Service

Back


Strengthening Social Services

Community aid and intervention is among the fastest growing sectors in the Orange economy. Individuals, the town, county and state officials are meeting the challenges head on.

Franklin County is still the most rural place in Massachusetts with seventy-two thousand or so people spread over 26 towns and 725 square miles. Rural living is romantic, but also associated with barriers for disadvantaged populations with splintered social networks and the increased risks that come with emergencies in remote areas.

There are limited public transportation options in the Franklin County region. Most of the county has no public transit services and few vans for the elderly and handicapped.

Roughly 20 percent of residents are unemployed, out of reach of general health promotion and registered with at least one disability, virtually constraining them to their homes.

Years of research have demonstrated that social isolation and barriers in the built environment limit access to health services for persons with a disability.

"Substance abuse, alcohol in particular, is a big problem for teens in rural areas" according to Angela L. Russek, coordinator for the Community Coalition for Teens. Domestic violence is no longer invisible, and recently a permanent juvenile court office has taken on serious problems plaguing its youngest residents.

Regardless of the seeming new affluence from an influx of families buying homes in Orange from upscale cities and towns throughout Massachusetts, Franklin County is still among the ten poorest counties in the state with an ongoing problem of food scarcity and a high percentage of disabled individuals with little to no support from extended families and a high unemployment rate.