For the sake of manageability, most of the work I do focuses on Tyler/Smith County, but I am fortunate to work with and through other great coalitions in other parts of my coverage area, like Wise Up Rusk County, and Jacksonville's Citizens' Police Academy. Here in Smith County, I get to work through/attend the Human Needs Network, Pay Attention East Texas, TISD's SHAC, and Smith County CRCG. All that is to say that there are a lot of people doing many different kinds of good work all over East Texas.
If I can become effective in connecting people who care about youth substance abuse here, I will then move to work more directly in Van Zandt, Rusk, Cherokee and Henderson Counties--I'd probably focus on whichever county demonstrates the most addressable need, first. So, I will be working to gather and process good data for all of the other communities that I get to serve in, but will likely publish focused Needs Assessments for those communities as I make that shift. If the data you are interested in is not here in this Assessment, let me know, and stay tuned for future updates.
