Community Needs Assessment, Outcomes, and You!
Engagement & Program Services (EPS) and Engagement Managers across the system have worked on compiling the needs of our community through a Community Needs Assessment (CNA). The CNA framework outlines categories ranging from demographics to transportation.
What can you do?
- Read over the information in this post
- Review the Key Findings and for more detailed information view the Community Needs Assessment
- View the Outcomes & see the outcome statement evolution
- Share your thoughts with the survey located in your email.
What is a Community Needs Assessment?
A community needs assessment helps us better understand the needs of Oklahoma County and what role the library should play to meet those needs. We used data from the U.S. Census, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the U.S. Bureau of Labor, and many other resources to compile this report.
Why we took this approach?
Outcome-Based Planning & Evaluation (OPBE) is a library industry standard. It will help us create a data-driven way to plan programs and services based on community needs.
Who was involved in the process
The EPS department (Kellie Delaney, Jessica Gonzalez, Teresa Matthews, Julia McConnell, Emily Williams, and Kristin Williamson); Regional Director Melody Kellogg; Engagement Managers Molly Giles (AL), Annie Emmons (BI), Edie Daniel (BE), Shanna Allen and Dana Beach (CL), Meaghan Hunt (DC), Judie Matthews and Abigail Stout (DN), Natalie Currie and Anne Hall (ED), Jerod Gerfen and George Tocco (MC), Rondia Banks and Heather Kitchen (NW), Liz Caplan (RE), Sydney Ashby and Ruth Smith (SO), Ngoc Nguyen (VI); Library Manager Barbara Beasley (WA); Morgan Jones and Jennifer Livingston (PLA); and front-line staff Allie Barton (BI), Kelly Dalrymple (BI), Katherine Hickey (BI), Lindsay Jones (BI), Julianna Link (BI), Sarah Brown (DN), Kathryn Goldbach (DN), Gatlin Sullivan (DN), Samuel Karns (ED), and Darrie Breathwit (SO).
In total 39 staff members contributed to the document.
Timeline
- May 11 – Cabinets complete data gathering
- May 25 – EPS finalizes draft assessment
- May 30 – EPS and PLA meet to review assessment
- June 12 – EPS completes second review and prepares key findings for Regional Directors
- June 14 – Presentation to Library Managers
- June 15 – EPS and PLA meet to discuss key findings and develop a framework for moving forward
- June 21 – Presentation to MLS Commission
- June 18-22 – EPS drafts outcome statements focused on priority areas
- June 27-28 – EPS and PLA meet with Engagement Managers to seek feedback
- July 5-10 – Feedback opportunities for staff
- July 11 – Presentation to Leadership Team
- July 12 – Presentation of Outcomes to Library Managers
- July 19 – Presentation to MLS Commission
What’s next?
Finalizing our outcome statements is the first in a series of steps that will include:
- defining immediate learning outcomes that support these broad outcomes;
- creating a framework for proposing program ideas, refining program concepts, and approving programs for implementation (both systemwide and locally); and
- developing tools for delivering programs that meet program standards.
Upon receiving approval of the priority areas and outcome statements at the July Commission meeting, we will be forming workgroups to be led by the Programs Managers (Jessica, Teresa, and Julia) and comprised of Engagement Managers and frontline staff. They will be tasked with evaluating systemwide needs in each of the six priority areas (Literacy, Educational Attainment, Workforce Development, Health and Wellness, Cultural Enrichment, and Civic Engagement) -- using your feedback from the staff survey that goes live today-- and creating a proposal for how to move forward.
Following their work, we will create project teams led by Engagement Managers and comprised of frontline engagement staff to develop the actual programs.
A Very Short History of EPS
In November of 2017, the EPS steering committee began meeting. At that time there were only two people in the department, Teen Services Manager Emily Williams and Children’s Services Manager Kristin Williamson, led by Regional Director Melody Kellogg. The three Engagement Manager II's in the system-- Jessica Gonzalez (SO), Teresa Matthews (DN), and Julia McConnell (ED) -- were asked to join the steering committee to help decide what engagement services and programming would look like going forward. In January of 2018, Kellie Delaney joined the EPS department as the Adult Services Manager. In April, Jessica, Teresa, and Julia joined EPS as Programs Managers. In June, Margo Engelmann joined in EPS as the Administrative Specialist.
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Comments
I volunteer most Saturday mornings at the Regional Food Bank just north of Will Rogers Airport.
We're told that 25% of Oklahoma children are food insecure. And as in your report, 16% of adults are food insecure.
I think hunger is not an ancillary aspect of poverty but rather it stands along side it as an affliction of living in Oklahoma in this decade.
MLS can't offer food but education programs directed at adults is a primary mission of a public library system. Whether public libraries can alter the course of this truly Titanic problem remains to be seen.
But I'd like to think we could explore ways to offer food by way of partnerships (OKCPS, Regional Food Bank, local govt agencies and/or businesses, etc.) or a "food for fines" program. Seems like that would be an effective example of "community engagement."
I agree with Tim! I have heard of "food for fines" programs being very successful in other libraries in the U.S. We could do it for a week or a month if we wanted to try it short-term. The donated food items would only be applied on overdue fines, not lost books/damaged fees or any other account fines. It would be a great way to have a canned food drive and have our patrons take community ownership.
I love the Food for Fines model, but I sometimes wonder if the customers seeking this sort of fine forgiveness overlap with those who may be at risk of food insecurity to begin with. Some libraries have gone so far as to offer Fine Amnesty / Welcome Home weeks with nothing required except coming back into the library for a "clean slate."
That said, I really do love the idea of partnering with the Regional Food Bank. I think we'd make a perfect place for summer meals or Kids' Cafes!
In LA, children are allowed to read their fines away. Something like this could be a win-win: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-edu-no-library-fines-20171225-s...
Perhaps, this time, food for fines could be more useful than a can of tuna for a $10.00 fine?
In other words a reasonable % of the total fine (1/3, 1/4 % of the total fine with a base amount) could be established this time? Perhaps this thought could be extended to damaged / lost items as well?
Yes, it IS again more work but if you are serious about contributing to feeding the hungry, it's reasonable.
Couldn't we just have a FOOD DONATION BOX where folks could donate year round? Maintenance could drop by once a month to pick up donations?
Thank you.
Is this Community Needs Assessment report for internal use only or can it be shared publicly?
Do you have any specific audiences in mind? I would like to make sure the Commission has seen it before making it public.
I wanted to use some of the statistics but I can wait until the Commission presentation.
I would like to include some Literacy facts which I did not see in the report (or maybe I missed it). Please see links below for more information.
According to Julie Serven, Director of OKC Metro literacy Coalition. "An estimated 140,000 adults in Oklahoma County are considered functionally illiterate and 75 percent of unemployed adults have reading or writing difficulties. This affects not only them but also their children and community."
"In Oklahoma 342,045 (12%) adults over the age 18 functioned at the Below Basic literacy level,and 883,618 (31%) adults were at the Basic literacy level.*Using percentage figures from the NAAL Report and population figures from the 2013 American Community Survey.
The importance of family literacy cannot be overlooked.
https://newsok.com/article/5565611/oklahoma-library-official-low-adult-l...
https://okcliteracycoalition.org
http://libraries.ok.gov/wp-content/uploads/Stat-Reasons-Illieracy-presen...
http://www.unitedwayokc.org/research/data-center/healthy-citizens/litera...
EPS thanks you for the great stats, Christine! We discussed these at our staff meeting this week and plan to use them in our Literacy Workgroup, which will start to work soon! Thank you again for this important information.