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2022 Spring Soc Work Practice Organ & Comm SEC.03: Community Analysis

Paper/Mapping

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2022 Spring Soc Work Practice Organ & Comm SEC.03: Community Analysis Paper/Mapping

The Current Nature of Interactions Among Different Racial and Economic Population

Groups and How These Interactions Impact the Community’s Relationships with Other

Communities

The community of Raleigh City has several ways to interact with each other in terms of

racial and economic prospects. These interactions affect how they relate with other communities

like those from Capel Hill and Durham, and consequently, the relationship between the Raleigh

community and the whole world as a community is affected. There are different variations within

the Raleigh community, with each group possessing different needs and routine activities, and as

a result, they interact differently with other groups within the community and the outside world.

Therefore, there are distinctive disparities within the community, ranging from ethnic, health,

racial, and economic achievements.

There are ethnic groups and racial classes in Raleigh that have led to the intervention of

humanitarian organizations to positively impact the lives of people living in this area.

Acknowledging different social constructs in Raleigh implicates the relationship between the

residents themselves and other external communities via the study of the historical background

of the area, social practices, and perceptions on ethnicity. Many people have suffered as a result

of racial discrimination in Raleigh but as a community, efforts have been made to facilitate
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healthy relationships between themselves, with external parties often being involved to promote

unity in the area by coming up with methods to eliminate racial discrimination (Paerl et al 2010).

Due to several social classes and communal groups in Raleigh, there is an imbalance in

the acquisition of health services in the area. There is a difference in health requirements among

the residents because of the difference in mortality rates and the incidences of infections among

the social classes. The majority of the populace in Raleigh is made up of rural people, who are

always affected by the challenges regarding access to healthcare (Kalleberg & Dunn 2015).

Social classes in the area provide people with unequal positions, and this is reflected by the

unequal opportunities among the citizens regarding the acquisition of communal resources.

How These Implications Impacted Diverse Populations and Populations at Risk

Racial discrimination in the area over time has highlighted how complex the inequalities

among ethnic groups have taken place in Raleigh despite the unrelenting efforts and strategies

put in place to eliminate this challenge. The solution for this problem, according to Alfano et al

(2014), is to consider the historical and political backgrounds of the community, as well as

consider future implications of their current differences.

Those who suffer the most due to ethnic groups in Raleigh are the children from lower

social classes and less “significant” ethnic groups. These children will be discriminated against

when receiving social services and in some cases, they may not get access to their basic needs

and social amenities like healthcare, shelter, food, and education. On the other hand, inequality

in the provision of healthcare services in the community has caused an unequal mortality rate

among the citizens of the area, and some people try to find ways to get healthcare services

(DuBard et al 2012).

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Community of Raleigh

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The Covid-19 pandemic has caused havoc in all parts of the world and no one has been

spared from the negative effects of the pandemic. Raleigh City in North Carolina has not been

spared either from the atrocities caused by the Covid-19 virus. The pandemic paralyzed almost

every aspect of the operation of Raleigh City putting high pressure on the families from lower

social classes in trying to fend for themselves. The pandemic caused a strain in the healthcare

department in the city, causing a higher death toll in the area and difficulty in accessing

healthcare services by the citizens. The increase in death tolls in the area was caused by the

Covid-19 pandemic as well as other diseases that would have been treated if the doctors were not

dealing with Covid-19 (Daniel 2020).

The main impact of the Covid-19 virus in Raleigh was unemployment, which caused the

less fortunate members of the community and less-income earners to face difficult decisions

regarding income-generating activities while trying to ensure their individual as well as their

family’s safety. The education sector was affected by the lockdown forcing learners to change to

remote learning and online learning, which arguably, is not the best way to learn. Online and

remote learning, although it was effective to a certain extent, posed a challenge to the poor

individuals as they couldn’t access these services easily.

Due to the socio-economic differences in Raleigh, people classify themselves in their

social status, with those from higher social classes working together to help each other.

Consequently, poor citizens, who happen to be the majority of Raleigh, require help from the

government and other humanitarian organizations and groups to cope with the aftermath of the

Covid-19 pandemic. The current situation in Raleigh is troublesome to the communities that are

faced with challenges like poverty, unemployment, inadequate healthcare facilities, and

economic disparities. Therefore, the communities within the area seriously need programs, both
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government-sponsored and non-governmental organizations, to provide help to the local

communities. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, local humanitarian organizations have

partnered with several stakeholders and non-governmental organizations to provide sound

measures and strategies to deal with the effects of the pandemic and provide changes that help

people lessen the pain caused by the deadly virus (COVID, Post-Acute Case Study, 2020).

Understanding & Describing the Community as It Was 20 Years Ago and How It Is Today

Twenty years ago, the communities in Raleigh had not seen the qualitative change in

their relationship with each other as it is today. There was a high rate of racial discrimination

against the blacks in the community. The quality of life in the early 2000s was poor as many

facilities that the city is famous for were not operational at the time. Many hospitals, schools, and

research centers had not been built yet. Therefore, the majority of the population in Raleigh was

living in poverty because there were fewer employment opportunities in the area. Furthermore,

cohesion within the community was poor as humanitarian organizations were required to

promote unity and help the community had not been established (Hilburn & Fitchett 2012).

Although there has been a rapid growth of industrialization in Raleigh, the majority of the

community remains to live in the rural areas and commute to industrialized areas to provide

labor and other services. In the early 2000s, a significant area of the city was used for traditional

substantial farming, but over the years, the areas practicing farming have been gradually reduced

and replaced by industries. The community gets its electrical energy from coal and hydroelectric

plants in the area. Currently, several health care facilities cover children’s departments, mental

illness, medical research facilities, among others (Riggs et al 2011). However, despite the

improvement in the living conditions of the community, the national budget for the city can not

satisfy every need for the communities in the area, hence the city is still in improvements.
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How the Community Changed in Relation to Gentrification

In the early 2000s, Raleigh city was mainly composed of black Americans and it was

considered an African-American neighborhood. White people were hostile since, at that time,

racial discrimination was rampant. However, many whites have opted to buy homes in Raleigh

and settle there, and they have been surprised by the peaceful nature of the local people which

was different from their initial perception. This has brought many changes to the communities in

the city. Therefore, new opportunities have been brought up by the settling of the whites in the

area (Center for Community Health and Development 2022). The blacks have also moved to

areas previously dominated by whites, and the economical improvement of the area is influenced

by this trend in the area.

What is Around the Community

The community is surrounded by several institutions and social amenities like businesses,

hotels, restaurants like the Hilton Raleigh North Hills, many schools ranging from elementary

schools, high schools, and universities like the North Carolina State University. The community

has a high percentage of people who at least managed to attend college, and only a small number

of people in the city did not graduate from high school. The communal structure of the

community includes 47.1% of the population being white people, blacks making 29.9%,

Hispanic making 9.8%, Asians 8.1%, American Indians 0.2%, and the other races constitute the

remaining 4.8% of the population.

Counties they Work With

Raleigh city, together with Durham and Capel Hill work together and they are famously

called the research triangle. Raleigh also works with other counties like Orange and Chatham to

help in the provision of services and resources for its communities.

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The Rate of Employment in the Community

The community’s household income is about $101316, with a personal average yearly

income being less than $50000 constituting up to 16.7% of the population, income between

$50000 and $100000 yearly is 32.3%, and the income above $100000 per year is 51% of the

community per the Us Census Bureau (2022). Of the population, about 62% have full-time jobs

with steady earnings, 20% are part-time workers, and 17% of the population have no earnings

because they are unemployed.

Community Mapping Diagram

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References

Alfano-Sobsey, E., Ledford, S. L., Decosimo, K., & Horney, J. A. (2014). Community health

needs assessment in Wake County, North Carolina: a partnership of public health,

hospitals, academia, and other stakeholders. North Carolina Medical Journal, 75(6), 376-

383.

Center for Community Health and Development. (n.d.). Chapter 3, Section 2: Understanding and

Describing the Community. The University of Kansas. Retrieved February 20, 2022,

from the Community Tool Box:

http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/assessment/assessing-community-needs-and-

resources/conduct-concerns-surveys/main.

COVID, G. A., & Post-Acute Care Study Group. (2020). Post-COVID-19 global health

strategies: the need for an interdisciplinary approach. Aging clinical and experimental

research, 1.

Daniel, S. J. (2020). Education and the COVID-19 pandemic. Prospects, 49(1), 91-96.

DuBard, C. A., Cockerham, J., & Jackson, C. (2012). Collaborative accountability for care

transitions: the community care of North Carolina transitions program. North Carolina

medical journal, 73(1), 34-40.

Hilburn, J., & Fitchett, P. G. (2012). The new gateway, an old paradox: Immigrants and

involuntary Americans in North Carolina history textbooks. Theory & Research in Social

Education, 40(1), 35-65.
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Kalleberg, A. L., & Dunn, M. (2015). Institutional determinants of labor market outcomes for

community college students in North Carolina. Community College Review, 43(3), 224-

244.

Paerl, H. W., Rossignol, K. L., Hall, S. N., Peierls, B. L., & Wetz, M. S. (2010). Phytoplankton

community indicators of short-and long-term ecological change in the anthropogenically

and climatically impacted Neuse River Estuary, North Carolina, USA. Estuaries and

Coasts, 33(2), 485-497.

Riggs, S. R., von der Porten Ames, D., Mallinson, D. J., & Culver, S. J. (2011). The battle for

North Carolina's Coast: Evolutionary history, the present crisis, and vision for the future.

Univ of North Carolina Press.