JCEO wants residents' feedback
Apr. 20—PLATTSBURGH — Every three years, the Joint Council for Economic Opportunity for Clinton and Franklin Counties, Inc. updates its Community Needs Assessment.
"That is a standard thing for community-action agencies," Nicole Laurin, JCEO development director, said.
"We were due to update it in 2020, but with the pandemic, we decided to postpone a year. So, here we are.
"Basically how it works, we gather feedback from our staff, our board members, our volunteers, any partner organization or agency that we work with whether it be for referrals or just other similar agencies."
JCEO gathers community feedback from people who receive its services or do not.
"Basically what we are looking for is information about their household needs," she said.
"So, services that they needed, but couldn't get this past year or are they able to afford food for their family.
"Did they have to make a decision to pay one bill and not get food, things like that."
From its partners, JCEO seeks to discover new opportunities to work together in different ways or provide other services together.
"From staff, volunteers and board, we want to make sure that what we do aligns with our mission, get a feel about how knowledgeable people are about what we do offer," Laurin said.
"And then, all of that data gets kind of compiled, and we analyze it. We look at the statistics about poverty rates and homelessness, and different things in the two county region and we put that all together to figure out where the biggest needs are like category-wise. Then, that is used to form bigger strategic plans and access other funding. That sort of thing."
JCEO programs include:
"We operate a Backpack Program," Laurin said.
"For Clinton County that currently serves 139 children from five different schools.
"We serve about 70 through our Head Start and Early Head Start Early in Franklin County for our Backpack Program. Then, we also partner with Citizen Advocates in Franklin County and that's anywhere between 300 and 400 students per week every school year."
Clinton County and Franklin County residents can complete a brief survey at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/F67RJZC.
"If people don't have computer access, we can print that for them and help them complete it that way," Laurin said.
For more information, call JCEO at (518) 561-6310.
Email Robin Caudell:
Twitter:@RobinCaudell
