Mounds of trash on the sidewalk. Used hypodermic needles strewn around parks. Memorials to kids who died from gun violence posted on streets.
That’s what Latino high school students in North Philadelphia walk past in their neighborhoods every day. So when researchers asked them to take pictures of what prevents them from being healthy, the answers seemed obvious to many.
“I don’t feel safe when my community is dirty,” one student wrote in a caption for a photo of trash strewn across the street.
The project was part of an initiative by the Philadelphia Collaborative for Health Equity and Thomas Jefferson University to assess health disparities affecting Latinos living in North Philadelphia east of Broad Street.
Along with the high school students’ photos, researchers conducted focus groups with more than 70 residents and local community organizations, and collected data from the Public Health Management Corporation’s 2018 Household Health Survey. (The student photographers’ names were withheld to protect their privacy.)
The researchers focused on five zip codes, which include the neighborhoods of Frankford, Fairhill, Harrowgate, Hunting Park, Juniata Park, Kensington, and Port Richmond — areas where the life expectancy of a child at birth is 20 years lower than it is for children born in Center City.
“This area represents some of the worst health outcomes in the city,” said Jack Ludmir, executive director of the Philadelphia Collaborative for Health Equity (P-CHE). “We’re trying to address that by going in and listening to find what are the true needs.”
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