Running head: WINDSHIELD SURVEY 1

Windshield Survey: Draper, Utah

Siera Stokes, Bronson Bybee, and Shelby Furubayashi

Community and Mental Health

Professor Jon Worthen and Professor Rebecca Sanderson

Westminster College
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Windshield Survey

The booming town of Draper. For our assignment we decided to do a Windshield Survey

on Draper, Utah. During our drive, we drove through majority of the town roughly south of

11400 S to 14800 S and from 700 W east to the base of the mountains. In our group we have one

student who previously lived in Draper, one who has visited numerous times, and one who has

only been there once or twice. Due to the dynamics of our group we had different biases and

perspectives, which is the main reason we chose Draper, to see at the end of our survey if we all

had the same perspective. CC felt as though it was a close knit community where you were

bound to see someone you knew and even though many people were wealthy, it didn’t cause a

separation between friends and families. Also, Draper had most things you needed to survive all

within it’s boundaries. Bronson perceived Draper as a really nice city with some beautiful parks

and nice houses, especially on the east side. There is one trailer park and a couple lower income

areas but not many. There's some farmland that probably stood for a long time as the only active

location in Draper until the last 15-20 years when it started to develop more. Thirdly, Shelby

views Draper as a wealthier part of Utah with nicer homes, some gated communities, and with

some recently built schools due to the high percentage of children in the city. With the city being

relatively new, many younger families with children have moved there.

While driving through the town we were able to perform our Windshield survey and

found loads of great information about Draper. The boundaries expand a little further than where

we drove, but not much more, and we covered almost everything besides about ten more blocks

south. Majority of Draper is zoned for residential and there are very specific areas zoned for

businesses. It is apparent that businesses and neighborhoods are separate, but majority of the

businesses in Draper are all relatively close to each other. A bulk of the houses look like they are
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for upper income families, while there are still some older houses on farms, which is really the

only open spaces besides parks, and definitely some middle income housing for remainder of the

families. From the looks of it, Draper has grown rapidly in the last decade and is still continuing

to grow from the construction of business buildings and houses. It seems as though almost

everyone has a car for their transportation and there is a Trax line. After speaking to some

residents, it became obvious that they are not happy with the new Trax line that ends in the heart

of Draper. Many people are concerned that it will bring homeless people to the town and that the

noise will be disruptive. Also, a huge concern for residents is that they will continue to expand

the Trax line and it will soon be going through residential neighborhoods and be a safety problem

for young children. Even though Draper seemed to be a very active community with runners and

bikers, it looked as though it was more of a hobby or for exercise versus a mode of

transportation. We came across thirteen parks ranging from neighborhood parks to community

parks and also saw a town center, four medical centers, three dental offices, and one recreation

center. As for shopping, there was a range of stores from Home Depot to Walmart to clothing

boutiques. Everything that anyone could require for their basic needs was within a fifteen minute

radius of driving from anywhere in Draper and there were ample amount of stores, including

grocery stores. There was a mixture of chain restaurants and also local businesses. Continuing

on, we knew that Draper was once deemed a farmland and it was evident in the farms still

around and all of the contained wild stock. We didn’t see and stray animals, but many people had

pet dogs and there were quite a few horses near the farm areas as well. We even saw a pet zebra,

ostrich, and peacock! Draper is a very clean town that is taken well care of; the parks were

freshly mowed and had minimal litter on the grounds, the trails also looked like they were free of

hazards and were kept clean enough for bikers to use them without getting flat tires. From our
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drive, we mainly saw white people with the exception of one Polynesian family at the park and

an African American man as well. We came across fourteen LDS churches and 5 non LDS

churches including; The Rock Church, Presbyterian, Baptist, Catholic, and the South Mountain

Community Church. We are assuming that according to the number of churches, the majority of

residents are of the LDS culture. It felt as though every few blocks there was a new school

ranging from the brand new Draper Park Middle School and Corner Canyon High School, to a

charter school called Summit Academy and Draper Park Elementary School, which is much

older. All around there were signs for political candidates, but that was the only sign we found of

politics. As well as the health centers we saw many active community members, there were signs

for 5K runs, children’s sports teams practices going on and two of the gyms that we drove by

seemed to be bustling with people so we concluded that Draper is a very active and healthy

community.

After our drive through Draper, Utah we went onto the internet to compare our

observations with the subjective data that is provided to everyone interested in this area. Through

our drive we noticed how little amount of open space there was because of the vast growth in the

past couple of years. With the numerous businesses and recreational activities that are listed on

the Draper City Utah page it shows just how occupied the space is that makes every resource

right at the fingertips for the people living in Draper ("Draper City," 2006). Another thing that we

found on the web that we also observed throughout our drive was the amount of locations for

hiking and biking, bringing people to the heart of Draper for these recreational activities ("Parks

&," 2007). Online we read an article about a possible extension of Trax through the local area

("Transportation," 2006). With the information given, it is not apparent online how the

community members feel about the new train line. We found it interesting that through our drive
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we saw so many different religious organizations but on the main Draper website they have no

information about places for religion and faith in the local area ("Draper City," 2016). Draper is

mostly a higher socioeconomic class with a greater percentage of Caucasians living in the local

area. Driving around, every person in Draper looked comfortable and happy with his or her

living situation and overall well-being. When looking up the local newspaper, Draper Journal’s

main story was, “County Council Takes on Opioid Crisis”. According to a Draper councilmen,

“We rank 4th in the nation for prescription overdose deaths per 100,000 population” (DeBry,

2016). Debry addressed that he is going to take primary precautions to lower the addiction of

opioids in the area. When driving around Draper, you would have no idea or thought that abuse

of prescription drugs would or is occurring. Another thing we found on the web that we did not

see on our drive was a link for the Draper Senior Center, which seems incredibly beneficial for

elderly residents. Through this link there is great information about all the opportunities that the

Senior Center provides ranging from Tai Chi Yoga to educational seminars such as a - How To

Use the Newest Technology ("Draper Senior," n.d.). It is refreshing to see the easy access to find

locations for the elderly to go in this area and shows how the city of Draper is mindful to their

elderly. Overall, the information and subjective data that we found through the internet resources

coincided very well with the data that we observed through our windshield survey.

Through our observation of Draper it was made aware that the expansion of this

community and the improvement of living situations have increased along with the new

resources that have made this town so alluring to live in. Through the vast growth of Draper we

believe that the space for development is becoming minimized which could potentially slow

down the progress that is being made in the upcoming years. Even though this is our perspective,

we do not believe that this community will deteriorate in any way from what they have become
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and continue to be strong and well-kept because of the resources that have been developed for

the people living here for future years. With such a strong community through support and

involvement, Draper shows how defiant it could be even without gross development, because of

the people that live within this boundary. Every community after 20 years of lack of development

will need an update, but we do not predict that this area is going to need extensive construction,

but just a few updates because of the ever-changing technology and inventions. Even though this

area is wealthier than others, nurses will play a significant role in this community assessment

because of the growing population of 42,274 in 2015-2016. More and more people are going to

need health education and prevention precautions that nurses can provide. Draper is viewed as a

younger city with many growing families. Nurses need to be aware of the population trend in

order to provide education for the younger residents.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is good to keep in mind when evaluating if a certain

population would be concerned with mental health. With Draper being one of the wealthiest and

nicest areas of the Salt Lake Valley, you would think its citizens would have all the means

necessary to afford, locate, and access the mental health resources available to them. Assuming

that most of the Draper’s citizens’ physiological needs are being met, they can tend to their

advanced psychological concerns. The area we surveyed was only a few square miles, but we

found several mental health facilities. We located several psychologists, two psychiatrists, a

psychotherapist, a child mental health facility, two drug addiction treatment centers, and a

behavioral center.

The child mental health facility is called Youth Care and they specialize in the treatment

of depression, mood disorders, anxiety and trauma, low self-esteem and drug abuse in

adolescents 11 to 18 years old. The children in their programs live on campus and are part of a
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point system. Upon arrival to the center, the children start at the lowest level and through proper

behavior, participation and completion of all therapy assignments, they can advance to higher

levels and eventually are allowed to return home to their families ("Welcome to Youth," 2016).

The second mental health facility we took a look at is Annie’s House, a women only

addiction recovery center, run exclusively by women. The women who run the facility don’t just

attempt to understand what their clients are going through, but they advertise on their website

that they have been in their client’s situations and have recovered successfully themselves. The

main goal of Annie’s House is to provide a 12-step program to addiction recovery in a respectful,

comfortable environment (“Annie’s House,” 2016).

The third mental health resource we found was Corner Canyon Counseling &

Psychological Services, a counseling and psychological appointment service. During their

counseling sessions, the specialized doctors, therapists, and counselors listen to their clients, ask

understanding questions, offer recommendations, but also emphasize that they can only do so

much, and it ultimately comes down to their client to make the necessary changes ("Life Is

Hard," 2016).

In closing, all three members of our group were able to see Draper through the same lens

and were able to agree that it is a unique town which can sustain all of it’s residents. There is a

variety of activities to choose from, a range in housing options and prices, plenty of schools to

support all of the children in the young and growing families. It had it’s own identity with brand

new areas while still maintaining the historical aspects of old Draper. It seemed to be a generally

happy community with plenty of functions for people to get to know each other and all of the

resources one could need are easily accessible. Draper seems to still be developing and it will be

interesting to see in another 10-20 years what it has become.

References

Annie's house. (2016). Retrieved October 9, 2016, from http://annieshouse.com/

Baffa, G., & Temple, J. D. (2015, January). How to take your child's pulse. Retrieved October 3,

2016, from http://kidshealth.org/en/parents/take-pulse.html#

DeBry, S. L. (2016, September 29). County council takes on opioid crisis. Retrieved October 10,

2016, from Draper Journal website:

http://www.draperjournal.com/2016/09/29/123111/county-council-takes-on-opioid-crisis

Draper city utah. (2006). Retrieved October 9, 2016, from http://www.draper.ut.us/

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Life is hard; We all need help sometimes. (2016). Retrieved October 10, 2016, from

http://cornercanyoncounseling.com/

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