Abs 497: Applied Behavioral Sciences Capstone

Community Change

ABS497: Applied Behavioral Sciences Capstone

Instructor: Dione Johnson

May 29, 2016

Community Change

        In our society, communities are the back bone of our cities within the state from which you live. Communities join together for offering support and standing together for improvements and safety issues that are best for the neighborhoods. For example, adding speed bumps, posting cautions signs acknowledging children playing, and community crime watch for the safety of families. A community is where people can come together to influence each other and can be a positive experience within a neighborhood in order to be productive citizens. “Community is a number of people with something in common that connects them in some way and that distinguishes them from the others” (Homan, 2011). A community is a where you live, children play, and the community come together for what they believe in for the best of the citizens within the neighborhood.

        In the community where I live can be described in a lot of ways. I live in the heart of the city which is made of many communities, and the neighborhood that I stay is made of many single and married couples of different races. The community is located in the Eastern part of United States. We have Seymour Air force base where the Strike Eagles are located now, as well as many doctors, hospital facility, great shopping here in Goldsboro, North Carolina. We have larger cities surrounding like Raleigh, Greenville, and great beach not too far for traveling. I have enjoyed staying in Goldsboro because I was born here and I meet my husband, which we have two boys and a grandson. I also love our neighborhood because growing up here there is not too many I do not know. There are different races in our community and out of the 47 years of living in a house built by my husband’s family member so long ago, we as a community look after each other. We have another feature the my community share is that the same feeling for government issues, nor Republican, nor Democratic, the reasoning for this is because we hear the candidates promise certain things to improve, but then they are elected and everything they promised has been reneged, now we are considered Independent for our politic beliefs. We also have a majority of men and women that are well educated business owners, nurses, and teachers.  A community like ours is important for children because they can learn from growing up in a neighborhood that has close relationships.

        In our community, substance abuse is a problem. Substance abuse is when a person uses drugs without a prescription from a medical doctor or can be with a prescription from a medical doctor, alcohol, and street drugs. Substance abuse can have different affects to a community in many ways, but depending on drug type used or distributed. An example, if one of the neighbors had been using a drug Methamphetamines that they were manufactured, then our community would have been in danger of the meth lab exploding, since flammable chemicals being used for such production of this drug like: ethyl ether, acetone, or the person or persons being careless while making such drugs. When there is one drug found, it can lead to other drugs and there can be a high risk for drug related crimes and a danger for children. The property values can be affected if there is a serious drug problem in a community. The safety issues for children at the local schools. Where you have a substance abuse problem; you are subject to find gangs that are affiliated with drugs that can lead to bigger issues. With all that being said, substance abuse is damaging to people in a community with an outcome of loss of friends, families, loss of a job.