Travis County Commissioners Court
December 21, 2004
Item 5
Five is to receive update and take appropriate action on the Travis County
health and human services and veterans service department's 2004 social services
provider survey.
>> I think alicia planned to come down on the other. So if
she would head this way, we will call it up next.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners, sherry, assistant
director for Travis County health and human services. We're here to give you
a brief overview of the 2004 human services nonprofit survey. This survey
is in its fourth year. We have conducted the survey this year with numerous
partners, which include the center for community bases and nonprofit organizations
and Austin community college, the community action network, the Austin area
human services association, the Austin -- our department and the central Texas
sustainability indicators project. Fr this fourth survey was expanded by direction
from the Commissioners court back in June to survey the landscape of our community
and determine whether there were other nonprofit agencies that for whatever
reason had not been identified through a c.a.n. Process or through any other
process by which the county had sought to determine what services were available
in the community. We were asked to identify additional nonprofit organizations
that could fill the gap in our service delivery system, to expand service
networks under managed service organizations, and then to attempt to engage
additional 501(c)(3) organizations in community assessment and planning. Our
survey respondents, based on previous participation in the survey, you will
note that 40 percent of the respondent's indicated that they had never responded
or participated in this survey before. And then 26% indicate that had they
didn't know, which is indicative of many of the agencies being relatively
small, having high turnover and just maybe made up of volunteers who have
been there the year before. You will notice also that the characteristics
of the participate be organizations as compared to the new participants, many
are seeking out services such as green light and a.c.c. For technical support
and training. Many of them are trying to look for new and different ways for
fund-raising, recruiting board members and those kind of things. It was good
to see that a lot of organizations are taking advantage of services that are
pretty much free to the nonprofit community here in Travis County through
those entities. You'll also notice that we had a few more faith-based organizations
respond this year. And it's somewhat difficult to get information sometimes
from the faith-based organizations because generally their services are run
by volunteers. So we were very happy to see more of them participate in our
survey. In terms of demand for services, 84 of the respondent's were able
to report that they are continuing to experience an increase in demand for
their services. 54% of those respondents reported an overall budget increase
compared to just 30% in last year's survey. In addition, 25% of our respondents
reported an overall agency budget increase as -- in comparison to 52% last
year. So some recovered, but not as much as we would hope for. In terms of
the demand for services, we are continued to see that basic needs tops out
the list of services that clients are requesting from different agencies,
to be followed by mental health care and counseling, education, affordable
housing, workforce development, physical health care, child care and youth
development. In terms of --
>> physical health care is --
>> that would be medical. We try to distinguish between mental
health and physical health, yes. In terms of next steps from the department's
perspective, staff will be working with our partners to develop a plan that
ensures collaborative and training opportunities available for all nonprofits,
to provide information to interested nonprofits about the managed services
organizations that we specifically work with. And then also to continue to
provide this information to the community so that we can assist in building
capacity in agencies to meet some of the demand that we've identified. It's
important to note that our department will continue to be available to nonprofits
as they grow. Many of the newer agencies that we saw are young agencies with
one to two employees, very grassroots in nature, so we will continue to make
ourselves available so that they may be connected with community planning
processes and receive the necessary technical support to fill the gaps that
they are trying to address. I think it's also important to note that for the
first time because of the process we engaged in to conduct this survey, we
have probably the most comprehensive list of the human services organizations
that we've had in a long time. And so staff has been charged with maintaining
that list, making it a living document, and ensuring that we continue to update
it as appropriate.
>> i'll take any questions now.
>> so what do we plan do with this information? Does it take
a place in the nearest storage room?
>> no, sir. We hope to continue to on let the planning groups
have access to this information so that if there are specific agencies that
have cropped up that are not participating in the area of basic needs or aging
services or mental health, that they have an opportunity to participate in
the planning efforts in our community. That is the method by which we have
all agreed to attack the big issues of our community, so we want to be able
to bring these folks into the fold and let them know what we sources we have
available and also what resources they can become a part of in terms of working
with other partners. Collaboration is the key. And so many organizations are
working together to apply for grants and funding, and the planning process
has made that a much easier opportunity for a lot of organizations.
>> so we plan to make this part of our planning process.
>> absolutely.
>> do we think that the city of Austin is committed to doing
the same?
>> absolutely. No question about it.
>> I wanted to let you know that we have used this survey
in the community. We have had interviews with different radio stations and
also my understanding is that the newspaper is using some of the information
in an upcoming article about conditions in the community. So it is a vehicle
for letting folks know what's happening with our agencies locally.
>> is it easier for us with the investment that Travis County
chose to make in terms of basic needs, nut coalition, caritas, $250,000 was
right on target in terms of hitting the number one need that seemed to be
out there related to the agencies, and certainly a lot of the work that judge
herman and some of the others are doing, our district judges on mental health,
seems to be right on target as well. So it seems to be a little bit of feedback
in terms of where we're headed in that direction.
>> absolutely. And our hope is that we will continue to see
the number of respondent's climb. Often times many of the smaller agencies
don't have access to e-mail. They're volunteer driven, so the mail doesn't
get picked up, those kind of things. So we hope as we continue to have contact
with some of the newer agencies in our community that we'll be able to get
online with them and hear about the work that they're doing.
>> what's (indiscernible).
>> I believe the fact that basic needs continues to be the
predominant need in our community, I think that there is much in the media
about a recovery, but I think the extent of that recovery still remains to
be seen. When are still challenged with meeting the basic necessities of life,
keeping a roof over your head, having food on the table,, I would have to
take a little bit of an exception to a recovery. So I would think that to
see that agencies in our community, aside from the work that the county does
and that all programs are continuing to see basic needs as the predominant
request from their particular agencies, which many of these agencies, that's
not their core business. Basic needs is not their core businesslike caritas
or like our emergency assistance program. So we have people before they can
address other needs continuing to have to say can you help me with food, can
you help me with rent, can you help me with my utilities?
>> when that happens, though, what happens to the other needs
that are identified? If everyone focuses on basic needs, what happens to these
other issues that are important to the community? I?m thinking there should
be some collaboration with the folks and ebb entities that come up with the
money to where Travis County -- I know that we're statutorily responsible
for the safety net, the basic needs, so that another entity could address
another need.
>> I think that is the prevailing issue that has been driving
the basic needs coalition of central Texas because many of the agencies who
are partners in that effort also have a different mission, but they're faced
with their client base having those basic needs. So what we're attempting
to do with that pilot is to direct people to agencies that best fit their
total need. So, for example, if you have a chronically ill child, it makes
more sense to go to any baby can and have any baby can be able to not only
address the issues surrounding the child's needs, but then also have some
funding available to meet basic needs. Because that keeps that family from
having to go to any can for -- to any baby can for the needs for that child
or go to us or another agency to address their basic needs. So the coalition's
efforts have been geared toward working to have people go to those agencies
that best meet the needs that they have. And in our own programs, we tend
to see more elderly folk, more disabled folks primarily, and many of the other
agencies that we work with, caritas, for example, sees more of a working population.
So we're able to identify which groups work best with which populations of
folks in our community. So that's what their effort has been about.
>> a couple years back when partnering with the city of Austin
to provide some technical assistance funding for agencies in need of technical
assistance. Can I -- can I in 30 days or so maybe get a status report on what
agencies we are helping and whether that assistance is making a difference
and whether the investment, small though it is, is a good one?
>> yes, sir.
>> I do know that they were a handful of agencies that because
of their size we thought did not have the financial ability to secure the
kinds of training that we thought were necessary to comply with city and county
standards. So our decision really was to fund assistance for them. So the
question really is I know we didn't do a whole lot of that, we did some, whether
that investment is having the desired effect.
>> absolutely. We certainly can.
>> okay. Any other questions?
>> sherry, I guess the thing that's frightening to me are
that these numbers are basically driven by population increases. If you've
got issues with -- let's just say that one percent of your people have problems
for these demand to for services. It's obviously the case. And you've seen
this area grow by 25, 30 percent in the last 10 years, really what we're trying
to deal with are just larger numbers of people, given that you have an x percentage
of people that just have a hard time making life work for them. I?m always
entertained by wherever I see education. I don't know what education means
on demand for services. I mean, we have a pretty decent education system in
this country. I mean, we have -- you can go to school, you can go to school
free. You can go to school with scholarships, go to school with grants. What
exactly does -- on the demand for services that shows the number 3 number
being education, what exactly does that mean?
>> for the most part, literacy and esl type training. I?m
sure some of the agencies could report that there are folks who need to be
connected to programs for skilled building and that sort of thing, but I would
say that the predominant need to be literacy.
>> well, but literacy is a result of not having gone to school.
Because most of the people I think that are responding to this, even though
we show the next page where it says primary populations served by returns
or new participants age 'to 18, obviously some of them are at the school age,
but the population that we're really talking about -- I would think on page
3 on the basic needs and mental health care, counseling, education, affordable
housing, those, aren't those really -- those really pertain to more of the
-- I guess the adults are the ones that are driving these numbers or that's
where we're getting the results from? We're not asking the children to respond
here. These are adults that are -- some adult responded to this so that we
gathered this kind of information, right?
>> the adult applied for the services, yes, right, but they
may have listed needs for other members of their household as well.
>> well, I -- I continue to be bothered by the fact that
our numbers of folks that can't seem to make ends meet continue to grow. And
unless we're just going to continue as a society to shoulder the people that
can't take care of themselves or can't take care of people that they're willing
to bring into this world, I mean, it's a sad commentary with regards to what
we as government are going to have to continue to look at. And when I see
education on the page, it really strikes me as odd because you have the ability
to get an education in the united states of america. I mean, you have an easy
-- you have easy access to schools. And some schools you -- you -- I know
that the problem like in aisd, one of the problems, I understand, is that
over 60% of the children in aisd are on the free lunch program. That is very,
very disturbing to me. Especially when aisd is a property-rich school district
and we've got 60% of our children that's on the free lunch program. I mean,
I know that that's not something that the county can only do something about,
but these numbers should be telling us something, and whether or not we're
working diligently enough on the front end of some of these issues, I?m afraid
that we don't really deal with them -- and some of those issues are issues
that people don't want to talk about, don't want to really deal with, but
every time I see the statistics get larger and larger, we have some issues
that we have really got to try to get a handle on, otherwise the numbers of
have-notes continue to grow so expo nen sheal that we just can't take this
thing on. So I know that the social services do as good a job that they can
do, but I would really hope that we can find a way to identify some of those
things where we can do something more on the front end as opposed to just
being the recipient. Basically we just stand out there and say tell us what
your problems are and we're going to try to create organizations to take the
ills on. And I?m afraid that we're not gaining on this thing, but we're losing
ground. Because I would imagine that next year we'll see this report and have
larger numbers than we have this year of folks really needing services and
basic needs. So I know that that's not -- it's more of a -- you and I have
talked about it and I have a real keen interest in that. I don't know exactly
how to get my arms around it, but I?m more than willing to assist so if something
is ever put together that we as elected officials can sit in on things like
that, i'd appreciate it if you would let me know.
>> yes, sir.
>> thank you very much.
>> you're welcome.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, October 26, 2005 2:30 PM