Love At Work - Gretna Community

Though our worksites are spread throughout Gadsden County, the majority of the work we do is in the small city of Gretna, one of the most impoverished cities in the state of Florida. Gretna is a small city with a population of approximately 1,700. This small community is a struggling one.
• Of those who are 25 years or older, less than half have their high school diploma or equivilant.
• 17% of the homes in Gretna are female headed households
• The median household income for residents of Gretna is $24,769(Profile of General Demographic Characteristics: 2000 Geographic area: Gretna city, Florida).
• Out of the 1,178 individuals over 16 years of age 50.7% are not in the labor force.
• Of the 525 individuals that are classified as employed in the labor force 33.7% are in service occupations and 18.7% are in sales and office occupations.
• 25.9% of families and 30% of individuals in Gretna are living below the poverty level (Profile of General Demographic Characteristics: 2000 Geographic area: Gretna city, Florida).
• 43% of housings structures in Gretna are mobile homes.
• In Florida the approximate infant mortality rate (IMR) for all counties in 2002 was 7.5. In 2002, the infant mortality rate in Gadsden County was double the state’s reported infant mortality rate (14.3 compared to 7.5). (Gadsden County Comprehensive Community Health Assessment, 2004).
Factors, demonstrated to have an association with infant mortality are preterm births, low birth weights, maternal infections, maternal stress, low education, and low socioeconomic status.
This infant mortality rate is comparable to Panama, Brunei, Argentina, Serbia and Saudi Arabia and worse than Kuwait, Chile, Costa Rica, Israel, Guam (CIA World Factbook, 2007.)

Gretna is an isolated city, it is over 20 minutes away from Quincy, a larger city with more resources, that is were many Gretna residents are employed and where many do their grocery shopping and see their doctors. At this time there are no after school programs or youth development opportunities in Gretna.

Most workers in the Gretna community must commute to work since there are few opportunities for employment within the city. Out of those who commute the average travel time to 26 minutes and there is no public transportation available besides taxicabs. Those who do not own a vehicle end up paying individuals to take them to work, to the grocery store or to the doctor.

At Gretna Elementary School in 2006 51% of third grade students scored at or above their grade level and 57% of those students scored at or above the third grade level (FL. Department of Education 2005-2006). In comparison Hawks Rise Elementary School in Tallahassee, FL 97% were at or above the third grade level in reading and 98% were at or above the third grade level in math (FL. Department of Education, 2005-2006).
At Gretna Elementary school 7% of the students were absent more than 21 days where at Hawks Rise Elementary 2% were absent more than 21 days (FL. Department of Education 2004-2005). In Gadsden County 31% of middle school students had used alcohol or any illicit drug (Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey Gadsden County Report, 2000).

Gretna is located within Gadsden County, one of the most struggling counties in Florida.
• The median household income for Gadsden County is $29,598 (Gadsden County Perspective, 2005).
• 18.2% of the residents are categorized as ‘poor’.
• The county ranks last in 4 year graduation rates and students that were college ready in all areas (Gadsden County Perspective, 2005).
• In all of Gadsden County there are only two free standing nursing facilities and only 7.7 medical doctors for over 45,000 people (Gadsden County Perspective, 2005).
• The county ranks number one in Florida for the rate of elderly abuse. (Gadsden County Perspective, 2005).
• Gadsden County has over 5,000 residents receiving food stamps and over 19% receiving some type of public assistance (Gadsden County Perspective, 2005).

The current state of Gadsden County is not a good one but as one looks as Gretna it is easy to see that the situation is even worse there. The level of poverty is greater, the schools are poor and there is an extreme lack of resources. These problems in the city open up more issues for the residents in the community such as crime, delinquency, early sexual activity/pressure, alcohol and drug use, poor academic achievement, limited opport unities for creativity and exposure to positive role models.