March 10, 2020
OVERVIEWIn 2012, the East Biloxi Community Collaborative (EBCC) was established in an effort to create a platform to develop and implement strategies designed to improve the lives of residents in East Biloxi. The mission of the EBCC is to "create a healthy, vibrant and sustainable East Biloxi with improved outcomes for all children and families by working to develop a better place to live, work, and play." As East Biloxi positions for change, it is imperative that efforts be made to ensure an equitable opportunity for all residents to thrive and reach their full potential.TAKING ACTIONTo begin working on creating a sustainable East Biloxi and breaking down barriers, the EBCC commissioned Mississippi Urban Research Center at Jackson State University to conduct the Community Needs Assessment (CNA). True community buy-in and participation is needed in order to ensure the programmatic focus areas of EBCC meet to capture the needs of residents in the area. The project's major goal was to gather data and input from area residents and other concerned parties regarding key needs, priorities, issues, and other relevant factors impacting the quality of life in East Biloxi. This report presents the findings from the EBCC CNA.THE APPROACHEast Biloxi Community Collaborative conducted a comprehensive needs assessment that considered all aspects of the area between March 2019 and September 2019. The team met with numerous stakeholders from the community to draw on as many perspectives as possible and to confirm trends by collecting multiple data sources including secondary data, surveying residents, community forums, and focus groups. The findings from this report collectively incorporate both quantitative and qualitative data in an effort to provide a rich and meaningful analysis.KEY FINDINGSThe following report integrates the collective input from the community needs assessment survey, Kick-off event, focus groups with residents, business owners (non-residents), and youth, and the youth photovoice project. Focus group participants were recruited and organized into the following categories: (1) Young adults age 18 to 30 years old; (2) Cross-sector of Community Representatives (i.e., Service Providers, Business Owners, Individuals); and (3) Community residents. EBCC's data analysis from 305 surveys and 3 focus groups revealed the top five priorities for the East Biloxi community are: access to healthy foods, health/healthcare, employment, affordable quality housing, and improvements to public infrastructure. Each priority area was then compared with "needs" based on findings from the data.The identified priority areas were also the same as top five "needs," with more programs for youth being an additional need. For each priority area, the report provides an overview of current relevant research, an analysis of the current structure, specific areas for improvement, and detailed recommendations to achieve improvement