Advocacy Project: Issue Overview

Introduction
The topic that I am focusing on is health and fitness and improving the quality of life through daily activites.
The issue and problem is the lack of physical activity, especially within kids between the ages of 15-18 years of age. Which raises concern for me because being from a large city with a lot of children going to schools where gym has been limited, the children dont have much of an option to do anything physical. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention 1 in 7 low income preschool aged child is obese. Which is a deep important concept because something has to be done to help these children because alot of them dont have the resources or help. A community that is trying to address this issue is East Phillips Neighboorhood in Minneapolis. The community is trying to get a fitness center built into there community center for the youth. The legistlation that I am looking at that addresses this is Bill SF2039 East Phillips cultural and community center cultural fitness and wellness center grant appropriation.Th reason for this bill is to get a grant so the community center can build and furnish and equip a safe health and fitness center.
Who is affected by this?
I have looked high and low to try to find some information on this and have came up almost completely empty.... When I am talking about who would be affected I am going to start with who would be affected positevely. East Phillips is in Minneapolis where I am from and its a nieghboorhood that is full of poverty and low in come housing and also crime. Also when I go back home I notice alot of the children in the nieghboorhood probably close to 75% of them have some sort of weight issue. Thats why I think this would affect the community in a positive manner and would be a great thing.
Loses?
The research that I have done which I posted in my last blog, that nothing has been done for a while on this bill except that it was passed onto the cultural chair and finance division. I am going to assume because the information isnt really loaded on this bill that the money is a grant that the nieghboorhood is trying to get which is given by the government and that means it comes from taxes....taxes which people pay. So someone is going to have to pay money for this and it most likely wont be the people of East Phillips because the income is low and its a struggling neighboorhood.
Gains?
The people that would gain, would be the East Phillip community. They would be gaining another facility thats save for children and also is a outlet for them and also a place where they have an option to do physical activity and be healthy.
Consequences?
Once again I am unable to find any official consequences. BUT like I said before the way the community plans on paying for this is through grant money which comes from the government which would be a consequence in a sense that people would have to pay there tax dollars for the place and in turn the people who have to pay those dollars may not be happy with the idea of the fitness center and rebel against it. Another consequence that I can think of, only because I know the neighborhood very well is that it does bring the risk of bringing people that dont get along togethor in the same area, but in the same breathe this may also cease some of the violence in the nieghborhood if the gangs and kids have a common ground with each other.
Economic Issues?
There is no solid number of how much this is going to cost. But the cost that is going to come from the governemt which also comes from tax payers dollars will have an effect on them because the tax payers dollars that would go to pay for this fitness center would probably not use it because most likely they are not from that area.
The economic benefits go towards the community because they would then gain a fitness center for the youth, where the youth could than have a safe area and also start living healthier and become more active.
Social Impact!
The social cost of this issue would be tension between the tax payers who would pay for the community center and the nieghborhood where the comminuty is. This could be a huge social impact...the problem with this is East Phillips neighborhood and full of crime and low income and tax payers may see having there tax money go to this as a waste because of what the community already is. Also a negative social impact is that building somewhere where youth can go in this neighborhood could cause problem with bringing certain individuals togethor. The positive social impact that could arise, is that this health and fitness center could possibly give these kids a common ground and could possibly stop the violence in the future.
Barriers?
The barriers for this issue is the obvious. Where is the money going to come from and will people agree on having there tax dollars going into a fitness center in the hood. How can this problem be solved is a concept that may be really hard to address. But the community does have a board of memebers and having a plan of action and what exactly the money will be spent on would help alot in order for tax payers to understand completely what there money is going into .
Resources
The resources are obvious. The government is the resource that would be used for the grant money for the health center for the neighborhood because that is there plan.
History
The history on this subject is pretty vague. The community has been trying to make some change to better the neighborhood and did build a community center in May of 2009. Also they nieghborhood started a group called EPIC which means East Phillips Improvement Coalition. Epic is a non profit volunteer organization of people in the community that want to help and also be leaders to help the community get better. As far as I have found there hasnt been any official attempts to get a fitness center in the neighborhood because the community center was just put up in May.
Allies & Opponents
The supporters of this issue are obviouslly the people that are volunteering on the board to better the community and also the people of the community as well. The Opponents will obviouslly be the tax payers who are going to have to pay for this fitness center.
My Thoughts!
I think that the policy makers should make sure that there is a plan for how the community intends on spending the money exactly and that every option has been sought out before any money should be given out. I think that the policy makers should realize that this can better the community, because the community is full of crime and low income and also children who do have obesity issues. This fitness wellness center could bring positivety to the neighborhood. Another way that I would like for the policy makers to look at it is that the neighborhood is struggling already but has been making strides to get better and having this fitness facility in my eyes would only turn for the better of the community.