OVERVIEW INC.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

        Community Needs Assessment

2019  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
With  the  needs  assessment  being  used  by  Overview  in  order  to  gain  grants  and  plan  new  
programs,  we  are  not  able  to  post  it  until  the  organization  itself  has  it  published.  But,  we  are  
able  to  take  a  few  bits  and  pieces  out  of  the  needs  assessment  in  order  to  showcase  some  of  
the  work  that  had  been  included.  This  will  include  information  from  the  Focus  Group  (mainly  
just  the  construction  of  and  some  general  findings),  the  data  part  of  the  needs  assessment,  and  
a  little  bit  of  information  in  regards  to  the  community  surveys.    
 
 
 
Section  One:  Focus  Group  -­‐  
 
The  Focus  group  was  completed  in  order  for  Overview  to  gain  knowledge  on  the  events  going  
on  in  the  community.  This  was  a  way  to  gather  first  hand  data  by  hosting  a  two-­‐hour  long  focus  
group.  We  had  the  opportunity  to  plan  and  host  the  focus  group  at  Overview  and  the  
experience  was  wonderful.  For  starters,  this  is  something  that  I  have  never  done  before,  so  
taking  things  that  I  had  learned  in  class  and  placing  them  into  play  was  rewarding.  The  aim  for  
the  focus  group  was  around  seven  to  eight  participants.  So,  one  from  each  county  that  
Overview  serves  (Baldwin,  Hancock,  Jasper,  Johnson,  Putnam,  Washington,  and  Wilkinson).  Our  
participating  group  actually  turned  out  to  fourteen  people,  which  was  higher  than  we  had  even  
anticipated.  Many  people  brought  someone  with  them,  but,  it  led  to  good  conversation  and  
some  valuable  points.  A  few  of  the  participating  groups  included:  
 
•   Baldwin  County  Family  Connections  
•   Washington  County  Board  of  Commissioners  
•   Baldwin  County  Boys  and  Girls  Club  
•   Putnam  Christian  Outreach  food  pantry  
•   Northside  Loans  
 
The  two-­‐hour  discussion  brought  up  a  bunch  of  different  points  that  we  would  not  have  been  
able  to  just  get  from  data  sets.  Which  is  why  getting  these  first  hand  data  sets  are  so  important.  
We  have  information  regarding  the  people  who  live  and  work  in  the  communities,  they  see  the  
issues  that  are  going  on.  The  statistics  did  match  up  with  some  of  the  main  needs  that  were  
stated.  Every  category  that  we  discussed  had  some  form  of  agreeance  and  a  long  discussion.  
But,  after  looking  into  detail  over  everything  that  was  said,  the  main  needs  in  all  of  counties  
seemed  to  be:  
 
•   Transportation  (Mainly  Public  Transportation)  
•   Stable  Family  Structures  
•   Lack  of  Jobs  /  Motivation  to  Work  
•   Childcare  Needs  
•   Lack  of  Access  to  Quality  Resources  for  the  Low  Income  (Food,  Shelter,  Etc.)  
 
 
Section  Two:  Needs  Assessment  –  
 
A  needs  assessment  is  a  systematic  process  for  determining  and  addressing  needs,  or  "gaps"  
between  current  conditions  and  desired  conditions  or  "wants".  The  process  for  completed  this  
includes  collecting  data,  analyzing  the  data,  and  then  identifying  the  priority  needs.  The  main  
way  for  us  to  collect  data  was  through  secondary  data,  or  data  that  has  been  collected  by  
someone  else.  All  of  this  information  is  readily  available  online  with  us  using  websites  like  the  
Census  Bureau  and  the  Department  of  Housing  and  Urban  Development.  Though  the  most  
recent  Census  was  done  in  2010,  thankfully  the  Census  Bureau  does  estimates  on  different  
yearly  basis.  The  main  two  that  we  used  to  complete  the  data  process  of  the  needs  assessment  
were:  
 
•   Multiple  Year  Estimates  
o   The  American  Community  Survey  produces  three  year  estimates  and  a  five  year  
estimate  for  areas  with  a  population  of  20,000  or  more  
•   Small  Area  Income  and  Poverty  Estimates  (SAIPE)  
o   Produces  single  year  estimates  of  poverty  and  income  for  ALL  counties  in  the  
United  States.  It  also  provides  estimates  of  school  aged  children  in  poverty  for  all  
of  the  13,000+  school  districts    
 
All  of  our  charts  came  out  looking  very  similar  to  these  examples  from  our  assessment  –  
 

 
  
 
With  regards  to  the  graphs,  we  had  to  figure  out  how  to  properly  use  Excel  in  order  to  produce  
pie  charts  and  bar  graphs  to  show  the  different  rates  and  changes  for  the  data.  These  were  not  
difficult,  just  time  consuming  due  to  the  fact  that  we  were  having  to  input  all  of  the  data  charts  
from  the  needs  assessment  into  Excel  in  order  to  get  the  chart  looking  right.  A  few  examples  of  
these  are:  
 

 
  
 
 
Section  Three:  Community  Surveys  –  
 
The  community  surveys  were  handed  out  on  filled  out  online  to  citizens  of  the  different  
counties  that  Overview  services.  The  hope  with  these  surveys  was  that  we  would  be  able  to  get  
first  hand  data  from  those  who  are  actually  living  in  the  community.  The  results  we  hoped  to  
get  were  a  lot  like  those  we  received  from  the  focus  group.  We  can  see  different  trends  from  
the  data  sets,  but  being  able  to  get  more  input  on  regards  to  the  issues  through  things  like  
surveys  and  focus  groups,  allows  a  better  opportunity  for  help  in  the  future.  The  survey  
consisted  of  50  questions  with  11  different  sections.  Those  sections  including  questions  related  
to:  
 
•   Demographics  
•   Employment  
•   Education  
•   Housing  
•   Health  
•   Nutrition  
•   Use  of  Income  
•   Transportation  
•   Emergency  Situations  
•   Community  Resources    
•   Children’s  Needs  
 
With  the  paper  surveys,  we  had  the  ability  to  pass  these  out  during  the  Energy  Assistance  
Program,  which  is  how  we  got  majority  of  our  responses  (79%).  Then,  the  Online  surveys  were  
posted  onto  Overviews  Facebook.  These  did  not  get  as  many  responses  (21%),  but  could  be  due  
to  the  fact  of  internet  access.  We  did  get  121  responses  for  the  surveys  though,  which  is  not  
near  the  total  amount  we  had  hoped,  but  it  still  allows  us  to  gather  some  valued  information.  
Once  we  had  ended  the  survey  response  period,  we  took  all  of  the  answers  and  inputted  it  into  
Survey  Monkey.  This  website  calculates  different  data  and  also  produces  charts  for  us.  It  is  a  
good  visual  way  to  show  people  what  the  problems  are.  An  example  of  a  few  of  the  charts  are:  
 
 

 
 
It  allows  us  to  gather  these  data  sets  in  order  to  take  what  is  ACTUALLY  going  on  in  the  
community  and  be  able  to  apply  future  programs  towards  the  issues.  The  surveys  were  overall  
very  challenging  to  get  responses  on.  Due  to  the  fact  that  many  people  thought  they  were  too  
long,  there  was  no  incentive  to  fill  out  the  surveys,  confusing  questions  or  people  not  filling  out  
the  answers  fully,  and  lastly,  the  reach  to  get  people  to  fill  them  out.    
 
 
The  Needs  Assessment  was  an  overall  success  in  our  eyes.  There  were  many  difficulties  that  
were  faced  but  a  lot  of  valuable  information  was  learned.  Obviously,  this  is  just  a  short  snippet  
of  what  is  actually  contained  in  the  assessment,  but  the  hope  is  that  what  we  have  produced  
will  be  able  to  help  out  Overview  in  the  future.