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SECTION 1. INTRODUCTION
Background, Purpose of the Needs Indicator Profile
and Methodology
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Background
- Needs Indicator Profiles
- Methodology
I. INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND
The mission of The United Way is to increase the organized capacity of people to care
for one another. The successful accomplishment of that mission requires the United Way
demonstrate an understanding of the community, its critical needs and the way in which
those need are currently being met.
In June of 1989, The United Way Board of Directors approved an "Integrated Fund
Distribution Plan" which called for each of United Way’s five volunteer boards
operating in the five Bay Area counties (County Leadership Boards), to conduct a
consistent, rational, data-based needs assessment which would reflect the unique
characteristics of their county and would be the basis for a funding priority process to
guide the distribution of funds.
As a starting point in this work, a common foundation of "hard" data was
collected. It included a county demographic profile and basic needs information on each of
twenty-four areas of health and human care services and in twenty-three underserved
population groups. These needs indicator profiles were the basis for obtaining additional
data and information from a wide variety of individuals with respect to analyzing the
basic needs information and developing broader understandings of the severity,
interrelationships and intensity of problems as well as opportunities and ideas for
solutions.
The results of this work led to 1990 County Needs Assessment reports for each county
which in turn were utilized to develop and establish United Way county funding priorities.
It was agreed by the County Leadership Boards to update these needs assessment reports
every three years to document the changing conditions of county needs in the health and
human care services. The Northern California Community Services Council, Inc. (NCCSC) was
asked to assist the county Leadership Boards in updating these needs assessment reports.
NEEDS INDICATOR PROFILE
This needs indicator profile was designed by NCCSC primarily to meet the needs of The
United Way San Mateo County Leadership Board in updating their 1990 Needs Assessment and
Funding Priorities. In addition, the profile can be a useful tool in meeting the data
information needs of other community and governmental administrators and planners
operating in the county.
The needs indicator profile contained in this report consists of the following four
independent sections:
SECTION II.
GENERAL HIGHLIGHTS: A set of social/demographic findings illustrating what significant
changes have occurred since the San Mateo County 1990 Needs Assessment Report as derived
from the San Mateo County Profile; Needs Indicators for Selected Population
Groups; and Needs Indicators for Types of Services.
SECTION III.
SAN MATEO COUNTY PROFILE: A social/demographic overview of the county’s population
by geographic subareas to include, age, ethnicity, households, economics, and public
assistance.
SECTION IV.
NEEDS INDICATORS FOR SELECTED SAN MATEO COUNTY POPULATION GROUPS: A set of needs
indicators for each of twenty-three population groups with comparative data from the 1990
Needs Assessment Report to the most current data available.
SECTION V.
NEEDS INDICATORS FOR TYPES OF SERVICE CATEGORIES: A set of needs indicators for each of
twenty-four types of services with comparative data from the 1990 Needs Assessment report
to the most current data.
The final section contains the Appendices which includes the San Mateo County Needs
Data References and Resources, Services Classification and Description, and Population
Group Descriptions.
METHODOLOGY
It was agreed that the process of collecting new, updated or additional information
should be done in the most rapid, professional and efficient manner so as to allow County
Leadership Boards time and resources for the analyses and judgments about their county
funding priorities. It was also agreed to use the same population categories and service
categories as last time and that to be most efficient, the first step in the updating
process would be the use of the 1990 U.S. Census (not available for 1990 Needs Assessment)
and other readily available information to update the numbers used in the last needs
assessment report.
Staff, with appropriate input and sign-off from County Leadership Boards and their
Needs Assessment Committees, identified and quantified key update indicators for both
population groups and service categories. In addition County Leadership Boards and Needs
Assessment Committees identified additional resources and references and some cases,
gathered data from these sources for input into the needs indicator profiles. You will
note that in some cases both within the population and service categories, data was not
always available for some of the key indicators listed and the data sheet appears
incomplete. It is expected that as we continue to update this information we will be able
to plug in this "missing" data at a later date.
We hope that the information presented will assist our community in developing a
greater sense of the health and human care service needs in San Mateo County and can serve
as a basis for any planning decisions to meet those needs.
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