Assessing Community Needs From the Non-Profit Sector in Eau Claire, WI

Abstract

The City of Eau Claire faces a diverse set of issues that affect the quality of life of residents. Problems like poverty, hunger, and ecosystem damage represent just a few of these challenges. Critical to improving community quality of life is identifying and then prioritizing the key community issues so that resources can be directed to address them. To assist the City of Eau Claire in identifying key issues, we conducted a community needs assessment through interviews with local non-profit leaders. We chose a stratified pilot sample of 11 organizations from a list of over 100 non-profit organizations across multiple sectors (community engagement; environmental; health and wellness; equity and inclusivity; social services; and youth). Following our transcriptions of the interviews with community leaders, a qualitative analysis has pointed to issues with infrastructures such as transportation, sustainability, and class and racial inequities. In addition, we identified the ways that these issues impacted sub-groups in Eau Claire and how these issues should be addressed.