Scott Alexander Lineberger

UGA study examines strengths, weaknesses and gaps in a region’s social services

Just after 9 p.m. on January 25, 2005 — the coldest night of the year, as it turned out — soldiers from Fort Benning marched into a homeless shelter in nearby Columbus, Georgia. They joined a group of about 100 volunteers that was about to survey the problems and needs of area homeless people.

Dennis Epps and Courtney Tobin, both specialists in community economic development at the University of Georgia’s Fanning Institute, gave last minute instructions. Some volunteers would conduct structured in-depth interviews with the homeless in area shelters. Then, at 2 a.m., other volunteers would walk and drive around the city to count people they found living on the streets. They also counted people in jail who had no address. During the early morning hours, Epps found homeless people washing clothes in public restrooms.

“They took advantage of resources and were functioning when most of the rest of us are usually asleep,” he said.

By dawn, the volunteers had counted nearly 1,000 homeless men, women, and children in Muscogee and Russell counties. Additional homeless people were identified by sheriff ’s departments in six surrounding counties during the same week.

This point-in-time count was one part of a comprehensive project designed to uncover gaps in the region’s human social services.

Many service organizations, like the Columbus-area United Way, had been conducting individual studies on the area’s problems, like homelessness, but were unsure how to collect and process the right information to address the issues. They also knew that donors wanted to make sure that funds were used as effectively as possible, that needs were being met and that services were not being duplicated. Continuing to address individual problems piece-meal would allow many of the area’s problems to fester. So a committee of 27 service organizations joined together to undertake one large and integrated study that could provide the basis of a regional strategy.

The overarching committee they formed — the Community Assets and Critical Issue Assessment Committee of the Chattahoochee Valley region, an area including the eight counties around Columbus — hired UGA’s Epps and Tobin to tell a complete story about human service gaps and overlaps that could lay a foundation for future work in the area. Agencies could use the information to apply for federal grants, help make funding decisions, or identify local problems and needs.

A 20-member core assessment committee, seven regional members, and dozens of people from UGA’s Fanning Institute and Carl Vinson Institute of Government worked together, under the direction of Epps and Tobin, to gather stories from 3,700 area residents. Over nine months, the committee identified needed social service programs for seven counties in Georgia (Chattahoochee, Harris, Marion, Muscogee, Stewart, Talbot, and Taylor) and one in Alabama (Russell), which comprise the Chattahoochee Valley region.

A Story Told by Many Voices

Scott Alexander Lineberger

Residents from all eight counties participated in town hall meetings, which provided a forum for many voices to be heard.

“The town hall meetings were the first time that some of these people had ever gotten together to talk,” Epps said. “And they really wanted to express their opinions and offer their ideas,” added Tobin, “to the point where they didn’t want to stop talking.” To make sure that language was not a barrier, Spanish interpreters attended all the meetings.

A thousand high school students also shared their thoughts about their counties’ strengths and weaknesses, largely through their government classes. While the region’s students generally believed drugs to be a serious problem, Talbot County students talked about a decrease in drugs and crime in their communities.

Muscogee County students saw a need for a psychiatric hospital for the uninsured and clean rivers with more green space.

In Harris County, one teen said that the police force was too small to handle the county’s problems, and other students observed a need for full-time firefighters as well. These professionals, the students thought, were needed to reduce response times for emergencies. Another challenge, according to the students, was that limited business opportunities, resistance to industrial development, and, consequently, a lack of jobs causes young people to leave the region.

Although interviews with the homeless, town hall meetings and the high-school students’ discussions gave Epps and Tobin a great deal of information on community perceptions, the two researchers wanted to hear from an even broader set of community voices. To do this, the UGA team conducted online surveys and telephone interviews with nearly 2,000 residents in the eight-county area.

Telling the Story

Scott Alexander Lineberger

All the voices were collected in a final report that presented the information not only through narrative but also through photos, watercolor drawings, resident quotes, charts, and tables.

The study revealed seven critical issues for the region: (1) poverty, (2) the economy, (3) public safety (including illegal drug use), (4) education, (5) health care, (6) natural environment, and (7) social issues (including teen pregnancy, foster care, child abuse and neglect, transportation, and affordable housing).

There were no major surprises.

“The study verified what we knew in a way that was believable and trustworthy,” said Candyss Bryant, chairperson of the Assessment Committee.

The area’s community members and service organizations continue to use the final report to learn about their region’s human service needs and assets and to begin providing solutions to problems. Inquiries to the assessment committee range from “How do I prepare a simple grant?” to “What is the state of race relations in our region?” Marion County residents have continued to meet on a quarterly basis to talk about critical issues, and organizations have tapped the study’s information both vor outside grants and their own in-house strategic planning. As a result of the study, Muscogee County has launched a racerelations initiative, and other counties are beginning to design poverty initiatives and work on solving other core community issues.

“What we did was provide a way for the community to communicate,” said Epps. “We tested the prevailing public perceptions, and contrasted that with what data actually revealed.”

The uniqueness of the project for Epps and Tobin — not only regarding homelessness but also across all the other critical issues facing the Chattahoochee Valley region — is that everyone had a voice and that all the voices needed to be heard in order for the story of the region to be told.

Leara Rhodes

Undertaking a study of this size required the help of many more people than could be mentioned in the story. In addition to Dennis Epps, Courtney Tobin and thousands of community members, Rich Clark from UGA’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government and Danny Bivins and Jan Coyne from UGA’s Fanning Institute contributed their expertise and hours of “seat time” getting down to the Chattahoochee Valley region.

Tags: Fanning Institute, Homelessness, Poverty, Social Services, Winter 2007