Focusing on What Matters: Glades Teen Summit Focus Group

June 30^th, 2016

Focusing on What Matters: Glades Teen Summit Focus Group

                Today a focus group was held at the Gove Elementary Boys and Girls Club in Belle Glade, Florida. The purpose of the focus group was to gain input from teens from the local area (Belle Glade, Pahokee, South Bay) and surrounding areas (Eastern Palm Beach County). The teens ages ranged from 15 to 20 and they were asked to fill out a questionnaire that focused on pinpointing specific examples of what can be better in their communities. The form had the following questions:

1.       What are three things that are detrimental to the Glades (Eastern Palm Beach County) community?

             1.

             2.

             3.

2.       What can be done to improve your local area?

             1.

             2.

             3.

3.       Do you think that having a summit that addresses these issues will be beneficial to the Glades community?

All in all, 26 teens and young adults took the survey with:

• One being 15
• One being 16,
• Nine were 17 
• Seven were 18 
• Five 19 year olds 
• Three 20 year olds

14 of the 26 teens were from the Glades area and 12 of  26 were from Eastern Palm Beach County communities (Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, West Palm Beach, and Riviera Beach.)

 18 teens believed that violence, particularly gang and gun violence, was a major issue that was detrimental to their local areas with 12 of those teens being from the Glades and 6 being from surrounding areas.

 18  teens believed that drugs/illegal substances was also a factor in that was detrimental to their local area.

22 of  26 teens thought that having a teen summit of the magnitude of the Glades Teen Summit would be beneficial to the Glades area.

Based on the information found from the focus group questionnaire, it can be concluded that there are various issues affecting Palm Beach County communities, with the Glades being in dire need of assistance.

This issue is very beneficial to me and my affiliates in planning the summit because it shows what issues must be focused on and thoroughly addressed at the summit.  It also allows us to estimate teen turn out because we got a glimpse of a general opinion from teens themselves.