Ben Warner, president of Jacksonville Community Council Inc., presented some of the findings of JCCI’s 27th annual “Quality of Life Progress Report” for Jacksonville and Northeast Florida Friday to the Downtown Council of the JAX Chamber.
Before he began displaying the charts and graphs, he explained the role of JCCI.
“We are not about reports. We are about engaging the community. The reports are a byproduct,” he said.
Warner presented some of the byproduct of JCCI’s community engagement project. He described the results as an image of a “community in change.”
“We used to think Jacksonville was recession-proof. The hardest thing the City Council had to do was figure out how to spend all the extra money coming in from property taxes,” Warner said.
“It’s not going to be like that again.”
He said the central theme of the report, viewed in context with the 26 reports that preceded it, is that when the community comes together to solve a problem, there have been positive results.
Warner cited the significant improvement in high school graduation rate as an example.
“We’re up nearly 20 points in 10 years even though it’s harder now to graduate,” he said.
Warner said the combination of a shorter school day and the elimination of summer school due to budget constraints have led to 5 percent of Duval County public high school students needing five years to graduate instead of the traditional four years.
On the downside, 20 percent of children in Duval County are enrolled in private school or are home-schooled and for the first time, there are more minority children enrolled in local public schools than white children because of families migrating to St. Johns County, Warner said.
“We have a long way to go to be the kind of public education system we want,” he said.
Warner said another area of concern is that half of the children born in Duval County are born to unwed mothers. That has negative economic, health, educational and social impacts that will likely last for the rest of their lives, he said.
“Half of our kids are at risk to start with,” said Warner.
The report is available at jcci.org.
Also at the meeting, Diantha Grant, a past president of the Downtown Council, said the organization will begin selling Blue Bell brand ice cream novelties each Saturday at the Riverside Arts Market beginning March 3.
The council has maintained a tradition for several years to sell ice cream at the City’s annual “World of Nations” international culture festival with the proceeds supporting the council’s education and community service projects. Grant said the decision to switch to the weekly arts and local food market was based on a change in the City’s rate structure for vendor space at the event.
“It has become cost-prohibitive for us to sell ice cream at World of Nations,” she said.
For information about Downtown Council membership and scheduled events, visit downtowncouncil.org.
356-2466