2024 Community Needs Assessment

Service for Montana

The Governor’s Office of Community Service, ServeMontana, improves lives and landscapes across the Big Sky State through community volunteerism and AmeriCorps national service. Every three years, ServeMontana conducts an anonymous Community Needs Assessment to identify the most pressing needs of Montana’s communities. Your response to this survey helps craft the 2025-2027 State Service Plan, which guides the path of service in our state for the next three years. Learn more at serve.mt.gov.

Select one to three options within each focus area to indicate the greatest needs from your perspective. Some options appear under multiple focus areas – for example, “navigating disability-related programs and services” is an option under both Healthy Futures and Economic Opportunity. There is a set of optional questions at the end. The survey will take approximately twelve minutes.

This survey is compatible with several screen readers. There are no non-text elements. See SurveyMonkey’s accessibility page for more information. Please contact us at serve@mt.gov or (406) 444-9077 if you need any help or would like a printed copy.

Thank you for being a voice for your community.

Question Title

* 1. ZIP Code
Montana is a large and diverse state. Sharing your ZIP code enables us to identify which communities face which issues. Your ZIP code will not be used to identify you.

Question Title

* 2. Focus Area: Economic Opportunity
Lifting up individuals, families, and communities

What are the top one to three pressing needs that AmeriCorps members could address through service?

Navigating housing-related programs and services

Navigating disability-related programs and services

Navigating legal assistance programs and services (e.g., wills preparation, court forms)

Navigating public benefits programs (e.g., SNAP, Medicaid, LIEAP)

Building and repairing housing

Financial literacy training and support (e.g., homebuyer education)

Financial and tax assistance (e.g., developing budgets, tax preparation)

Job search assistance

Job training/workforce development

Outreach and education about homelessness

Assisting with transportation or coordinating transportation programs

Recruiting and coordinating volunteers (e.g., pro bono attorneys, tax preparers)

Question Title

* 3. Focus Area: American Indian Affairs
Service with and for Montana Tribal Nations

What are the top one to three pressing needs that AmeriCorps members could address through service?

Navigating housing-related programs and services

Navigating disability-related programs and services

Navigating health care-related programs and services

Navigating legal assistance programs and services (e.g., wills preparation, court forms)

Job search assistance

Job training/workforce development

Outreach and education about homelessness

Building and repairing housing

Outreach and education about mental health and substance use disorders

Outreach and education about missing and murdered Indigenous people

Outreach and education about Native American history (e.g., boarding schools, oral histories)

Preserving and maintaining traditional lands

Supporting IHS, Urban Indian Health Center, and Tribal Health programs and services

Supporting cultural and language preservation (e.g., collecting stories, creating language resources)

Supporting the role of elders in Native American communities

Supporting education for Native American children (e.g., tutoring or mentoring)

Supporting post-secondary education for Native American people (e.g., tutoring or mentoring)

Question Title

* 4. Focus Area: Education
K-12, trade and vocational education, college, adult education

What are the top one to three pressing needs that AmeriCorps members could address through service?

Supporting early childhood education (e.g., Week of the Young Child events, developmental screening)

Supporting education for K-12 children (e.g., tutoring, mentoring in K-12 schools)

Supporting post-secondary education (e.g., mentoring at colleges)

Supporting English as a second language programs (e.g., developing materials, tutoring)

Supporting adult literacy programs

Supporting efforts to mitigate loss-of-learning (e.g., experienced during the COVID pandemic)

Coordinating and facilitating after-school programs

Developing and sharing civic education materials

Outreach and education about post-secondary options (e.g., vocational training, colleges)

Outreach and education about the Internet and digital literacy

Outreach and education about financial aid and student loan debt

Recruiting and coordinating volunteers (e.g., classroom assistants, tutors, mentors)

Question Title

* 5. Focus Area: Healthy Futures
Positive health outcomes to last generations

What are the top one to three pressing needs that AmeriCorps members could address through service?

Navigating public benefits programs (e.g., SNAP, Medicaid, LIEAP)

Navigating programs and services for domestic and sexual violence survivors

Navigating disability-related programs and services

Navigating health care-related programs and services

Outreach and education about nutrition, hunger, and food access

Outreach and education about mental health and substance use disorders

Outreach and education about healthy lifestyles (e.g., physical activity, smoking cessation)

Outreach and education about pregnancy, parenting, and early childhood

Outreach and education about teen issues (e.g., social media, mental health)

Recruiting and coordinating volunteers to serve as first responders

Recruiting and coordinating volunteers to serve as respite caregivers

Recruiting and coordinating crisis response volunteers (e.g., 988 phone lines)

Recruiting and coordinating volunteers to drive people to health appointments

Developing and implementing community activities to reduce isolation/loneliness

Question Title

* 6. Focus Area: Veterans & Military Families
Serving those who serve us

What are the top one to three pressing needs that AmeriCorps members could address through service?

Navigating public benefits programs (e.g., SNAP, Medicaid, LIEAP)

Navigating veteran-specific programs (e.g., VA housing, VA medical, VA disability)

Navigating legal assistance programs and services (e.g., wills preparation, court forms)

Navigating programs and services for servicemembers and veterans with disabilities

Navigating programs and services to help veterans age in place

Coordinating military, military widow(er), and veteran family support programs

Coordinating servicemember and veteran support programs

Assisting veterans in transition to civilian workforce (e.g., job search, skills development)

Outreach and education about the Internet and digital literacy

Outreach and education about military- and veteran-related mental health (e.g., PTSD, substance use disorders)

Outreach and education about veteran homelessness

Question Title

* 7. Focus Area: Montanans Age 55+
Caring for legacy Montanans

What are the top one to three pressing needs that AmeriCorps members could address through service?

Navigating programs and services to help seniors age in place

Navigating legal assistance programs and services (e.g., wills preparation, court forms)

Navigating public benefits programs (e.g., SNAP, Medicaid, LIEAP)

Coordinating support programs for seniors raising grandchildren and/or other youth

Coordinating volunteers to assist with in-home visits

Coordinating volunteers to assist in transporting seniors to errands and appointments

Developing and implementing community activities to reduce isolation/loneliness

Outreach and education about elder abuse

Outreach and education about senior work, AmeriCorps, and volunteer opportunities

Outreach and education about developing senior health care plans

Outreach and education about nutrition, hunger, and food access

Question Title

* 8. Focus Area: Lands & Natural Resources
Protecting and utilizing our greatest resource

What are the top one to three pressing needs that AmeriCorps members could address through service?

Assessing the status of public lands and waters (e.g., water testing, surveying public lands use)

Building and maintaining trails

Building and maintaining waterways (e.g., erosion control, beaver dam analogs)

Navigating agriculture-related programs and services

Outreach and education about agriculture (e.g., Harvest of the Month, community gardens)

Outreach and education about public lands (e.g., State Parks tours, trailhead signage)

Outreach and education about water conservation and drought resiliency

Outreach and education about recycling and solid waste management

Outreach and education about noxious weeds

Outreach and education about apiaries/beekeeping

Outreach and education about water quality

Outreach and education about energy

Wildfire prevention and mitigation (e.g., fuels reduction, clearing natural debris)

Noxious weed and other plant-life management (e.g., removing invasive species plants)

Question Title

* 9. Focus Area: Disaster Services
Disaster preparedness, response, and recovery

What are the top one to three pressing needs that AmeriCorps members could address through service?

Developing community safety and disaster response plans

Disaster survivor assistance (e.g., registering survivors for assistance services, distributing food)

Education and outreach about disaster prevention and response (e.g., wildfire prevention, earthquake response)

Coordinating donations for disaster relief

Coordinating long-term disaster recovery efforts

Flood prevention and mitigation (e.g., sandbags, mucking)

Rebuilding homes after a disaster

Recruiting and training community volunteers for disaster preparation or response

Storm response coordination (e.g., coordinating tornado drills)

Supporting individual preparedness (e.g., distributing disaster-preparedness kits)

Wildfire prevention and mitigation (e.g., clearing natural debris, prescribed burns)

Question Title

* 10. Focus Area: Other

Please identify up to three other pressing needs that AmeriCorps members could address through service, which were not presented above (optional).

Question Title

* 11. What is the biggest strength of AmeriCorps in your community?

AmeriCorps is well known and has benefited my community

AmeriCorps members and volunteers serve people one-on-one or in small groups

AmeriCorps members and volunteers coordinate volunteers to serve in my community

AmeriCorps members and volunteers bring new perspectives and energy to my community

AmeriCorps builds the capacity of nonprofit and government organizations to meet needs

I am not aware of AmeriCorps in my community

Other (please specify)

Question Title

* 12. What is the biggest challenge for AmeriCorps in your community?

Finding affordable housing for AmeriCorps members

Inability to fill AmeriCorps positions

Lack of awareness of AmeriCorps/national service in the community

Lack of organizations with the capacity to pay cost share and/or host members

Term of service is too short for members to address needs

People are not aware they can serve in their own community

Insufficient number of community volunteers

I am not aware of AmeriCorps in my community

Other (please specify)

Question Title

* 13. Would you like to receive the ServeMontana monthly newsletter? If yes, please enter your email address. Your email will not be associated with your survey responses.

Question Title

* 14. Do you want to answer additional questions? Thank you for your time and input. The next section includes demographic information and questions about your understanding of and participation in service. To anonymously complete the next section, click “Continue.” Otherwise, click “Done.” Whichever you choose, click the green "Next" button.

Continue

Done

2024 Community Needs Assessment

Service for Montana

Question Title

* 1. ZIP CodeMontana is a large and diverse state. Sharing your ZIP code enables us to identify which communities face which issues. Your ZIP code will not be used to identify you.

Question Title

* 2. Focus Area: Economic OpportunityLifting up individuals, families, and communitiesWhat are the top one to three pressing needs that AmeriCorps members could address through service?

Question Title

* 3. Focus Area: American Indian AffairsService with and for Montana Tribal NationsWhat are the top one to three pressing needs that AmeriCorps members could address through service?

Question Title

* 4. Focus Area: EducationK-12, trade and vocational education, college, adult educationWhat are the top one to three pressing needs that AmeriCorps members could address through service?

Question Title

* 5. Focus Area: Healthy FuturesPositive health outcomes to last generations What are the top one to three pressing needs that AmeriCorps members could address through service?

Question Title

* 6. Focus Area: Veterans & Military FamiliesServing those who serve usWhat are the top one to three pressing needs that AmeriCorps members could address through service?

Question Title

* 7. Focus Area: Montanans Age 55+Caring for legacy MontanansWhat are the top one to three pressing needs that AmeriCorps members could address through service?

Question Title

* 8. Focus Area: Lands & Natural ResourcesProtecting and utilizing our greatest resourceWhat are the top one to three pressing needs that AmeriCorps members could address through service?

Question Title

* 9. Focus Area: Disaster ServicesDisaster preparedness, response, and recoveryWhat are the top one to three pressing needs that AmeriCorps members could address through service?

Question Title

* 10. Focus Area: OtherPlease identify up to three other pressing needs that AmeriCorps members could address through service, which were not presented above (optional).

Question Title

* 11. What is the biggest strength of AmeriCorps in your community?

Question Title

* 12. What is the biggest challenge for AmeriCorps in your community?

Question Title

* 13. Would you like to receive the ServeMontana monthly newsletter? If yes, please enter your email address. Your email will not be associated with your survey responses.

Question Title

* 1. ZIP Code
Montana is a large and diverse state. Sharing your ZIP code enables us to identify which communities face which issues. Your ZIP code will not be used to identify you.

* 2. Focus Area: Economic Opportunity
Lifting up individuals, families, and communities

What are the top one to three pressing needs that AmeriCorps members could address through service?

* 3. Focus Area: American Indian Affairs
Service with and for Montana Tribal Nations

What are the top one to three pressing needs that AmeriCorps members could address through service?

* 4. Focus Area: Education
K-12, trade and vocational education, college, adult education

What are the top one to three pressing needs that AmeriCorps members could address through service?

* 5. Focus Area: Healthy Futures
Positive health outcomes to last generations

What are the top one to three pressing needs that AmeriCorps members could address through service?

* 6. Focus Area: Veterans & Military Families
Serving those who serve us

What are the top one to three pressing needs that AmeriCorps members could address through service?

* 7. Focus Area: Montanans Age 55+
Caring for legacy Montanans

What are the top one to three pressing needs that AmeriCorps members could address through service?

* 8. Focus Area: Lands & Natural Resources
Protecting and utilizing our greatest resource

What are the top one to three pressing needs that AmeriCorps members could address through service?

* 9. Focus Area: Disaster Services
Disaster preparedness, response, and recovery

What are the top one to three pressing needs that AmeriCorps members could address through service?

* 10. Focus Area: Other

Please identify up to three other pressing needs that AmeriCorps members could address through service, which were not presented above (optional).