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
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