Introduction
An aggregate community windshield survey is a survey that is carried out by a student driving around a chosen community. The aim is to gather useful information that can be used to understand the health issues facing the community further. In this particular survey, the community chosen is the black neighborhood of Tampa, Florida, and the aggregate is the Southern Baptist church. The focus will be solely on the black community and their characteristics in defining their quality of life regarding health and well-being.
Aggregate Description
The aggregate, as mentioned above, is the black community of the Southern Baptist church. It is one of the largest Christian denominations in the United States and the world’s largest Baptist denomination. In Tampa, Florida, it is a well-known and the largest church in the area, with most black folks attending it. According to the survey carried out in 2020 by the Annual Church Profile published by the Southern Baptist Convention, there were a total of 53 Southern Baptist Churches in Tampa Bay and the surrounding areas, with a combined membership of over 22,000 individuals.
Community Description
The community was chosen, as mentioned in Tampa, Florida, it is one of the most famous cities in the world, known for its diverse culture and luxurious lifestyle. With respect to the groups living in Tampa, the most robust are the religious groups. Tampa is known for its richness of diverse religious groups, one of the most dominant being the Southern Baptist Convention. This church, with several others, offers regular worship services and opportunities for community outreach and services. In this way, they contribute significantly to improving the overall quality of the lives of people in Tampa.
Regarding healthcare, Tampa also prides itself of a robust healthcare system that serves the community wholly. The reason why I chose Tampa is because of its diverse population that incorporated the aggregate I was interested in studying. Secondly, Tampa is a well-planned city and thus making it easier to carry out the study and find solutions to the problems identified.
History of the Southern Baptist Church in Tampa, Florida
As described above, the Southern Baptist Convention is a denomination of the Baptist churches in the United States. These churches have been in Tampa, Florida, since the 20th century. The first Southern Baptist Church in Tampa was organized in the year 1902 as the west Tampa Baptist church. Several other southern Baptist churches, including the Bayshore Baptist Church in 1949, were established gradually over the years.
During the Civil Rights era of the 1959, many of those churches were resistant to the movement and were advocates of slavery and segregation (Waters, 2022). However, in 1961, the church changed its stand and officially advocated against slavery and the segregation of minority groups. In the 1970s, it again went through another change, ‘conservative Resurgence,’ which laid roots for a more conservative theology and a stricter interpretation of the bible.
All the Southern Baptist Churches felt this shift, and those in Tampa were no exception. In today’s world, the Southern Baptist Churches remain one of the largest protestant denominations in the United States and, more precisely, in Tampa. Today, the denomination is an all-inclusive, faithfully serving the diverse population of Tampa, including the black community.
Demography of Tampa
According to the national United States census of 2020, Tampa is estimated to have approximately 400,000 people. The people who reside in Tampa are from different ethnic groups, including people who identify as white, having the highest population (53.1%), Hispanics, Latinos, African Americans, and Asians, and the median age is 36 years. Given these statistics, it is evident that Tampa is a diverse location; hence, the people residing there must live in harmony.
Tampa covers an area of 170.6 square miles comprising both land and water, with the climate being humid and subtropical in the summers and mild winters. It prides itself on having an average cost of living lower than the average national level. This factor is made possible by the cost of housing, which is very affordable for the people, thus being the number one factor that makes the cost of living in Tampa be affordable. The other aspect is the income rate in the state, where the median age is estimated to be around $61000 per household.
Vital Statistics of Tampa
The vital health statistics for the state changes from location to location. However, according to the statistics from 2019, the most recent available data, the crude birth rate was 9.9 births per 1000 people in that year (Pribish, 2019). This indicates that an average number of people in that area give birth, and thus, the population curve is satisfactory (Pribish, 2019).
On the flip side, however, the infant mortality rate is slightly higher than it should be, at five deaths per a thousand births (Pribish, 2019). In recent years, the city has taken steps to address the issue and find ways to mitigate it. In Tampa, the life expectancy is 78 years (Pribish, 2019). The leading cause of death, as researched by the Centres for Disease Control (CDC), are similar to the ones that lead in the whole of the United States.
Heart conditions are ranked as the first on the list closely followed by Cancer, which is the most dreaded (Pribish, 2019). Accidents and unintentional injuries are also increasing alarmingly, together with chronic lower respiratory diseases. These conditions are preventable and curable hence it is crucial for the health organizations in Tampa to address the underlying factors that aggravate these conditions and find solutions to them.
General Windshield Observations
The general appearance of Tampa is good, ranging from the housing to the neighborhood in general. The age and condition of homes vary widely based on the location of the houses. The downtown area featured older homes that date back to the 20th century or earlier while others in other locations were recently constructed. Additionally, the space between homes is adequate to provide security in most of the areas but does not apply to all, including businesses. The people in the community are characterized by a significant number of the black race.
The major form of transportation in Tampa is an automobile, with many residents using their own vehicles for daily commuting. However, the city also has a well-equipped public transport system which includes buses, several bike-sharing programs and bike lanes for cyclists. In terms of quality of sidewalks and streets in Tampa, it varies with the neighbourhood and specific location within the city. Some have well maintained streets and sidewalks while others have older or deteriorating infrastructure that needs repair though are all significantly clean.
Tampa is large and diverse city with different neighbourhoods each with its unique hangouts with the popular once being; Ybor City, South Howard and many more. The parks in Tampa are well maintained with green spaces to offer great outdoor recreation experiences. To compliment that, Tampa has a well-developed business system with a variety of stores, including grocery stores, local boutiques, departmental stores and shopping malls, all providing the residents a good shopping experience and the supplies they need for their homes. These businesses are well advertised with billboards and media displays. There are also multiple places of worship, including churches, cathedrals and temples.
Conclusion
The community chosen for the aggregate was Tampa, Florida’s black community, and the South Baptist church aggregate. It offers community outreach and services opportunities, thus improving the people’s overall livelihood. Healthcare systems are also present in the community that serves it as a whole. The history and demography of Tampa have also been well captured. The community has been assessed in an array of topics.
References
Pribish, A., Khalil, N., Mhaskar, R., Woodard, L., & Mirza, A. (2019). Chronic disease burden of the homeless:A descriptive study of student run free clinicals in Tampa, Florida. Journal of community health, 44, 249-255. Web.
Waters, J. (2022). Black cemeteries matter: The erasure of historic black cemeteries in Polk County, Florida. University of South Florida. 5-10. Web.