Service Area
PRACs primary service area covers approximately one-third of the States geography. PRAC is DYFS's largest transportation provider for the counties of Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem. Housing and economic development in these counties is occurring along the major transportation routes that transverse the once heavily farmed landscape. Urban cent
ers are very old, and with very little exception, the areas of established economic growth are developing in the coastal regions on both sides of the State. Outside of some limited "development zones", much of this geography is sparsely populated Pinelands, marshes, bogs or farmland. While PRAC's original focus was meeting the needs of low income Hispanics, low income Whites are the areas predominant minority, and there has been a steady inflow of low income Blacks and a broad array of different Hispanic immigrants and permanent farm workers. Impact
PRAC's efficient outreach empowers constituents, whose plight is actually heightened due to the lack of geographic density, traditional community concentrations and support networks. These people suffer far more isolation, lack of access to essential resources and support networks, and deprivation of cultural reinforcement, than those living in more densely populated areas in which people are physically close enough to have a reliable and varied support network. PRAC's market represents the area of highest population migration for New Jersey's future. Because of the inflow of a far broader range of mainland Hispanics as opposed to island Hispanics, needs and cultural sensitivities are less homogenous than ever before. PRAC's bi-lingual and bi-cultural staff has been successful in making these new populations comfortable with integration into the American economy, while providing them with increased access to essential resources requisite to making the transition.
