09/28/1988 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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- possible. Ms. Wooten felt the resolution should provide information about the connection between the ballot measure and the Riverfront Research Park. III. WORK SESSION: HUMAN SERVICE PLANNING PROJECT Kappy Eaton, chair of the steering committee for the Human Services Planning Project, said the project is Lane County1s model of a community resources capacity building plan. She said the mission of the project is threefold: to improve Lane County's human service delivery system; to increase community awareness and knowledge about human service systems in Lane County; and, to set in place strategic planning and coordination of resource allocations for human services in the community. To accomplish the project the steering committee has undertaken the identification of community needs, its current resources, and ways in which the system's functioning could be improved. Ms. Eaton said the most important piece remaining to be placed is the commitment of government and private sector organizations to the continuation of strategic planning in a cooperative way, to give priority to the provision of services by areas identified by an ongoing needs assessment, and to creatively improve the allocation of resources (including both restructuring of resources and seeking additional funds). Bryan Downes, a professor in the Department of Planning, Public Policy and Management at the University of Oregon, said Part One of the assessment investigated perceptions of serious human needs in Lane County. In order to e obtain a wide range of perceptions, directors of human service agencies, key informants or community decision makers, citizens, and clients of human service agencies, were either interviewed or surveyed through a mailed questionnaire. He said the interviews and surveys were conducted over a 12-month period and the response format was open-ended. Mr. Downes gave an overview of the major findings from the analysis. He said there was surprising agreement about serious human needs in Lane County among the respondents. Basic needs, employment needs, health/mental health needs, and family needs were identified as most serious needs by all groups sampled. Key informants and community residents also identified substance abuse related needs as serious. Although each group's rank ordering of these five serious human needs varied somewhat, they were consistently and repeatedly identified as the most serious ones in Lane County. Mr. Downes said clients throughout Lane County overwhelmingly identified basic needs and health/mental health needs (with the emphasis on health as opposed to mental health needs) as the most serious ones in their households. There was no variation in client perceptions of most serious household needs in different Lane County communities. Mr. Downes said an examination of information about the needs of particular populations at-risk or potentially at-risk in Lane County provides further support for the seriousness of the needs perceived by key informants, agency directors, community residents, and clients of human service agencies. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council September 28, 1988 Page 3