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Addiction, mental health, jobs, housing identified among top issues in PCCF community needs assessment
The results are in for a nearly yearlong study by the Putnam County Community Foundation, and they are not exactly surprising.
Giving a community report Thursday morning on the community needs assessment they undertook earlier this year, PCCF staff members presented the results of the community survey that was performed earlier this summer.
Respondents identified addiction and illegal drug use (50.3 percent of respondents), inadequate mental health treatment options and resources (37.4 percent), inadequate job opportunities to make a living wage (37.0 percent) and lack of affordable and/or diverse housing options and resources (36.9 percent) as the top issues facing Putnam County.
Noting that these are not quick-fix issues, PCCF Executive Director Neysa Meyer advised that these concerns fall in line with what the organization found in a similar 2019 study.
While the results of the study have not yet been published, the Thursday meeting was a summary of the findings.
“The Putnam County Community Foundation will publish the full community needs assessment report in December, and we hope that it will start dialogue around many of the areas of need that are identified in the report,” Meyer said. “We hope it is a resource that the community will utilize as well as a resource that the foundation will utilize for its programs.”
The meeting was the beginning of the fourth and final phase of the study, which began in March with interviews with community leaders.
From that point, several focus groups were convened in each of four local communities (coinciding with the four school districts) to learn more about local needs on a grassroots level. At this stage, care was taken to meet with people from as many demographics as possible.
“We’ve tried our very best to be as inclusive as possible to include as many people as possible,” PCCF Communications Director Sarah Stone said.
From there, the foundation proceeded into the public survey portion of the process, the results of which were the subject on Thursday. One encouraging sign to PCCF officials was that they were told they could expect the results to be about 95 percent accurate if they got 380 responses. Instead, they received 1,200 responses to the survey.
Foundation Community Development Director Dean Gambill noted that this took the estimated accuracy to 99 percent.
But back to the results themselves, the meeting did more than simply identify these broad issues.
In terms of mental health and addiction, 38 percent of respondents said the community has inadequate addiction treatment options and resources. Another 32 percent said there are inadequate mental health resources. Additionally, 30 percent identified inadequate mental health treatment options as the main problem in this area.
On the housing front, 47 percent of respondents identified lack of affordable housing as the chief issue. Meanwhile, 42 percent said a simple lack of available housing is the problem. Just 11 percent of these respondents said a lack of housing diversity is the main issue.
Though not in the top four issues identified, childcare issues were also identified by 27.4 percent of respondents as a problem. Of these, 48 percent said the issue is lack of quality early childhood education and/or childcare options. Another 39 percent said affordability of childcare is the issue. Meanwhile, just 13 percent said lack of affordable early childhood education options is the issue.
While not broken down further, the concern over job options became a topic of discussion during the meeting. Greencastle/Putnam County Economic Development Director Kristen Clary noted a difference between public perception and what she sees daily in dealing with local manufacturers in terms of jobs with a living wage. She noted that local industries can’t seem to find enough workers.
“Some of these needs are being met, and the communication is lacking,” Clary said. “How do we communicate that we have a solution to some of these problems?”
Foundation officials noted the need for better communication within the community.
Even with the results soon to be published, the overall tone of the meeting was that this is only the beginning of the work.
“Part of the commitment in 2024 is to dive into some of these areas,” Meyer said. “We also saw that there’s a lot of information but there’s a great need for additional information, a deeper dive into several of these areas. So we will be doing that also in 2024.”
The work also goes beyond the foundation itself.
“You have taken the step,” Greencastle City Councilman Darrel Thomas said in praising PCCF’s work. “Now it’s the community’s job to pick up and run with each of those issues.”
Echoing an earlier comment from Stone that PCCF is not a service provider, Meyer said, “We would love to be the convener, the collaborator.”
“I’m thrilled to see so many people here,” Gambill added. “I’m hoping that you all will be making connections.”
Anyone unable to attend on Thursday and wanting more information may contact Sarah Stone at 653-4978 or sstone@pcfoundation.org.