Community Needs Assessment Report: West Hempstead, Long Island, NY

This report provides a community needs assessment for West Hempstead, Long Island, New York, focusing on the challenges of conflict resolution exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. It examines the ineffectiveness of traditional dispute resolution centers due to environmental barriers created by the pandemic and proposes a virtual platform as a solution. The assessment considers factors such as population, economic conditions, and socio-cultural impacts, highlighting the suitability of a virtual approach given the community's demographics and technological access. The report emphasizes the importance of key stakeholders, including the Long Island Dispute Resolution Centers, disputers, media outlets, and local institutions, in the planning, development, and implementation of the virtual initiative. It also addresses potential setbacks like data protection concerns and resistance to virtual methods, offering solutions such as enhanced security measures and provisions for physical meetings. The report concludes that the success of the virtual dispute resolution initiative hinges on effective planning, stakeholder involvement, efficient implementation, and adaptability to environmental changes.

COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT FOR WEST HEMPSTEAD, LONG ISLAND,
NEW YORK CITY.

With each passing second, minute, hour, day, week, month and year, and with the various
interactions mankind tends to have with their community within these time periods, it is
definitely a certainty that these interactions may breed conflicts or dilemmas which can be quite
challenging to resolve on their own, or within the parties to these conflicts.
Conflict here simply connotes a situation where two or more individuals, businesses or
organizations do not agree as touching a thing, and that this causes a friction in further
communication between all parties. Smith (1966) opines that conflict in itself is a situation in
which the conditions, practices, or goals for the different participants are inherently
incompatible.
A society cannot thrive on conflict in any way. Conflicts bring disharmony to a perfectly
functioning harmonious organizational system, and this disharmony can wreak great havoc in
terms of inefficiencies, and may cause additional irrational manifestations which may negate the
functioning of the organization (Smith, 1966).
As identified above, the impacts of conflicts have far-reaching effects on organizational or
otherwise, communal development, and hence the need for a dispute resolution center that is able
to carry out basic mediation, conflict resolution, peer mediation, conflict coaching, and
restorative practice services to settle arising disputes in the community.
The community of West Hempstead is therefore no exemption when it comes to having dispute
resolution centers, and in fact, these have been put in place. However, with the outbreak of the
novel corona virus (Covid-19), which has resulted in a global pandemic resulting in many
nations of the world having to impose lockdown strategies to reduce the spread of the virus,
these dispute resolution centers have been ineffective in achieving their purpose.

Here, we identify a problem that plagues the community, and that which needs to be fixed.
However, the pandemic has caused an “environmental barrier” which is most definitely going to
make the task of finding a way to resolve disputes quite difficult, ‘herculean’ in fact!
Kirst-Ashman and Hull (2014) defined environmental barriers as those factors in the
environment which prevent the transference of meaning, and communicating the intended
message. In context, this means a situation that prevents the dispute solvers from communicating
with those who have disputes that need to be resolved.
Proffering solutions to this problem would take into consideration the various factors such as the
population of the county, the prevalent economic conditions and how they affect the citizenry in
terms of income, the socio-cultural impacts on the behaviors of the citizens and their ability to
respond swiftly to change, either by adapting or innovating.
Organizing a virtual platform where disputes can be resolved seems like the best option,
considering all of the aforementioned factors and the effectiveness of this technique in
overcoming environmental barriers.
With the outbreak of the virus, and its attendant restrictions in physical gatherings,
organizational institutions of the world knew they needed to give a facile response to the
changing conditions in the environment, and that’s how “virtual” became a trend gaining much
acclaim. The United Nations website claims that so far, it has been effective in holding corporate
meetings, for training and educational purposes, and even also for holding church services! How
amazing! What’s then to say it is not suitable for dispute resolution purposes?
The dispute resolution process is one that involves both parties communicating their sides of the
story to the mediator, who in turn makes a resolution that benefits both parties, and in some

cases, a division of the parties. The operative word here is “communicate”, and indeed, virtual
does help to communicate.
The DataUSA website intimates that West Hempstead boasts of a population of about twenty
thousand, one hundred and sixteen citizens (https://datausa.io/profile/geo/west-hempstead-ny).
With such a population, it’s almost impossible to develop a system that allows physical
interactions between mediators and mediates in time before the increasing conflict situations
blow into something bigger like court cases and whatnot. With such circumstances, virtual only
seems like the most legitimate and foolproof action to get the job done.
The website also provides information on the median income and age of the community as
$116,638 and 39.2years respectively. This only proves that virtual can be adopted by the
community as majority of the population is representative of the younger generation who are
more tech-savvy and can navigate through the virtual world. With an income stream like that,
majority of the population are able to afford gadgets that allow virtual connections such as
phones, laptops, tablets, phablets etc.
In effecting a virtual initiative for dispute resolution, consideration for key stakeholders have to
be made. Firstly, the Long Island Dispute Resolution Centers (LIDRC) are very pivotal to the
success of the initiative, as they will provide the mediators needed in the dispute resolution
process.
Additionally, they would also give insights to the kind of features this virtual initiative should
possess which would give the best experience to them and the people in conflict. They would
also provide information on the characteristics of the target market and what their perceived

needs are. This would be to ensure that they maximize the benefits derivable from the virtual
experience for all parties.
The disputers are also key stakeholders in the process, as they need to be kept in the loop of
developments for the virtual initiative. They are the primary consumers of the program, and
hence, they’re the ones who would give feedback to the developers on how to make the
experience better.
Media outlets such as TV stations, radio stations, newspapers, blogs etc. are the ones who would
spread the word about the initiative when it becomes fully functional, so they should be kept
abreast of notable developments in the virtual initiative, particularly that which affects the launch
of the program.
Local institutions and organizations are also important pieces in the chess board, as they’re the
ones who’ll provide referrals to the virtual program when internal conflicts can’t be handled by
the human resources arm of the organization.
The importance of internal human resource departments of local institutions and organizations
cannot be overemphasized, as they are pivotal to the whole dispute resolution process. They
ensure that some minor disputes don’t ever have to reach the dispute resolution centers, and that
those who reach these centers are issues that require a great deal of expertise and care in
resolving them.
There is therefore an inverse relationship between the effectiveness of the dispute resolution
departments of local institutions and the workload of county dispute resolution centers, because

the effectiveness of the former in resolving disputes only means the latter can focus its efforts,
energies and expertise on more rewarding activities.
Additionally, the help of local clubs, associations and other social groups can be solicited for in
the dispute resolution process, as they may be able to offer more intuitive insight to the
circumstances of the cases which need to be resolved.
The success of the virtual program therefore depends on the ability to carry these stakeholders
along in the planning, development, implementation and review phase to ensure that optimal
planning decisions are made to achieve goals, and that these decisions help in achieving goals in
an optimal manner.
Despite the arguments above in support of the virtual initiative for dispute resolution, there may
be some setbacks in its implementation. The effects of these setbacks can be cushioned by
making decisions using simulation models and scenario-based planning.
One of such setbacks that may arise is the issue of personal data protection, as users of the virtual
program may be strongly opposed to sharing their data on the virtual platform without being
assured of the level of security put in place to prevent unauthorized access or dissemination of
information. This challenge can be taken care of by putting in place security measures such as
firewalls, encryption, passwords etc. to ensure outsiders are blocked out of the system.
Users may also express strong oppositions to virtual dispute resolution schemes, as they may feel
it’s quite ineffective, and it doesn’t fit right in to their specific needs. This challenge can be met
by making provisions for the few that would like physical meetings. The physical venues can and

may include the existing dispute resolution centers, church venues, etc. while the social
distancing protocols are being observed.
After the implementation phase, it is necessary to carry out a periodic evaluation to assess the
effectiveness of the virtual initiative in meeting the specified objectives or purposes for which it
was set up. This can be done via a process which involves comparing actual results in
measurable terms with planned results, so as to detect any deviation for which control measures
can be taken to bring the actual results to par with the planned results.
Conclusively, the success of this virtual initiative for dispute resolution is contingent upon the
ability of the policy formulators and county council of West Hempstead to make proper planning
decisions, with the required input from all key stakeholders for the initiative, the effectiveness
and efficiency of its implementation process, and how quick it is to make the required changes in
operations in response to changes in the environment or as a result of a deviation from the plan.
If the above factors have been ticked off the checklist, the virtual initiative for dispute resolution
is aimed for success, all things being equal.
REFERENCES
Smith, C. G. (1996). A Comparative Analysis of Some Conditions and Consequences of Intra-
Organizational Conflict. Administrative Science Quarterly. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2391573
Kirst-Ashman, K. K., Hull, G. H. (2014). Understanding Generalist Practice. Brooks/Cole
Empowerment Series. Cengage Learning.
The United Nations Organization. (2020). The Impact of Digital Technologies.
https://www.un.org/en/un75/impact-digital-technologies.