Identifying Vulnerable Neighborhoods of Alachua County Dallas Dunbar

Identifying Vulnerable Neighborhoods of Alachua County Dallas Dunbar Jake Causey Stephanie Del. Gatto Cameron Hindle

Background US Population (in millions) 7, 25 Unincarcerated Incarcerated 301, 75

Background Low Home Net Worth High Concentrations of Students Receiving Meal Assistance High Concentrations of Child Neglect and Abuse High Concentrations of Juvenile Offenders

Study Area Gainesville Hawthorne Alachua County Population (in thousands) Micanopy Alachua 44 1 Lacrosse Newberry Waldo High Springs Archer 202 Unincarcerated Adults Incarcerated Adults Children

Objective Low Home Net Worth Identify neighborhoods exhibiting characteristics which negatively affect children in an attempt to improve the overall quality of their lives and reduce the incarceration rate in Alachua County. High Concentrations of Students Receiving Meal Assistance High Concentrations of Child Neglect and Abuse High Concentrations of Juvenile Offenders

Methodology

Free Lunch and Low Net Worth Select by Attribute (low worth Layer) Low Net Worth and Child Neglect Select by Attribute (Low Net Worth Layer) ≤$55, 719 Buffer Child Neglect points (by 250 ft) Buffer Free Lunch points(by 250 ft) Interactive Selection (75 or more per 0. 5 mile radius) Create layer from selection Interactive Selection (10 or more cases per 0. 5 mile radius) Create layer from selection Final Map with Vulnerable Areas Free Lunch and Juvenile Offenders Select by Attribute (Juvenile Offenders layer) ≥ 3 offenses Buffer Free Lunch points (by 250 ft) Interactive Selection (75 or more cases per 0. 5 mile radius) Create layer from selection

Steps of Analysis

Used Select by Attributes to locate areas that have a low average household net worth

Then used Buffer to buffer the areas by 1 mile. Buffer was used to include some areas of high concentration of free lunch points that were on the border of the Low Worth areas.

Buffered Free lunch points by 250 feet Select by Location- Selected Buffered Free Lunch points that interested and were contained with the Low Worth 1 mile buffered area

Used Interactive Selection with a circle to search for and select areas with high concentrations of points. Selected Areas that contained more than 75 points within a ½ mile radius of the center of the area. Theses selected Areas were then combined together to form our targeted vulnerable neighborhoods.

• Buffered the points to a mile. Created a new layer from selected features. • Changed the symbol to have no outline in order to show up as one area. • This selection is only one of 4 areas of concern.

• Merged the areas onto one layer

• Final Map of areas of high free lunch students in low household worth areas.

• Used this same process of selection and buffering to develop four other maps. Slight changes for each map were used depending on the attributes used for each map. • Other attributes our group looked at in addition to free lunch students and low household worth were areas of high Juvenile Offenses and points of reported Child Neglect and Abuse.

• Map of Low Worth areas and Child Neglect

• Free lunch and High Number of Juvenile Offenders

Combination of Low Household Worth and High Juvenile Crime areas with high numbers of Free Lunch Students.

High Juvenile Offense areas with high numbers of Child Neglect and Abuse cases.

Conclusion

The outskirts of Gainesville seems to be the most vulnerable areas in Alachua County. Looking at the county budget and other records is recommended to find the issues in the areas and to determine what efforts have been made in the past to improve the quality of living in these areas. The wellbeing of children is of the utmost importance to any communities.

Questions?