Community Needs Assessment: People with Developmental Disabilities (Bronx & Chautauqua Counties)

 

Grantee: Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH)

 

Project Goal:

The Corporation for Supportive Housing will conduct a community needs assessment of people with developmental disabilities and their families who are low-income in Bronx and Chautauqua Counties. The community needs assessment will identify strengths, needs, key partners, and potential strategies to help address our agency’s targeted disparity.

 

Project Summary:

A Community Needs Assessment is a tool used to identify the strengths, needs, assets, and challenges of a specific, pre-identified community. According to research, a community needs assessment is typically guided by the following principles: members of a community are the best experts on where they live, all community members have skills, abilities, and resources, and a strong community is built on the resources and talents of its members. Many public entities, like state agencies, use community needs assessments in order to have research, data, and input from community members inform decision-making and the development of initiatives.

Based on existing data, the CDD identified two counties in New York that have very high levels of poverty: Bronx and Chautauqua Counties. We found that Bronx County has the highest overall poverty rate in New York at 29.03%, the lowest overall household income at $13,718, and is also a federally designated poverty area. Additionally, Bronx County had the greatest poverty rate for people with disabilities at 43.4% (Disability Compendium, 2019). Among counties in upstate New York, Chautauqua County is one of the top five counties with the highest poverty rates. It also has the highest total number of people with disabilities living in poverty, a total of 3,511 and the second highest poverty rate for people with disabilities at 33.5% (Disability Compendium, 2019).

CSH will conduct high-quality research using tools like surveys, focus groups, and interviews, in both the Bronx and Chautauqua Counties. It will be important that the community needs assessment also assist the CDD in intentional and careful planning, as well as in identifying key community partners who could be strong collaborators for future CDD initiatives in this area.

 

Key Activities:

CSH will:

  • Establish an Advisory Committee to inform the design and execution of the Community Needs Assessment.
  • Utilize a robust set of research tools to gather information including, but not limited to, surveys, interviews, focus groups, and listening sessions.
  • Research tools and a research plan that are culturally and linguistically competent and include best practices on engaging diverse communities.
  • Identify key partners, organizations, agencies, and other trusted stakeholders in Bronx and Chautauqua Counties that have strong connections with low-income people with developmental disabilities.
  • Identify best practices for initiatives that reach low-income people with developmental disabilities in Bronx and Chautauqua Counties.
  • Create a Community Needs Assessment Final Report which summarizes the findings.

 

Project Details:

Total Funding: $92,089

Project Length: 1 Year

Contract Start: January 1, 2024

Geographic Reach: Bronx and Chautauqua Counties

Current Status: Active