Four graduate students from the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock presented data Thursday from nine months of research on nonprofit organizations in Garland County.
The Hot Springs Area Community Foundation presented a proposal last year to the Clinton school's director, Chip Rutherford, and the school's Practicum Study Committee. Groups of four students work with various organizations to help them meet their strategic goals.
Clinton students completed 37 projects across the state during the 2015-16 school year. They receive academic credit for the Master of Public Service degree program.
The foundation's project was accepted to identify present services in the areas of community involvement, education family and health. The four areas were previously identified by the Aspire Arkansas report as the "Four Pillars of Poverty." The report was commissioned by the Arkansas Community Foundation in 2013.
Jack Porter, HSACF board chair, introduced the students on Thursday to visitors at the Garland County Library. Porter said the study was important because of the foundation's responsibility to award grants to local organizations.
"It is important to us because we have such limited resources and there are so many worthy organizations," Porter said. "It is important for us to be as strategic as we can to insure we are smart giving for the community improvement."
The students to conduct the research were Khalid Ahmadzai, of Kabul, Afghanistan, a graduate of the University of Arkansas; Evan Brown, of Memphis, Tenn., a graduate of the University of Arkansas; Sarah Fowlkes, of Ann Arbor, Mich., a graduate of the University of Michigan; and Yohannis Job, of Scarborough, Trinidad and Tobago, a graduate of Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, Texas.
The group conducted 21 local interviews and research during the past nine months. The students created a comprehensive list of organizations that provide services in the four pillars in Garland County.
Fowlkes said the group used a simple methodology to allow other the other 26 affiliates of the Arkansas Community Foundation to replicate the process if they desired. An original list of sources was provided by Jane Browning, executive director of the United Way of Garland County, and Angela Anderson, of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. They also used "snowball sampling" in which interview subjects would connect them to new sources.
Interviews were conducted with representatives of entities including Cooperative Christian Ministries and Clinic, First Step, The Greater Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce, Hot Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission, Hot Springs Cultural Alliance, Hot Springs Family YMCA, Hot Springs Music Festival, Hot Springs Police Department, Jackson House, Levi Hospital, Low Key Arts, Mid-America Science Museum, Oaklawn Racing & Gaming, Samaritan Ministries, and Visitors Chapel AME Church Food Pantry.
Students said they relied on early information from surveys conducted by Levi and the United Way. A 2013 survey by Levi identified health education and communication, mental health and suicide, obesity and teen pregnancy as key issues.
A 2015 United Way survey showed child poverty as a major issue. The report suggested food crisis relief and parent training as possible solutions.
Students were surprised to learn the Garland County area included 295 organizations that provide services in the four pillars. They developed an interactive map to display where the organizations are located.
They found the number of cultural organizations and activities to be assets in the community involvement pillar. Their research indicated healthy charitable giving in the area, but volunteers are mainly youths and the elderly.
The organizations often vie for the same resources. Fowlkes said organizations may benefit from coordinating grant applications and pooling their resourcing.
They found gaps in minority and young adult civic engagement, as well as marginalized populations and a lack of communication across socioeconomic lines.
"One gap brought up by nearly every cultural organization was a lack of performance space in the downtown community," Fowlkes said. "We did understand that there was a feasibility study conducted and that the resulting recommendation was to not build a performance space. The cultural organizations mentioned the places they currently perform, such as schools, churches and the rehab center. So more information is required to determine whether or not building a new facility would fill a needed gap."
The most common asset for the education pillar is the Bridges Out of Poverty community support program. Gaps were found in tutoring services, mentoring programs and skills-training programs.
The most common education gap was in after-school programs, which is also where they found the most common overlap. Communication and coordination were suggested to prevent groups from offering the same services to the same children.
Multiple food services were cited as an asset for families, while food scarcity in some areas was cited as a gap. The students found an overlap in food services and suggested an online or mobile phone application database could help those services.
The research also indicated gaps in homeless services with limited stay in shelters, lack of service available after business hours and a lack of bathing amenities and climate-controlled rooms. Brown noted one interviewee said, "There's just not enough beds for every person who needs one in the Hot Springs area."
Multiple assets were found in health, including CCMC, First Step, Levi and Samaritan. The students found gaps in mental health services and a lack of awareness about the local veterans clinic and other health-related services.
More than half the local nonprofits provided health services. Less than 40 provide services in education.
Research showed the HSACF has provided almost 50 percent of its grant funds to community involvement services in the previous five years. More than 20 percent was allocated to education despite the small number of education organizations.
"We are asking the Hot Springs Area Community Foundation to reallocate some of the funding from the community to family to bridge that gap," Ahmadzai said.
"That being said, we are very excited because these issues we talked about today are very addressable," Brown said. "They are addressable in the short and medium term. These things, with communication and collaboration, can be accomplished and solved."
They recommended the foundation and community focus more on the education and family pillars. They said organizations should improve communication and collaboration.
The HSACF received a full list of the local organizations. A digital copy of the list can be obtained from the foundation.
"We also encourage all the organizations here in Garland County and present in this room to help us keep this updated and to participate," Job said.
The student found issues in transportation and the economy that did not fit into specific pillars. They said transportation services are not provided at beneficial hours, particularly for low-income neighborhoods and areas away from the city center. They said vouchers for the homeless in shelters could be one way to help.
Interview subjects frequently mentioned Hot Springs' designation as a "tourist town," which leads to fluctuations in employment. The students said the city should explore alternative industries to develop sustainable employment.
Local on 04/17/2016