Spring 2019 Public Health

Internship
Ansley Harper, Hannah Turner, Michael Warren
Arthritis Presentation
This was one of the first
presentation we made at Overview
Inc. We had the opportunity to take
this information to the Senior
Center and also presented it to the
Foster Grandparents volunteers.
The information included in the
Powerpoint were primarily
information on the different types of
arthritis. But, we also included types
of exercises to do and not to do
with arthritis, different types of
foods that can help with
inflammation and joint pain, and
lastly different therapy methods
(like icing and heating) to reduce
pain.
Senior Center
We had the opportunity to partake in
volunteering time at the Senior Center on
Linda Drive here in Milledgeville. There
are different senior activities that are
planned out on a daily basis for those in
attendance. The activities include: arts &
crafts, bingo/other games, health &
wellness, and also computer skills
training. We were able to partake in the
different games (hosting and playing of
bingo) and also the arts & crafts aspect.
We tried to always bring some sort of
handout with us when we went - we
prepared a healthy recipe book for
seniors and also information related to
arthritis
Energy Assistance Program
Overview Inc provides Energy
Assistance for the low income and the
elderly in the seven different service
counties. This year, we had the
opportunity to pass out blanket kits
(included were - wool blankets and
weather stripping) to those who applied
for energy assistance. There were over
three thousand blankets delivered to
Overview and we were able to pass out
a large majority of these. Also, we got to
travel with Overview to Madison County
and to Jasper County to pass out
blanket kits.
 Health Fair - March 7th, 2019

Partook in the Health Fair that was hosted at Overview Inc. We were included with around 8 other booths in
the conference room of the office. The project was based on healthy eating habits, especially when it comes
to soft beverages. We included a game that allowed people to compare different fast food options and pick
which one they thought had less calories.
 2019 Community
Needs Assessment
Ansley Harper, Michael Warren, & Hannah Turner
A needs assessment is a systematic process for
determining and addressing needs, or "gaps"
between current conditions and desired
conditions or "wants".

The process includes:

Identifying the Priority
Data Collection Analyzing the Data
Needs
The population: Greene
Morgan

● Baldwin County
Jasper Putnam
● Hancock County Hancock

● Jasper County Baldwin

● Johnson County Washington
● Putnam County
Wilkinson
● Washington County Johnson

● Wilkinson County
 Collecting Primary Data
● Primary data is collected first-hand by the researcher
● This data is best for involving community members and getting
input from residents
●
Primary data was collected through:
Community Surveys

Key Informant Interviews

Focus Groups
 Community Survey
1. Demographics
The survey consisted of 50 2. Employment
questions with 11 sections. The 3. Education
sections are as follows: 4. Housing
5. Health
6. Nutrition
7. Use of Income
8. Transportation
9. Emergency Situations
10. Community Resources
11. Children’s Needs
 Community Survey Collection Methods
The community surveys were distributed both
by paper and on-line

● Paper surveys were passed out during

energy assistance appointments in
different counties and at Overview
● The online survey was posted on the
Overview Facebook page

The majority of survey responses

were done on paper during energy
assistance appointments
Community Survey Results
The website Survey Monkey was used to collect and input survey results.
This website also allowed us to distribute an online link.

Total Responses: 121

● 51% were between ages 55-69

● 86% were female
● 73% were black/African American
● 52% live in Baldwin County
 Community Survey Challenges
● Participants felt survey was too
long
● Lack of interest in participating
● Difficulty in getting survey
participants from all counties
● Some participants had difficulty
reading and writing
● Participants struggled to fill out the
survey fully and correctly Example: There is significantly
more Baldwin county respondents
in comparison to the other counties
 Key Informant Interviews
Key informant interviews were used in order to collect both primary
and qualitative data from members of community organizations.

Organizations interviewed:

Northridge
Jasper Christian
County Church
Live Family
Healthy Connection

Baldwin
Findings
● Key informants were asked to list what they believe are the top 5 needs within
the community. Common needs listed include:
○ Housing
■ Affordable and livable
○ Employment opportunities
○ Community revitalization
○ Education
● Community revitalization was a large concern of informants and suggestions
included allocating resources then directing that money to things like walking
trails and other environmental aspects that would attract residence and
business to milledgeville
 Planning the Focus Group
● Planning consisted of
○ Deciding on a time and date
○ Recruiting participants
○ Developing discussion questions
● Needed to have an incentive to get
people to participate. Since the focus
group was at 6 pm on a weeknight,
food and refreshments were provided
for those who showed up
● The goal was for the focus
group to last approximately 45
to 90 minutes. We needed to
provide enough questions to
keep the conversation at
stride. We went through the
needs assessment to pick out
certain topics that we felt were
relevant for discussion and
from there made fourteen
points to speak on.
Recruiting Participants

Recruiting methods:

● Advertised on Overview Facebook

page
● Directly contacting potential
participants
● Advertised in local newspaper ad
● Posted/distributed a flyer
 Participants- Focus Group

Desired Participants: 8-12 Anticipated Participants: 20

Actual Participants: 14

Some of the organizations represented:

Baldwin County Boys and Girls Club, Baldwin County Family Connection, Putnam
Christian Outreach food pantry, Washington County Board of Commissioners,
Northside Loans, Wilkinson County Board of Commissioners
 Focus Group Challenges

● Difficulty in finding participants willing to attend

● Difficulty finding an appropriate date and time
● Making people aware in the community and
neighboring counties about the meeting
● Making sure there was appropriate foods and drinks
for the participants
● Last minute cancellations
● Participants bringing others with them, so focus
group became too big
 Findings
● There were many important topics that were discussed as needs in the
surrounding communities (Baldwin, Hancock, Jasper, Johnson, Putnam,
Washington, and Wilkinson). What was seen to be the most repetitive
needs though were:
○ Issues with Public Transportation
○ Stable Family Structures
○ Lack of Jobs / Motivation to Work
○ Childcare Needs
○ Lack of Access to Quality Resources for the Low Income (food,
shelter, healthcare, etc.)
 Public Transportation Issues
● Issues with Public Transportation was a large complaint among the
participants. Stated that the lack of or unreliability of the
transportation causes issues among the low income community.
Contributes to:
○ Inability to get to and from doctors appointments for the elders
○ Harder to keep jobs that are far away from home
○ Lack of transportation also greatly limits the food options available (ex -
if you live on the “Southside of Milledgeville without a car, getting to
Kroger could be near impossible)
○ Also interferes with after school activities for kids (could have no way to
get to practice and get home)
 Stable Family Structures
● Conversation about the lack of a proper family structure in the low income
community. By family structure, it was implied to be a two parent household
(mom/dad, dad/dad, mom/mom). There was also a discussion about stable
implying that the children did not live with their grandparents.
○ When children live with grandparents, it places a struggle on them
economically and also physically/mentally
○ People getting pregnant at too young of an age so you have “children
raising children”
○ Single mothers having more children when they are not economically
able to support them
○ Lack of support system for the children
 Lack of Jobs / Motivation to Work
● There was a lot of talk about public assistance and how it becomes easier to
be on public assistance due to the lack of jobs that pay enough to survive.
Once people begin on PA, there is no motivation to get off and return to work.
If there is no completed high school education or any higher ed, it becomes
complicated to get a good paying job with benefits.
○ No incentive to get off public assistance
○ People working until the “first paycheck” or until their tax refund comes
through
○ Many jobs paying “just enough” to not be on public assistance but still
receiving no benefits
○ Shift jobs cause a complication with childcare
○ Stable jobs with stable pay to help support the family
 Childcare Needs
● The discussion of children aged 0-18 arose a large conversation.
Answers of the issues ranged from lack of parental support to drop
out rates. It has been shown that family support here tends to play a
huge role in the child's well being and also involvement. Some of the
concerns were:
○ Affordable childcare
○ Lack of proper family structure (felt that a two parent household is the best option)
○ Recreational Activities to keep kids busy and out of trouble
○ Having mentors or someone to look to for advice that isn’t the parent
○ Alcohol/Drug abuse by family
○ Lack of opportunities to develop skills as an adult
 Lack of Access to Quality Resources
● There was much talk about things like food deserts, lack of knowledge on
healthcare information, how to start a savings account, and help when it
comes to marketing places that can help with assistance.
○ A disagreement arose when this topic came up. Resources for the low income
seemed to be something that people thought was an issue. But, like someone
stated in the discussion, the assistance is there, it’s just that people do not take
advantage of them or feel embarrassed to go.
○ Also, information on quality food options, especially when it comes to low income
families. Ways for them to eat well on a budget.
○ Help for adults skills with things like : help understanding taxes, taking care of
debt, things that pertain to financial planning that may have never been taught by
the family
 Collecting Secondary Data
● Secondary data is data that has been collected by someone
else
● Most of our time during this process was spent updating
secondary data sets

Where we collected secondary data:

Census Bureau - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Centers

for Medicare & Medicaid Services - Department of Housing and Urban
Development
Example of Secondary Data Chart
 Secondary Data Collection
● We updated over 50 data sets along with a graph representing each
● The last census was in 2010, so much of the census information is outdated
○ But, the census does provide different estimates:
■ Single Year Estimates
● The American Community Survey produces one year estimates for areas with a
population of 65,000 or more
■ Multiyear Estimates
● The American Community Survey produces three year estimates and a five year
estimate for areas with a population of 20,000 or more
● The Census Bureau does have a Small Area Income and Poverty Estimate
(SAIPE)
○ Produces single year estimates of poverty and income for ALL counties in the United States. It
also provides estimates of school aged children in poverty for all of the 13,000+ school
districts
 Layout of the Needs Assessment
● Population Changes ● Homeowners / Housing Age
● Age and Gender Demographics ● Vacancy Rates (Business /
● Race and Ethnicity Demographics Residential)
● Poverty Rates (Including Rate Changes) ● Unsafe Homes
● Nutrition
- Households in Poverty
- Snap
- Poverty by Gender/Race/Ethnicity
- Free and Reduced Lunch
- Families in Poverty ● Healthcare
- Poverty Rate by Age and Gender - Medicare
- Poverty Rate by Age and Race/Ethnicity - Uninsured
● Current Unemployment/Unemployment Change
● Household Income
● Commuter Travel Patterns
● Educational Attainment
Age and Gender / Race and Ethnicity Demographics

● The information for these categories were

found based on the 2013 - 2017 five-year
population estimate for the different service
areas. The breakdown of the different charts
included are:
- Age and Gender Demographics for Male
and Female (percentages included)
- Race Demographics (% White, Black,
Asian, Native American, Native
Hawaiian, Some Other Race, Multiple
Races)
■ Also, broken down by gender per
county
- Ethnicity Demographics (Total/Total Not
Hispanic/Latino by Gender (also
includes percentages))
 Poverty Rates
● The information for this category was found
mainly based on the Census Bureau 5 year
survey from the year 2013-2017. For the
information regarding the definition of
poverty, we used the data sets that were
related to individuals at 100% of the federal
poverty income guidelines. A breakdown of
the different charts are:
○ Total population in poverty
○ Poverty Rate Change
○ Households in Poverty
○ Poverty by Gender/Ethnicity/Race
○ Families in Poverty by Type
○ Poverty Rate Change by Age
○ Children in Poverty by
Age/Race/Ethnicity
 Current Unemployment / Unemployment Change
● Communities suffer as unemployment
rates increase
● As more people become unemployed
and apply for federal or state
assistance, government expenditures
continue to grow, which increased
government borrowing
● Overall, the report area experienced an
average 4.5% unemployment rate in
August 2018. This exceeded both the
national rate of 4% and state rate of
3.8%.
● According to the U.S. Department of
Labor, unemployment for this one year
period fell from 2,903 persons to 2,225
persons, a rate change of -1.3%.
 Household Income
● For Household Income, the Census
Bureau has information that relates to
small areas. This is the SAIPE data that
produces yearly estimates of poverty
and income for EVERY county in the
United States. The chart relates to the
median income in the different report
areas:
○ Baldwin County: $37,008
○ Hancock County: $29,268
○ Jasper County: $42,067
○ Johnson County: $36,423
○ Putnam County: $48,340
○ Washington County: $38,097
○ Wilkinson County: $38,711
 Commuter Travel Patterns
● Method of transportation is a key
factor when studying a population
needs.
● Of the 47,990 workers in the report
area, 82.2% drove to work alone
while 11.3% carpooled.
● 0.4% of all workers reported that
they used some form of public
transportation, while others used
some optional means including
1.3% walking or riding bicycles,
and 1.6% used taxicabs to travel to
work.
 Homeowners / Housing Age
● With the topic of housing, we were able to
explore different data sets that deal with
the characteristics of the homes in the
seven different counties. The census
bureau was our main source of information
for the topics. For the data, we used the
three year estimate from 2014-2017.
Information Included:
○ Housing Age
■ Total Housing Units
■ Median Year Built
■ Median Age
○ Homeowners
■ Owner Occupied Homes
(2014)
■ Owner Occupied Homes
(2017)
 Vacancy Rates

Vacancy rates were collected from the

US Department of Housing and Urban
Development. These categories were
collected for each county, along with
Georgia and the US:
-Residential Addresses
-Vacant Residential Addresses
-Residential Vacancy Rate
-Business Addresses
-Vacant Business Addresses
-Business Vacancy Rate
 Unsafe, Unsanitary Homes

Information for the Unsafe Homes category

came from the Census Bureau 3 year
estimate (year 2014 to 2017). The Unsafe
homes really just relates to homes that do not
have the proper necessities to live. In this
case, we are looking at plumbing. The unsafe
home category breaks up into:
- Occupied housing units (2000; 2014;
and 2017)
- Housing units without plumbing (2014;
2017)
 Nutrition

Nutrition data was collected from the

National Center for Education Statistics
and the American Community Survey
(Census Bureau). The categories under
nutrition included those in the report
area who are:
- Eligible for free and reduced lunch
(includes the total students in the
area and those who are eligible for
the free/reduced lunch)
- Those receiving SNAP
 Healthcare
Healthcare information was
related to those receiving
medicare and also those who
are uninsured in the population.
Data for the charts came from
the census bureau and the
Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid services. Also
included is:
- Persons receiving
medicare
- Disabled persons receiving
medicare
- Insurance population
- Those insured
- Those uninsured
 Overall Findings
The needs assessment will hopefully be a tool for Overview and other
organizations to use for planning new programs and figuring out different
needs. There has been a decrease in population for all of the seven counties,
but then only a poverty decrease for two of the seven counties (Baldwin
County and Jasper County). This could possibly attain to more programs in
the county or possibly more knowledge on these programs. There are
organizations all over these counties that deal with many of the issues we
found in the needs assessment, but I think that a better job of advertising and
getting their name out there needs to be done. But, there were also categories
in the assessment that may not have programs (dealing with things like
plumbing or helping people learn about insurance options) that could present
success.