Na Meeting Reflection

The assessment of the neighborhood was completed individually on separate occasions and as a group on our way to a Narcotics Anonymous (NA) meeting. As a group our windshield survey was captured while driving from Northeastern Hospital, west on Allegheny Avenue, and south on Kensington Avenue. The time of the window survey was approximately 5:45 on a warm Tuesday evening. We decided to drive along the smaller side streets after the meeting, in order to get a different view of the community. It was a busy time of the day, many people walking, while others rode bikes to their destinations. The streets were lined with scattered trash, many building stood no longer occupied. Everywhere you looked people were gathered on the sidewalk or sitting on the steps of boarded up storefronts. Some were quenching their thirst from a brown bagged covered bottle. As we pulled up to NA meeting, we sat in the car a few minutes to observe the interaction of the crowd gathered outside of THE LAST STOP which is also a recovery house.
Poverty, homelessness, drugs/alcohol, and mental illness were all witness during our short ride to the NA meeting. During the meeting, recovering addicts spoke about their struggles of homelessness and turning to crime to fuel their addition. Leaders within the community are fully aware of these issues and a common theme was reiterated during each interview. A Community Heath Care Worker from Esperanza Heath Center placed poverty as the number one problem of the area, followed by drug and alcohol addiction close behind. He felt a lack pf parental figure was the root to many of the problems found in the community. Many of his clients have mental illness, are unemployed, uninsured and are surrounded daily by acts of