Public Participation Partners and Guilford County Community Conversations Feedback
The Guilford County Board of Commissioners hosted a series of Listening Sessions and an accompanying online survey in September and October of 2021. The purpose of the meetings and survey was to provide residents the opportunity to reflect on how the pandemic has impacted them personally. It also gathered initial reactions on how community members think American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding should be prioritized.
Each Listening Session was held in a different County Commissioner district to ensure a wide cross-section of residents had the opportunity to participate. The meetings were complemented by an online and paper survey. A total of 146 respondents answered at least one question on the online or paper survey.
Resident Feedback |
|---|
| “One of the heaviest impacts is in the increase of domestic violence issues in home. It has gone up exponentially. When you’re talking about the number of people or hurt or calls for service. A lot of the seeds of violence are sown in homes when children are growing up. Some children have felony gun charges at age 14 or 15. This can have an impact generationally down the road.” – High Point City Council Member, Ward 2 |
| “We must provide some type of respite place locally for our front-line workers—all of them. Not just health care, but all our civic services. Respite means those empty hotels that we have around here doing who knows what. We need to create some mental health respite away from even if it’s just downtown. This mental health from this quarantine is major. A lot of this is realizing that they’re quitting their jobs because they’re stressed. It shouldn’t be a battle between health care and insurance crisis.” – Educator (K-12 Reading)2 |
| “Our family-owned business is in the hospitality industry. […] We were closed for 15 months. Despite being closed, we survived. There are so many other issues that are still ongoing. We have been able to reopen our doors—not in the same that we were.” –Resident |
| “In terms of broadband infrastructure, we must make sure there is consistent connectivity at a high level, at a high rate. We know that access is great, but if the access is inconsistent then we are not solving the problem. I know that the county did some programs to expand mobile sites. But, if that connection is consistently dropping or is slow, then I know being in a house with kids with access to good internet, even the understanding of that it wears and tears. Imagine the kids who didn’t have strong connection. Expansion of broadband is at the forefront, but the strength of the signal must be as high as we can manage increasing bandwidth and connectivity rates.” – Resident |