Care Foundation, Inc. was established in 1998, after the sale of Northwest Health System (NHS), including Northwest Medical Center in Springdale and Bates Medical Center in Bentonville, Arkansas, to Quorum Health Resources of Brentwood, Tennessee. As Northwest Health System was a nonprofit organization, the proceeds of this sale are required to be re-invested in the community.

In determining the best way to re-invest the funds, we hope to build on NHS's record of caring and deep commitment to the health and welfare of the community. The health system was known for developing innovative methods of delivering care and for leading the community in establishing excellent health education and illness-prevention programs. We are proud of that heritage and hope to infuse the same values into the work of the Foundation.

Our board of directors decided that a foundation would serve as the best means by which the proceeds from this sale could be managed and have a long-term impact on the health of northwest Arkansas. The roles of the Foundation will include grantmaking, serving as an educational resource for nonprofits, convening or facilitating discussions of community issues, and working to develop other philanthropic assets for the community.

As part of the Foundation's organizational planning effort, the board initiated a community needs assessment, consisting of three key steps:

1. Review of known community indicators
2. Identification of community concerns
3. Prioritization of community concerns

This report serves to summarize the community concerns and the priority given to each by the public, community leaders, and nonprofit organizations. We will use this information, along with the statistical data collected during the planning process, to set the funding priorities of the foundation for the next several years. You will find a copy of our initial grantmaking guidelines with this report.

To all of you who participated in the community needs assessment, please accept our gratitude for your participation in this very enlightening process. We hope you will find this information to be helpful and thought provoking, and we look forward to working with you to improve the health and well being of everyone in northwest Arkansas.

Bob Shaw
Chairperson

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Care Foundation, Inc. was established on December 1, 1998. During the first year of operation the focus of the board and staff was on developing the infrastructure that would allow long-term investments in the community and on developing guidelines for beginning contributions to nonprofit organizations in northwest Arkansas.

The Foundation board of directors chose to do a community-wide assessment of need as part of the planning process that would develop contributions guidelines. This report provides a summary of the needs assessment process and the funding priorities selected by the Foundation.

In setting the stage for the community needs assessment, the Foundation board stated a desire to support and encourage the continued growth and development of a "healthy" northwest Arkansas community. To that end, they adopted the World Health Organization’s definition of a healthy community that includes the following factors:

• Affordable shelter, food and care for all,
• High-quality healthcare for body and mind,
• Safety in every home and neighborhood,
• Lifelong learning, beginning at birth,
• A vital economy that provides everyone with a livelihood,
• Connections to community life through volunteer leadership and service,
• Expression of the visions, traditions, and talents of the community, and
• Respect for diversity and standards of non-discrimination.

The eight factors that comprise the definition of a healthy community served as guideposts for the design of this assessment.

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The assessment process was designed to achieve two main objectives: (1) facilitate the collection of community-relevant needs data, and (2) provide an opportunity for all interested community members to contribute to the definition and prioritization of community needs.

The Foundation identified four main areas of interest for funding initiatives prior to the implementation of this needs assessment, with the understanding that the areas could/would change based on the results of the assessments. These four areas were based on the categories of grantmaking established by the Foundation Center in New York, and are listed in alphabetical order:

• Arts and Culture
• Education
• Environment and Animals
• Health and Human Services

The assessment process sought to define and prioritize specific community needs in each of these four categories.

Community indicators
Existing data on specific community indicators was reviewed as the first step. Research data was collected from sources including the United States Census, Arkansas State Department of Health, Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission, and national research organizations such as the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The data compared northwest Arkansas to the State of Arkansas and to national statistics, and is presented in Appendix A.

The process for identifying local needs and priorities was divided into three main participation groups, each using a different method of information gathering:

• Nonprofit organizations, using a modified Delphi study,
• General public, using public hearings with an open-mike comment period, and
• Community leaders, using structured open-ended interviews.

Nonprofit organizations
The nonprofit organizations meeting was held on October 5, 1999. Every known nonprofit organization in Benton and Washington counties was invited to send a representative to this meeting (approximately 400 organizations). The meeting served to:

1. Introduce the Care Foundation
2. Introduce the Foundation’s interest in funding initiatives that support the development of a healthy community, specifically in the four funding areas previously mentioned;
3. Announce the timeline for completion of the community needs assessment, publication of grant guidelines, acceptance of grant applications, and grant funding dates;
4. Review the known community indicators researched by the Foundation staff; and
5. Introduce the opportunity for nonprofit organization members to participate in defining and prioritizing community needs.

A modified Delphi study was used to define and prioritize community needs. At the conclusion of the nonprofit organization meeting, participants were asked to complete needs assessment cards. Specifically, each individual was asked to list the two or four most critical community needs in one or more categories. The categories each organization was asked to rank were determined by their standard nonprofit classification (i.e., health — general, human service — public safety/benefit, arts & culture). A complete listing of the categories can be found in Appendix B. For those organizations that did not attend the meeting, their information packages were mailed, requesting their participation in this process. Individuals who attended the meeting were asked to leave their needs assessment cards with the facilitator at the conclusion of the meeting.

The needs identified on these assessment cards were compiled by category. Each participant then received a follow-up survey via fax or mail. At this time they were asked to prioritize the needs listed for each category based on community needs, not necessarily the needs of their organization. When necessary, a second follow-up survey was administered for clarification. The results of this process are reported in the following section.

Public Hearings
The second needs assessment process involved the hosting of three public hearings. These hearings were held in Bella Vista (approximately 150 people), Bentonville (approximately 170 people), and Springdale (approximately 100 people). The hearings were advertised via radio, newspapers, and community posters. The public at large was invited and encouraged to attend a hearing and offer comments on the needs of the community.

These hearings were audio and video recorded and transcribed for thematic analysis. The results of this analysis are reported in the following section, in parallel with the data from the modified Delphi study.

Community Leaders
The final assessment process involved standardized, open-ended interviews with community leaders from within Benton and Washington counties. In addition to gathering information on community need, the goal for the staff conducting interviews was to establish relationships with local community leaders. Community leaders included in the population of assessment included: mayors, county judges, county quorum court members, state representatives, law enforcement representatives, judicial system representatives, and local representatives from the Arkansas Department of Human Services, Department of Environmental Safety, and the Department of Health. A total of forty interviews were conducted — in person when possible, and via telephone when necessary. The data was analyzed in parallel with the data collected from the other assessment processes. The results of these interviews are presented in the following sections.

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The following pages contain summary information of the main themes that emerged from the community needs assessment. Each information source was analyzed separately, and then combined with the other sources to provide an overall summary.

The qualitative data collected via individual interviews and public hearings was analyzed following standard coding procedures, using qualitative analysis software, by an outside facilitator. Appropriate steps were taken to ensure the thematic analysis is trustworthy.

The data are presented as "main themes" that represent needs that appear in multiple data sets and possibly as a priority need as defined by the modified Delphi procedure. There were many other "minor themes" that were mentioned either at one meeting or by only a few people. These items, for example the need for spay and neuter clinics for animals, did not rank high enough in the analysis to be included in the "main themes".

In the information gathering process, participants were asked to identify needs rather than specific programs or solutions. The analysis has attempted to distill the "needs" information from statements where they were couched in terms of programs or solutions. For example, if a statement asked the Foundation to consider expanding school nurses services, the analysis registered the information as a need for health services for students. In this way, we were able to combine all of the information relating to health needs of students, regardless of the particular solution that was suggested.

In addition, we have tried to analyze the information in terms of need without regard to specific populations. For example, many people talked about the need for respite services for caregivers, sometimes with regard to senior citizens, sometimes with regard to disabled or handicapped children and adults. We have registered an overall need for respite care services for frail and/or vulnerable people, acknowledging that there are several populations who could benefit from these services.

It is interesting to note that almost all of the information gathered through the needs assessment relates closely to the original areas selected by the board of the Foundation, although the rank order of the areas changed from community to community. It was not unexpected that the highest areas of concern for the Bella Vista community were health-related, while the highest area for Bentonville was education. However, in all communities there was strong agreement about the priority areas of concern under health and education, even though the communities might have ranked one total area higher than another. And, in each community the needs information represents the opinion of the people who were present at the meeting, although we have adjusted for duplications.

In the Conclusions section of this report below, you will find information on the conclusions that were drawn from the needs assessment. The board of the Foundation has taken the information from both the statistical data collected and the qualitative needs assessment to develop funding areas for the contributions guidelines.

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This section presents summarized data from the community public hearings, the nonpofit delphi study, and interviews with public officials. Each data source is presented separately with a combined data source at the end. The needs represented in each chart are ranked from left to right from most critical to less critical.

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Working with the existing statistical data and the information gathered in the needs assessment, the Foundation board of directors has approved the following Mission Statement, and areas for emphasis for use during the initial grantmaking period, beginning in January 2000.

Mission Statement:
The mission of Care Foundation is to enrich the quality of life in northwest Arkansas by:

• Supporting the Northwest Arkansas Community Foundation
• Serving as a leader, catalyst, and resource for other nonprofit organizations in Northwest Arkansas,
• Building a permanent endowment for future community needs, and
• Promoting healthy communities through strategic grantmaking

Population
In all of the Foundation’s programs, the primary interest will be focused on serving the most vulnerable members of our community, whether that vulnerability is defined by poverty, illness, disability, or lack of access to services.

Areas of Emphasis for Grantmaking
After reviewing the information gathered in the needs assessment, two major changes were made in the areas of emphasis. First, the area of Health and Human Services was split into two categories based on the size of each and the difference in programs under each one. Also, the area previously called Environment and Animals was changed to Public Society/Benefit and will include environmental programs as well as public safety, recreation and leisure.

There were several areas that placed very high in the community needs assessment that the Foundation will not be able to address directly. The best example of this is the need for funds to pay for prescription drugs for people without prescription insurance. Since the Foundation will not be providing funds to individuals, and since this issue needs to be addressed through a national conversation on healthcare reimbursement, this area is not represented in the final funding guidelines.

Foundation grantmaking will focus on the following areas of interest, and they are presented in rank order of priority:

• Prevention of high-risk behavior by youth
• Ensuring the health of students
• Maintaining the independence of the frail/vulnerable
• Crisis intervention
• Family planning and prenatal care

• Meeting basic needs for food and housing
• Increasing access to child care and after-school programs
• Early childhood education and school readiness
• Prevention and treatment of domestic violence and child abuse

• Creating successful students, with a focus on at-risk children
• Ensuring the health of our students
• Curriculum development
• Access to higher education
• Lifelong learning

• Capacity development for the nonprofit sector
• Regional transportation issues
• Equal access to recreation and leisure
• Public protection and safety
• Environmental education and protection

• Access to the arts for all citizens
• Arts in education
• Preservation of community culture

A full set of guidelines, including application and review procedures, is enclosed with this report.

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The board and staff of the Care Foundation, Inc. would like to thank all of the people who worked together to make the needs assessment and planning process a success. In addition to all of those who provided data, attended meetings, sat for interviews, and responded to questions, we would especially like to thank the team that helped with the organization of the process:

Elaine Crutchfield, Ph.D., Consultant
Rick Baber, Photographer and Videographer
Arts Center of the Ozarks
First United Methodist Church of Bella Vista
First Christian Church of Bentonville
Pruden Catering
All AV Services of Springdale

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