[North Carolina] Needs assessment focus: Crime, poverty, after-school programs

From The Daily Reflector Online

By Jennifer White,

Crime, poverty and the need for after-school and summer programs for youth are three of the most pressing issues in Pitt County that need to be addressed, community members said.

The United Way of Pitt County, East Carolina Regional Development Services and other organizations began a community needs assessment last August to identify needs the community felt were most important.

The final report, which will include responses from more than 700 service providers and residents, will be completed by the end of January, Ron Nowaczyk with ECU Regional Development Services said.

Beth Franco, community impact director at the local United Way, said the purpose of the assessment was to raise awareness of key issues among service providers and community leaders.

"We wanted to get a sense from our community what they considered were the issues and the concerns of the different neighborhoods," she said. "Our hope was this would provide us with some direction to work with other groups and individuals in Pitt County to try to take some action in improving the lives of people in the community."

The university compiled a list of 44 nationally recognized social issues and asked service providers to critique those issues and rank them as being not important, minor, critical, or needing immediate action, Nowaczyk said.

Similar surveys, narrowed to 20 issues, were e-mailed to a random sample of Pitt County residents. Service providers and residents were allowed to provide feedback about issues they considered important and to identify issues not listed on the survey.

Nowaczyk said that the issues that people identified as most critical were all among the nationally recognized issues included on the survey.

Once the surveys were completed, seven focus groups were held throughout the county to discuss the issues.

"The focus groups were unique and helpful in many ways because they allowed us to hear about what the issue was rather than just to read it on the survey," Nowaczyk said.

Nowaczyk reported at the United Way annual meeting that a number of issues came up through consensus, but the organizations did not want to rank them.

"We don't want to present a picture that one is more important than another," he said. "They're all critically important."

The issue mentioned most often was crime, including gangs, violent acts and domestic violence. More than half of respondents said crime was a critical issue.

Programs for youth were described as a critical issue by two-thirds of respondents and were the only needs mentioned at all seven focus groups.

About 75 percent of residents sited poverty as a critical issue, including the lack of jobs, a poorly prepared workforce and unemployment.

Service providers identified health issues as critical, including mental and emotional illness and the cost of prescriptions.

Homelessness, including affordable housing and substandard housing, was a critical issue among minorities. Minorities also sited the availability of public transportation.

Other issues that came up consistently in surveys and focus groups were drug and alcohol abuse among children, including underage drinking, and K-12 education, including illiteracy, dropouts, crowded classrooms and teen pregnancy.

Nowaczyk said that two public forums will be held in February to discuss the final report. Franco said the final report will be used by United Way as a tool in the strategic planning process to help focus on the issues that the community said are most important.

"I think it will give us some focus on some initiatives that we need to be involved in," she said. "It may identify partnerships that we traditionally haven't really fostered."