The Daily Catch

Take the Community Needs Survey: Weigh In on Food, Mental Health, Language and Childcare Issues Close to Home



At three workshops, including one above at the Red Hook Community Center, the Red Hook and Rhinebeck community needs assessment team gathered ideas from residents on everything from food security to daycare availability (photo by Nevill Smythe).

Do you struggle to make ends meet? Do you face food security issues? Are language barriers impeding your sense of belonging in the community?

The Red Hook and Rhinebeck Community Needs Assessment team wants to hear from you on these and other issues as part of an ambitious strategic planning exercise to guide non-profit programming and government planning in the years ahead.

Even if you don’t personally face challenges around mental health, food, language, sexual orientation, or drug abuse, the leaders driving the community needs assessment project invite all to complete its newly released survey. Responses are due by mid-April.

For English, visit this link.

For Spanish, visit this link.

Paper copies of the survey are also available at the Red Hook Community Center and in public libraries in both Red Hook and Rhinebeck.

A multi-facted research effort of Red Hook Responds and the Red Hook Community Center, the community needs assessment project is also intended to advise others. The report to be created after the survey results are compiled will be released to the public this spring. It is being funded by $30,000 in grants.

“We think this project is a way to think more broadly and support other non-profits and municipal governments to identify needs so that we can see where we’re falling short as a community,” said Nevill Smythe, interim acting executive director at Red Hook Responds. “We hope everyone here can live as comfortably as possible.”

Sara Ugolini, executive director of the community center, concurred. “Our intent is to inform our own planning and also to share the information widely with other agencies to address a range of needs.”

After a variety of public forums, including this one at Starr Library last week, residents are now invited to complete an online or paper survey to articulate needs they have in Red Hook and Rhinebeck (photo courtesy of Nevill Smythe).

Ahead of the survey, Ugolini, Smythe and the research leader for Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress have led a series of focus groups and interviews in both Red Hook and Rhinebeck. An early objective has been to connect with community leaders and others who directly serve residents – for instance, Sgt. Patrick Hildenbrand, who runs the Red Hook Police Department.

Kate Stryker, senior research planner at Pattern for Progress, a Hudson Valley regional research and educational organization, said she has also attended a variety of community events, eager to hear about issues surfaced by residents. For instance, last week, she attended the Red Hook Central School District’s “Red Hook Conversations” event at which community leaders, students and residents spoke about issues facing the schools and how they might be addressed.

Smythe, who proposed the project in August 2022, said the team expects to hear that many members of the community do not face the challenges the survey is designed to explore. “Having a sense of the community’s well-being is important,” Smythe said. “At the same time, our goal is to find the gaps.”

Funders include the Dyson Foundation in Millbrook, the Thomas Thompson Trust in Boston, Mary Norris Preyer Fund in Greensboro, North Carolina, and the towns and villages of Red Hook and Rhinebeck.

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