Community Leaders Respond
The leaders/stakeholders felt that some of the key problems facing families and individuals were:
■ The effects of the current economy and poverty—people are not able to aff ord to meet basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter, utilities, and rent/mortgage.
Who Took the Stakeholder Survey? |
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235 key stakeholders representing more than 60 organizations took the survey. |
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■ Homelessness
■ A lack of livable wage jobs and a unskilled workforce who are under- and unemployed. We are not preparing youth to fill technical jobs and not keeping the interest of youth as evidenced in the high rate of school dropout.
■ A lack of coordinated aff ordable and accessible health care.
■ Poor transportation and mass transit—people can't get to services or jobs.
And the important problems facing neighborhoods or communities at the present time included:
■ Gangs/youth violence.
■ People not feeling safe in their communities.
■ A lack of interconnectedness between neighbors and poor sense of community in addition to a feeling that people
don't have a say in what happens in their community.
■ Managing the growth of communities.
The stakeholders felt that some of the important services that organizations in the community should offer residents were:
■ Housing/shelter and services to meets basic needs such as food, clothing, and rent/mortgage assistance.
■ Access to livable wage jobs and job skills training programs.
■ Access to health care and dental care.
■ Parenting support and skills training.
■ A quality education system.
■ Aff ordable, accessible child care slots.
■ Investment in communities through education, help with credit, and
micro enterprise programs to build livable communities.
■ Access to mental health and substance abuse services.
■ Safe places to go if you are a victim of family violence.
The stakeholders thought the greatest assets and strengths of this community were:
■ The colleges, technical schools and universities.
■ The faith-based community who are powerful when they mobilize to address issues.
■ Many caring, committed and sharp people who are invested in creating change, as well as strong nonprofi ts and nonprofi t leaders and good diversity in viewpoints.
■ An area with room to grow and develop and potential for cleaning up areas of the city.
■ A cadre of new leaders coming up with new ideas.
■ Good hospitals and health care system.
■ Good schools with some very well performing school districts.
According to the stakeholders, the biggest challenges and issues that we need to address are:
■ A lack of political leadership and cooperation at the city and local levels. Our business leaders, politics, and communities are not on the same page and there is no pressure on political leaders to do more. This results in little action and accountability.
■ A desire to maintain the status quo. There is a small group of leaders that have power and they have traditional beliefs and work against change. It is diffi cult for newer and younger leaders to have a voice.
■ There are many people who are unwilling to share resources and give up control, making it diffi cult to coordinate and develop comprehensive approaches
Resources are sometimes placed in the wrong places and are not used efficiently and eff ectively. There is duplication and fragmentation of services.
■ Racism and classism exists that excludes people from the process—not all voices are heard.
■ There is helplessness and hopelessness in communities and a lack of grassroots leadership—there is no community voice.
■ The poor education system and unskilled workforce is not a draw for industry.
Key Stakeholder Survey Process
Information from community leaders was gathered in two ways. First, in the summer of 2008, 27 community leaders/stakeholders were interviewed as part of the Facing Facts process. A key stakeholder was defi ned as a community leader or volunteer who had insight about and experience in working on issues in the community. The list of key stakeholders was generated by input from the seven Facing Facts partners. They represented various segments of the community; including business leaders, social service executives, community volunteers, board members and the religious community. The purpose of the interviews was to 1) begin a dialogue about what issues in the two counties should be addressed, as well as changes that should occur to address issues and, 2) to generate a list of items to be placed on a survey to be distributed to a longer list of key stakeholders via the Internet. Second, the issues generated by the Key Stakeholder Interviews informed the items selected for the Key Stakeholder Survey. 235 key stakeholders representing over 60 organizations took the survey.
The key stakeholder survey asked people to rate the level of severity of problems by choosing if each was "Not a problem", "A Little Problem", "A Medium Problem" or a "Big Problem." They were also asked to rate the importance of services by choosing if each was "Not Important", "Somewhat Important", "Important", or "Very Important." Lastly, they rated a group of items that refl ected perceptions of quality of life in Richland and Lexington counties on a scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree.
An invitation to take the key stakeholder survey online was sent by the seven Facing Facts partners to their boards, key volunteers, executives of funded and partner agencies, and other community leaders. The link to the survey was included in the letter, which was e-mailed the last weeks of July 2008. The key stakeholder survey link was open the weeks of August 4 and 11, 2008 and a total of 235 stakeholder surveys were completed.
Interviews were conducted by phone and in person and focused on five questions:
■ What are the top two problems facing families at the present time?
■ What are the top two important problems facing your neighborhood or community at the present time?
■ What are the three most important services that organizations in your community should off er citizens?
■ What are your hopes and dreams for our region? What can be accomplished in fi ve years?
■ What are our greatest assets and strengths as a community?
■ What are our biggest challenges and issues that we need to address?
