Child care, jobs, wages, housing topics at needs assessment

District 4 Human Resources Development Council held a meeting Monday evening to hear from community members about what their personal needs are and what they feel the needs of the region are so HRDC can put together a community needs assessment.

HRDC does one of these assessments every three years and HRDC Executive Director Carilla French said they are meant to be a profile of what the area's needs are and what resources they have.

French said she and the HRDC staff as a whole are trying to adopt a more holistic approach to addressing people and family's needs, either catering to all of them, or directing them to services that HRDC cannot provide.

She said this assessment will allow them to better make that shift and evolve as a community action agency.

She said District 4 HRDC is the oldest community action agency in Montana with one of the oldest Head Start programs and was established in 1965 as part of the war on poverty, working hand-in-hand with the civil rights movement to improve the lives of low-income people.

French said the organization is a private non-profit but does work with the government to administer some of its programs and part of that partnership is doing these assessments.

The event drew an impressive crowd that was split up into groups that were asked to list the services in town that they know of and what needs they see that need to be addressed.

French said late in the meeting that the groups this time around were unique in that they all had widely diverse evaluations of the area's specific needs, which may make things difficult to prioritize, but does provide them with a lot of ideas.

"I love this group because everyone came up with something different," she said. " ... Everyone had different needs."

While the groups did indeed cover a wide range of needs in Havre, the're were a few broad areas that emerged as the talks went on.

One of these areas was child care, with many saying there was a general need for more affordable care, but also pointing out specific needs they've noticed, like a lack of drop-off day care, pre-teen after school programs, parenting classes, open slots for pre-school and jobs that would allow children to be taken care of while at the office.

Jobs and working conditions were another big theme of the evening.

French said a living wage in Hill County for a single parent with one child is $26 an hour, a wage that is practically impossible to find.

"How many jobs in Hill County start at $26 an hour?" she said.

Attendees also cited low wages as a major issue, but brought up a lack of benefits and professional development and training as well.

Housing was another issue that was brought up often, both in terms of availability and affordability.

However, the groups also talked about more specific issues like the need for good renter classes, a lack of transitional housing and more landlords willing to accept Section 8.

Another broad topic the groups talked about was health care, particularly for new mothers and children.

Attendees said programs are available for prenatal care but a lot of people don't know about them so there needs to be more awareness of them.

Groups also talked about the need for more birthing centers, midwives, OBGYNs, mental health services geared toward young children including occupational therapy, and training for law enforcement and educators about how to interact with children with autism.

However, the group also talked about needs they see in health care outside of children, including better general care for seniors, more medical specialist for survivors of sexual assault, rehabilitation centers, and the serious need for more mental health providers and services.

Finally, they also talked about general services for the wider economic health of the community, saying there should be more lending programs for small businesses and those looking to afford higher education, more education opportunities for the trades in general and financial education for new families.

They also talked about public services in general, like public transit, programs to ensure food security and the serious need for a homeless shelter in town.

French thanked everyone for lending their thoughts and providing a massive number of ideas for their assessment.