Apex, Wake County : an action-oriented community diagnosis including secondary data analysis and qualitative data collection

This document is a community diagnosis of the town of Apex. A field team of five graduate students from the UNC at Chapel Hill School of Public Health worked in Apex from September 2000 to May 2001 collecting data on the strengths and needs of the Apex community as perceived by service providers and by community members. This report includes an analysis of the team’s findings from secondary data as well as from interviews and focus groups held with community members and service providers who reside or work in Apex. In addition, the results are presented from a community meeting held by the field team in April 2001 for community members and service providers to discuss the major issues affecting Apex and collectively work on steps for future action. The purpose of this document is to synthesize our findings to present a critical analysis of the strengths, resources, challenges, and needs within the Apex community. It is our hope that the information presented will help the Apex community recognize and prioritize its response to conditions and situations that affect the general health, wellness, and quality of life for its residents. Growth is by far the biggest issue in Apex, as it has been with most of Wake County over the past decade. The focus previously had been on whether or not growth should continue, and now it has shifted to a focus on how to best handle the consequences of it. This enormous growth has created or exacerbated some important issues in the Apex community. The ones that stand out in the data and were most frequently mentioned by both community members and service providers are transportation, affordable housing, social and political community cohesion, youth and education, and services and access for low-income residents. Of these topics, service providers talked mostly about the availability of services for residents of Apex while community members focused mainly on community cohesion and youth issues. In the following report, we will discuss how the changes in Apex over the last 5-10 years have impacted the services available, the services needed, and the quality of life of Apex residents. Apex is a well-established, competent community, already actively working to improve the quality of life for its residents. However, this paper presents several suggestions for improvement based on our research and the discussion at the community meeting. The main recommendation for future action is increased collaboration between already existing community organizations (such as faith-based organizations) and community members and service providers. This collaboration is necessary to create and implement solutions for problems with transportation, housing, and access to services, which mostly affect lower-income residents of Apex. In addition, the community might want to consider ways in which youth can get involved in community service, as well as creating recreational activities for older teens.Master of Public Healt