The Greater Akron LGBTQ+ Community Needs Assessment was the first needs assessment in the series to be completed! Conducted by Kent State University's College of Public Health and supported by over 116 local LGBTQ+ community organizations and leaders, this collaborative effort has provided invaluable insights into the needs, concerns, and challenges faced by the LGBTQ+ community in Summit, Stark, Portage and Medina counties.
Our outreach efforts included tabling at over 34 Pride events and distributing flyers at locations throughout Greater Akron. As a result, we gathered 1,002 community surveys (703 from members of the LGBTQ+ community and 299 from LGBTQ+ allies) bolstering a 85% survey completion rate. After collecting the data we delivered more than 50 community presentations of the results to share back our findings with the community. We are deeply grateful for your openness and participation in sharing your stories and needs with us. This project could not have been accomplished without your support.
We hope our final reports accurately reflect the priorities and aspirations of the Greater Akron LGBTQ+ community across various quality-of-life factors, including health and wellness, religion and spirituality, education and literacy, housing, food and basic needs, business, employment and commerce, safety and law enforcement, and recreation and leisure. Thank you for being an integral part of this important work.
Check out these reports and tools we developed to help share what we found!