting ACEs initiative suggests that nonprofits identify opportunities for client input and voice in program delivery and dissemination to overcome barriers and meet the most pressing needs39, 43, 45

The systematic response to the policies impacting the social determinants of health (SDH)

Recommendations:

Implement a Palm Beach County public health approach to Fighting ACEs and focus on coordinating the last step of the public health framework: advocacy Coordinated advocacy efforts will maximize impact and inform decision making targeting the largest number of people There is not a coordinated advocacy effort in Palm Beach County focusing on ACEs and the impact of legislation on the community.

In social service and community-based programming, policy change can be slow and hard to initiate, however it can also happen quickly, without many opportunities to inform or shape the policies. The later usually leaves communities scrambling to try and adjust to the new realities governing them and impacting the families and children they serve

Through the process of informing this White Paper, an interest in advocacy was not addressed by many informants

The reason might be because of funding or governance restrictions, a lack of understanding about the differences between advocacy and lobbying, a lack of time and resources, or confusion over where to start in the governmental process

There is a substantial difference between advocacy and lobbying. Many shy away from both out of fear of violating the organizational and/or funding directives of their grants, board of directors' policies, or by-laws. Additionally, many organizations are simply busy with their day-to-day work However, if Palm Beach County is serious about community change and looking to take a public health approach to Fighting ACEs, the final step in the framework is advocacy

Breaking down Florida's $400 million gun and school safety bill for the State of Florida and Palm Beach County:

Mental Health:

$69 million for early mental health screening and services

*$4 million to Palm Beach County School District (which alone is not enough to make a significant change in a district of 180 schools and 196,000 students).

*Approved higher property taxes to raise another $22 million (other money from the tax will pay for more police officers and teacher raises)

Just recently, Palm Beach County has allocated an additional $26 million dollars for school counselors, psychologists, and therapists, effectively making the Palm Beach County School District one of the largest mental health providers in the county If an advocacy function existed in Palm Beach County focusing on trauma-informed approaches, a strategic advocacy presence could be offered both in Tallahassee as well as locally across systems to the involved sector partners. A collective advocacy effort could leverage the broader voice of the funding and service delivery sectors to help provide a trauma-informed context and avoid missed hiring opportunities for these school-based mental health positions

School Security:

$97 million for school resource officers, $98 million for school-hardening grants, and $25 million to raze and rebuild the freshman building where the shooting spree occurred

Guardian Program:

More than $67 million is aimed towards the controversial “Coach Aaron Feis Guardian Program,” which is named after an assistant football coach who died while using his body to shield students

New Gun Restrictions:

This legislature represents the first new gun restrictions placed on Floridians in two decades It raises the legal age for gun ownership from 18 to 21 and imposes a three-day waiting period for the purchase of rifles and other long guns. Measures were also introduced to allow law-enforcement officials to seek court orders to seize guns from people who have shown they could be a danger to themselves or others