The Jacksonville Commission on Disabilities and Human Relations assessment is due to the City of Jacksonville this year. The MacMurray College Social Work program students along with the commission are once again partnering to complete a survey of needs in the community. Every 3 years the survey is completed by the commission by city ordinance to determine needs of those living in Jacksonville who may or may not be under-served and/or under-represented due to a specific demographic, condition or circumstance beyond their control. The results of the survey are then shared with the city council and the mayor’s office to help them provide and plan for additional services to best meet the needs identified in the survey.
This year’s survey completion has a narrow amount of time to be finished due to the closure of MacMurray College by the end of next month.
MacMurray Social Work Chair Dr. Joe Squillace says the survey operates much like it has in the past. “One of the big things we are looking at is how are access to services for the disability and minority community in general are different from the larger community. For example, back in 2016, we found that transportation was a big hurdle for the disability community. Our expectation is that the conclusion is likely the same, but we are conducting the survey now. We have got about 100 surveys in. We could use some more survey responses. We are going to close the survey on Sunday, April 19th at midnight. Obviously, MacMurray College is winding down their operations. We are going into our final week of classes next week, so we are going to start analyzing the data with the students. Then, we will present our findings to the commission.”
Squillace says the survey wasn’t completed last year because he was out of the country with MacMurray students for the study abroad program. The City Council allowed the survey to be delayed by a year so that MacMurray could one again partner on the service project. He says that MacMurray Social Work Junior Amanda Garrison along with other currently enrolled social work students are going to analyze the data as a part of a final project for their classes.
The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete and answers are anonymous and confidential.
The survey can be found at the following links:
In English: https://forms.gle/K2wdNLkv3gCe5mzP7
En Espanol: https://forms.gle/4XDKbDh4NqNynqrz6
For further information or questions, contact Alan Bradish at jpdchaplain@gmail.com.