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The Haitian Coalition of Collier County wants to know — what does Collier’s Haitian community really need?

To find out, the nonprofit group is taking to the streets and conducting a survey to figure out what the main issues of concern are for the Haitian community.

“Generally I could say ‘these are the needs,’” said John K. Paul, president of the Haitian Coalition of Collier County. “But to actually go out and get hard facts and numbers ... not the things that we think, but the things Haitians themselves are saying they need.”

To do just that, the coalition hired Gilbert Saint-Jean, assistant professor in epidemiology and public health at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine.

Saint-Jean said it took him five months to create the 90-question survey, in both English and Creole, that the coalition is utilizing.

But to get an accurate report of the Haitian community’s needs, Saint-Jean said, the final count has to have a good representation from the Haitian community in Naples and Immokalee — and that means at least 500 filled-out surveys in Collier County.

“We are close to that number now,” Saint-Jean said. “We hope that in the next couple of weeks that will be taken care of.”

Paul said the group hopes to have more than 500 surveys completed by mid-July.

Some of the topics being tackled by the survey include access to health care, family issues such as education and child care, children’s health issues, community and neighborhood concerns such as housing, safety, crime — and the socio-economic demographics of the Haitian community in Collier.

And the project is going well.

“We are definitely on target,” coalition secretary Barbara Melvin said.

The response has been positive in Haitian churches, she said.

“They are excited,” Melvin said.

After the surveys are collected, Saint-Jean said, it would take a month or so to complete a draft.

“You do the statistical analysis and then you do the interpretation of the report,” Saint-Jean said.

Once the final report is completed in the fall, Paul said, the coaltion would get to work.

“I think the first thing will be addressing the services that are needed and linking those to an existing provider,” said Paul, adding that the group’s goal is not to create a bunch of organizations, but to make connections.”

The coalition, known as HCCC, came into being nearly a year ago with the main goal of understanding the needs of Collier’s Haitian community. It received its nonprofit designation in February.

“There was not one group that served in that capacity,” Paul said. “The goal now is to increase awareness, not only in the non-Haitian population, but in the Haitian population as well. This organization is here to help.”

And the survey is a good way to start, Paul said.

“Everybody that has actually done it (the survey) said, ‘It’s great, we really need this,’” Paul said.

For more information on the HCCC and the Haitian community survey call (239) 269-7285 or e-mail jpaul@hccconline.org.