st. PETERSBURG – Pinellas County residents, on average, were slightly healthier last year than Florida and most other counties across the country, a national study found.
However, the data hides harsh truths in the St. Petersburg region.
Black residents in their south downtown neighborhood live five years less than the average Pinellas residents. They are twice as likely to experience the struggle between transportation and access to food.
Their children are almost 40% more likely to die as infants.
These are some of the inequality that the healthy St. Petersburg Foundation hopes to tackle through a new partnership with Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital. The two organizations announced Wednesday that it will be available with grants of up to $1 million for an initiative aimed at reducing poverty and health disparities with three St. Petersburg zip cords.
The grant drivers came from a five-month health equity analysis that combines several studies with data from the US Census Bureau and state data to identify economic and health health in different regions.
The survey results were dark.
Residents of some communities in southern St. Petersburg had a much higher rate of liver cancer and diabetes than other parts of the county. Nearly 500 of the 100,000 residents suffer from chronic heart disease, compared to an average of 262 people across the county. The community has a high rate of murder and drug-related mortality.
“One thing I’ve really been talking about is chronic illness, and not just the different speed at which people with the colour of those zip cords experience it, but the only impact it has on their lives,” said Kanika Tomalin, president and CEO of the foundation. “We want a situation given to equity, a community where health allows all people to flourish.”
The funds are intended to withdraw nonprofits and other organizations. Their initial submissions should include details on how to partner with local governments, community groups, individuals and others to address these community issues.
Four grants, each $250,000, are expected to be awarded by October 6th. Among the issues the foundation is addressed are chronic disease, infant mortality rates, and high levels of injuries and violence. They hope that the group will come up with suggestions that will bring about systematic change.
“There’s a lot to do,” said Tomarin, former vice mayor of St. Petersburg. “Everyone who wants to innovate is trying hard, wanting philanthropy as a partner, and trying to plug in and commit.”
The three ZIP codes highlighted in the Health Disparity Study are 33705, with 33705, 33711, 33711 and 33712 reaching the Skyway district, including the Children’s Park district.
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Other initiatives have also established to tackle issues such as poverty, food deserts and lack of employment opportunities in St. Petersburg’s historically depressed regions.
The 2020 plan was a five-year effort to reduce poverty by 30% in 2014. It included initiatives to increase income through vocational training, involving parents, especially fathers, and strengthening families in the city’s midtown area.
The 2020 census data show that St. Petersburg’s poverty rate among black residents was 16.7%, the lowest on record. This is down from nearly 35% in 2014.
Tomaline shows that some of the plans, such as the workforce development initiative St. Pete Works, still profitable today, and that collaboration between private and public groups can change the needle when it comes to reducing generational poverty.
“In that time frame, poverty was reduced to historic low levels, the lowest city ever saw,” Tomalin said. “People work every day.
