Illiteracy is major Problem in Avon Park

 

One of our first objectives at the National Community Network and Coalition of Highlands, INC aka the NCNCHINC, is the battle illiteracy here in Avon Park, Fl. Once we get our doors open to the public, we would like to start a tutoring program on the first floor of our headquarters building. But this problem is bigger than us and we welcome other non profits to follow our directive.  Now I will explain why!

 

One of the most serious problems in Avon Park, FL., is illiteracy.  I know this is a national problem throughout the black community and abroad, but in Florida, we have one of the lowest graduation rates in the United States at about 71% in 2010-11, according to the U.S. Department of Education.  Meanwhile at Avon Park High school during the same period, which is one of the worst performing High Schools in Florida and our country 77.3% whites graduated and 74.7 Hispanics graduated, but only 65% of the black students graduated.  This is about 1 out of every 3 black teens dropped out of High School.  And this does not count those that never even made it to High School.  These statistics are alarming!

 

We must combat illiteracy in the black communities across America and there is even a more urgent need for this in Florida and as you can see, one of the most illiterate areas in Florida is Avon Park.  There is a direct correlation between illiteracy and crime. For example there is more crime in Avon Park, than it is in  Sebring, Fl.  But the statistics on crime in this area is not accurate because the police force allows criminals to operate freely anyway. And Sebring has its own police force whereby Avon Park doesn't, so there is probably even more crime going unreported here in Avon Park.

 

The lack of education, leaves people with less options as a means to survive.  It leads to more teen pregnancies, because often young girls are attracted to older men as a means to buy drugs, leading them to lives on food stamps, welfare and child support.  Everybody knows there is probably a drug dealer on every corner of Avon Park, because too many young black men are unemployable.  They say you even have to fill out a job application to pick fruit these days.  Also, it makes our town less attractive to new investments in light industry, because there is a lack of qualified potential employees.  And runs retail establishments away from us, because of the high levels of shop lifting, which is a major loss prevention problem at our retail establishments here in Highlands County.

 

Yet, Avon Park is a city that is growing as is Highlands County. And a serious dilemma, we have to pay heed to is that, too many of our locals will be left behind when development peeks.  Too many of our youths are in a mindset of hopelessness and despair and are giving up in their early twenties and even younger than that, when they have their whole lives in front of them.  I blame this on the corrupt political system here in Avon Park.  Because they are making it easy for our youths to make the wrong decisions.  It is too easy to simply sell drugs and steal for a living. It is too easy to molest children into having sex for a dime bag of weed,  The system is allowing this to go on.  They are not protecting our youth, by detouring criminal behavior.

 

Sure people must take responsibility for their own bad decisions as well.  But, I know that the main barrier that is a stumbling block that is preventing many of these kids from taking on the challenge of gaining a GED is the fear of failure.  Because of the mathematics requirement in the GED test, many of them are giving up before they even get started.  Though they believe they can learn to read, they do not believe they can learn to count, yet they all seem to believe they are about making money, by selling dimes of crack and weed to their neighbors. And this is a cocktail for failure for the next generation coming up, because the parents cannot instruct their children with homework assignments, due to their lack of mathematical skills.

 

The battle against illiteracy is a win/win agenda.  Though we do not have our 501 c 3 yet at the NCNCHINC, if it is God will, we will have it before the year is our.  But this work cannot wait on the IRS bureaucracy, we as a community must act now.  We need volunteers who a trained in General Education to come forward, to help tutor those who want a better life for themselves, which is most of them but they are afraid.  We need a strong business presence, to assist in the funding for these programs.  Like I said it is a win/win program, because decreased illiteracy means a more influential workforce, lees loss prevention problems, less drugs on the street, less teenage pregnancies, meaning less government dependence and overall less crime in general.  "It takes a village to raise a child," it will take a village to erase illiteracy from the map of repression in America and Avon Park. 

 

Frank Paul Jones - President of the NCNCHINC 

The State of Highlands County and the NCNCHINC

We were founded in October 2009.  I started this organization with the assistance of my three sisters, with the dream of doing community service in our community, not just in Avon Park, Fl., but by the grace of God, throughout the community of underserved people in the United States.  I must admit I borrowed the term underserved from a fine organization in New York City called Services for the Underserved and if we can have a small fraction of the impacted on people in the underserved community as they do, we will have done good for the community of people in need of our services.

 

We are the National Community Network and Coalition of Highlands, INC.  Because of our long name we use the acronym NCNCHINC.  Our headquarters is located in Avon Park, FL., a small city in a rural area, that is growing quickly.  And by the grace of God we own our headquarters location.,  The county it is in was at about 38,000 in population in 2004, now it is well over 100,000 today.  People are moving here for the obvious reasons Florida Sunshine, also it has been discovered that Highlands County is located on prime real estate.  It sits about 11 feet above sea level in Central Florida away from the coastlines and shielded from most hurricanes.  And the real estate is relatively cheap.    

 

We the NCNCHINC is a first of its kind, in Highlands County, FL.  We represent urban solutions in a currently rural area, therefore though we have a need or need has yet to fully materialize.  With the direction and course of Highlands County, which is quickly populating into a full size city, then will come the problems associated with a populous county or city.

 

Do not get me wrong, Highlands County has its share of problems  already needing to be solved.   However, we are not being duly recognized by the political map yet and therefore funding for these problems such as the; disproportionately high rate of AIDS among the black community, the crippling drug epidemic, the lost prevention problems at retail outlets due to drugs, the high unemployment rate and the lack of living wages jobs which is driving businesses away, the illiteracy among young adults  making us unattractive to new light industry investment and sad to say in this small city the political corruption driving this city into a dead-end, due to the lack of Federal oversight.

 

Highlands County once almost totally driven my the agriculture industry is on the borderline of change, as new development is on the horizon.  But sadly if some of these problems are not addressed the citizens here now may well be left out as talent to fill-in the slots of progress will have to be imported for elsewhere.  We at the NCNCHINC do not think this is far and just like the fruit was harvest by the people of Highlands County for many years, it is time to harvest the people in these communities into productive citizens of the State of Florida.

 

We at the NCNCHINC are preparing for this renaissance.  We are a very small organization at this time with a huge dream.  We have a handful of dedicated volunteers to include myself.  And we are in training, as we are slowing organizing.  We are waiting on our 501 c 3 documents to be assigned by the IRS while concurrently working on gaining our occupational license to open our doors the public.  As I am in the process of gaining entrance to a badly needed six months grant writing course, so that we can gain funds to address some of these problems.  Once we open our doors, we will start to solicit more volunteers to do community work and serve the people in need most, the underserved in our community.

 

Frank Paul Jones