Problem and Background
The Barack Obama Presidential Center, which will be located on 63rd and Stony Island in Jackson Park, is close in proximity to the Washington Park neighborhood (Kennedy, 2016). Due to open in 2021, this presidential center is the first of its kind, as it is the first presidential library in an urban city and the first presidential library of an African American president. Many community leaders and residents in Washington Park believe it will have the potential to uplift their community economically. This project seeks to foster cross-collaborative and interdisciplinary work that addresses economic and social disparities related to social determinants of health in Washington Park. Stress is a factor that plays out in …show more content…
This study will seek to answer the following key questions:
• Will the Barack Obama Presidential Center have an impact on economic development and life expectancy in Washington Park? If so, in what ways will it have an impact on Washington Park?
• How will the construction of the presidential library effect stress levels of the residents of Washington Park?
• Are there unintended impacts of the projected economic growth, such as increases in property taxes, which might inadvertently add to the chronic stress and poor health outcomes of Washington Park residents?
These questions seek to garner information that will have a direct and positive impact on Chicago communities. Current research on the economic impact of presidential libraries does not delve into the effects on the communities where they are located; rather, scholarship focuses solely on economic outgrowth (Clark, 2015; Hufbauer, 2005). By critically analyzing the interconnectivity between economics and life expectancy in Chicago, we can begin to address the larger questions in the fields of community psychology, health psychology, and economic sociology, such as what it means to be healthy, the relationship between the health of the community and the health of the individual, and the relationship between economic development and social
The Barack Obama Presidential Center, which will be located on 63rd and Stony Island in Jackson Park, is close in proximity to the Washington Park neighborhood (Kennedy, 2016). Due to open in 2021, this presidential center is the first of its kind, as it is the first presidential library in an urban city and the first presidential library of an African American president. Many community leaders and residents in Washington Park believe it will have the potential to uplift their community economically. This project seeks to foster cross-collaborative and interdisciplinary work that addresses economic and social disparities related to social determinants of health in Washington Park. Stress is a factor that plays out in …show more content…
This study will seek to answer the following key questions:
• Will the Barack Obama Presidential Center have an impact on economic development and life expectancy in Washington Park? If so, in what ways will it have an impact on Washington Park?
• How will the construction of the presidential library effect stress levels of the residents of Washington Park?
• Are there unintended impacts of the projected economic growth, such as increases in property taxes, which might inadvertently add to the chronic stress and poor health outcomes of Washington Park residents?
These questions seek to garner information that will have a direct and positive impact on Chicago communities. Current research on the economic impact of presidential libraries does not delve into the effects on the communities where they are located; rather, scholarship focuses solely on economic outgrowth (Clark, 2015; Hufbauer, 2005). By critically analyzing the interconnectivity between economics and life expectancy in Chicago, we can begin to address the larger questions in the fields of community psychology, health psychology, and economic sociology, such as what it means to be healthy, the relationship between the health of the community and the health of the individual, and the relationship between economic development and social