The following was published by the Herald-Citizen and can be found by clicking here.

The Upper Cumberland Human Resources Agency is preparing to survey the region to assess how community needs may have changed.

The agency’s policy council met Wednesday to discuss questions and feedback on the survey that will be released later this month. According to UCHRA Community Services Assistant Director Jordan Herald, the Community Needs Assessment is performed every three years.

“We give this questionnaire out to all of our county offices who then get participation from clients,” Herald told the council. “We want you to be very active in this process with us this year in getting this out to your partners, customers and clients and out to your neighborhoods.”

On the 2023 Community Needs Assessment, the top five areas of concern were higher paying jobs, access to affordable housing, quality job opportunities, resources for individuals who are homeless and access to mental health services. That assessment had 964 respondents, with Warren County (230), Macon County (136) and Putnam County (133) providing the most responses.

“We would like feedback from you all,” Herald said. “Are there things we have missed? Are there things you feel like we need to highlight more?”

Herald said the 2026 questionnaire includes questions about personal safety. She said UCHRA is trying to get accurate information on the severity of domestic violence, especially in the area of senior abuse.

“We tried to be very conscientious in how we asked that,” Herald said. “On the back of the survey, we listed some resources. Every time you ask someone about their safety, you always need to follow that up with resources for that individual.”

Herald said another new area of focus on this year’s survey is access to technology.

“We see a lot of times when there are populations that don’t have that technical education,” she said. “They can’t use the computer or everything requires an email address or some kind of online presence, even our own services now. So, we are seeing that as a gap for several people.”

Herald said she hopes that community partners will assist UCHRA in circulating the survey as wide as possible to ensure robust feedback.

“These questions help shape the services we provide for the upcoming two to three years,” she said.

In addition to assisting UCHRA’s programming, Herald said other agencies and partners also use the data gathered to help assist in providing needs to vulnerable communities.

“It gets used in a variety of ways, and we just really need that participation,” Herald said.

Herald said that UCHRA’s goal is to have the Community Needs Assessment out by the end of February. There will be virtual options in addition to physical copies at UCHRA’s county offices.

“We will have it open for about a month,” she said. “We can extend it if we see we don’t have enough participation. We really want a lot of answers.”