Identifying housing solutions and creating a comprehensive communication plan among service organizations were announced as the top two community priorities in Homer during a meeting hosted Friday, Oct. 27 by the Southern Kenai Peninsula health improvement coalition MAPP.

Two weeks ago, MAPP, or Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships, hosted an Oct. 13 meeting during which participants ranked six priorities for community needs and services. The MAPP steering committee and a community health needs assessment team reviewed data and surveys from that meeting to refine the priorities down to just two.

According to Hannah Gustufson, MAPP coordinator, housing was identified as the issue with the largest magnitude of concern.

The second priority identified by MAPP — a communication plan among service organizations — reflects a need to connect community members with the various service organizations available.

While Homer does have a variety of social service resources available, the material and assistance available is not always easy to access or residents might not know where to find it, Gustafson explained in a conversation after the meeting.

“So the second priority, communication, is really about finding a sense of alignment of the resources that already exist and information about what is available on the southern Kenai Peninsula,” Gustufson said.

The way people seek information also varies depending on resources and skills available; it’s not feasible to assume that everyone will be using the internet or the newspaper, she said.

“Bulletin boards are still important and so is word of mouth. But if you are new to town and don’t know as many people, that may be difficult, too, because your social network may still be very small. We need to have multiple strategies.”

MAPP will develop a work group for each of the priorities that will become active over the next year.

The work groups will be open to all community members who are interested in participating. Dates and times for the work groups will be determined by who joins them. The work groups will develop tangible outcomes and measures to determine if there is progress happening toward goals of the priority topics.

Representatives from MAPP will be hosting a booth at the Rotary Health Fair on Saturday at Homer High School, to introduce the organization to residents who may not know about them, share these findings and reach out to the broader community for feedback.