Community Immersion Olympia Downtown District - 1927 Words

Community Immersion: Olympia Downtown District Kristen Doyle University of Southern California Professor Stacy Kratz May 25th, 2016 There is significant variation in how communities are defined in our world. The dominate themes found relate communities to space, people, interaction, and shared identity (Netting, Kettner, McMurtry, Thomas, 2012). Understanding communities allows social workers to partner with community members and leaders in order to identify root-causes of social problems and create solutions together. Individuals themselves are experts of their own communities and can offer different ways of viewing the world around them. This paper uses a community assessment framework, discussing community†¦show more content†¦Downtown Olympia has a thriving local arts scene and is the home of The Washington Center for the Performing Arts (City of Olympia, n.d. C). The community of the Downtown District is bordered by water to the west, State Avenue to the north, Plum Street to the east, and Union Avenue to the south. The boundaries of the geographic community of the Downtown District are shown below: Source: Downtown Olympia, 2016 According to the 2014 Census, there are 3,194 residents of the Downtown District. Nearly 31 percent of the population is married and 22.4% of the population is 65 years old and over (U.S. Census Bureau, 2014). The majority of the community is white, taking up 93% of the population. The remainder of the population is Black or African American, American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and Hispanic or Latino. Community members that are Native-born make up 87.5% of the population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2014). The median income in the Downtown District is $33,625 in 2014, which nonfamily households earning a median income of $24,818. Food stamps are used by 22.6% of households and 17.4% of the population is below poverty level. Most notably, 55.9% of the population 25 years and over who have not graduated from high school are in poverty status. Additionally, 27.9% of high school graduates 25 years and over are in poverty status. Unemployed persons make up 6.8% of the population. The majority of housing