THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 9, 1995 TAG: 9508080093
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 13 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JO-ANN CLEGG, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 42 lines
A new team of professionals representing public schools and public and private agencies in Virginia Beach is surveying citizens about services to families and neighborhoods.
The Virginia Beach Family Preservation Assessment and Planning Team is encouraging citizens to complete a brief questionnaire and/ or attend one of four community meetings where family issues will be discussed.
``We're hoping that through this we can change the way we develop programs and services for the community,'' said Joanne Ackerman of the city's Comprehensive Substance Abuse Program and spokesperson for the team.
``We're using a three-pronged approach to improve service delivery,'' Ackerman explained. ``We'll gather information from the questionnaire, get input from the community meetings and collect baseline data from the statistics that are available concerning such things as school drop-outs and teenage pregnancies. The statistics will help later in determining whether the programs we develop are working.
``The more input we get from the surveys and meetings, the better we'll be able to plan,'' she added.
Included in the survey are questions about school concerns, neighborhood safety and health, the availability of services to families and how well information about services is publicized.
Copies of the survey are available at recreation centers, libraries, city treasurer's offices, the departments of public health and social services and the Virginia Beach office of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce.
The community meetings will focus on such topics as how families can be better informed about available services, how residents feel about public services they have received in the past and barriers to receiving public services. by CNB