UW ENTERS SECOND PHASE OF NEEDS STUDY

The Area Wide United Way's community needs assessment process where it is trying to determine the needs of the community has entered its second, or information-gathering stage.

"We are making an effort to find out what the unmet needs of this community are and finding ways we can impact those needs," said Nancy Jernigan, executive director of the Area Wide United Way.

The agency recently completed the first phase of the process that identified issues that needed a closer look. They are transportation, affordable housing, youth substance abuse and assistance to low-income families.

The second phase involves a task force led by Southeast Missouri Hospital chief executive officer Jim Wente and looks into these areas. Task force members have been charged with learning more about the four issues, where problems are, what needs may be going unmet, what resources are being directed at those needs and want the United Way can do.

"No one was taking a role in bringing people together on these issues," Jernigan said. "We realized this was a good role for the United Way."

Task force member John Mehner, president of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce, said people are applauding the work the task force is doing.

"The people we've talked to are happy that we are working on needs not now being met," Mehner said.

Mehner is in charge of gathering information on transportation issues. He has looked at several area public transportation studies, including the most recent one done by Cape Girardeau County.

They all point out the same need for coordinating the many types of transportation offered locally and that coordination can't be done effectively by volunteers, Mehner said.

Cape Girardeau City Manager Mike Miller is in charge of gathering information on affordable housing issues. On Thursday, he met with social service and government agencies that deal with housing issues.

"They were asked where they saw needs and problem areas in housing," Miller said. Now Miller is working at collecting quantitative data from these agencies to differentiate perceived needs from real needs.

The task force member in charge of gathering information on youth substance abuse is Dennis Marchi, manager at Schnucks. He said he is planning on talking to businesses, schools and other agencies about the problems of substance abuse and possible solutions.

Denise Wimp, program coordinator of the First Call for Help resource and information service, is looking into the how to better assist low-income families. This would include helping families identify and deal with problems so they don't keep needing help with their needs, Jernigan said.

The goal is for the community needs assessment task force to make a report to the United Way board of directors in May and make recommendations, Jernigan said.

In its 2000 allocations, the board set aside $80,000 to address these needs, she said.

She noted that not all the recommendations may require money but the money is there for needs not being met by other agencies.

Jernigan said the needs assessment process resulted from a shift in thinking about the role of the United Way, which is known for its annual fund-raising campaign and the allocations it makes to community agencies.

"The first thing we want to be known for is solving community problems not raising money," said Jernigan.

She noted that fund raising is important and that the United Way is successful at it, having set a record in 1999 by raising more than $800,000.

"But now we're also trying to help solve community problems," Jernigan said.

One way to do that is to look beyond allocating money to agencies just because they've always gotten United Way funding, Jernigan said.

"We are starting to look at community needs and trying to direct funding into those needs," she said.

This doesn't necessarily mean cutting allocations to agencies United Way has funded in the past, she said. Instead the goal is to find effective ways of spending the additional funds United Way has been able to raise the last few years.

"We don't pretend to be able to solve all these problems," Jernigan said. "They are too big. We are just trying to find out how we can have an impact on these problems with the resources we have."