Community Services
Department Description
The Pasco County Community Services Department’s mission is to surpass the needs of Pasco’s vulnerable citizens by providing assistance and aid through the use of County resources, innovative programs, and inter-agency collaboration with other community service providers. Our goal is to provide exceptional customer service to citizens, connecting them with other government entities, non-profit service agencies, and other community service providers to help with their unmet needs.
Core Services
Human Services
Pasco County Human Services strives to deliver essential services to meet community needs through in-depth case management and working with other community service providers to enhance the quality of life of Pasco County’s Citizens. We provide short-term, limited services to our residents in an effort to encourage self-sufficiency based off of availability of funding and eligibility criteria for our programs. Our Human Services team also provides information and referral services regarding other community resources with a focus on collaboration and strengthening our partnerships. We also focus efforts on services for qualified low- to moderate-income citizens and families with specific programs for energy and water bills as well as hospital bill payments and indigent cremation/burial assistance. All programs provide aid to citizens to increase their quality of life through financial support and case management during a crisis.
Senior Services
Pasco County Senior Services offers a comprehensive range of vital support and resources tailored to the needs of elderly residents within the community. These services typically encompass providing both direct and referral-based access to social engagement activities and recreational programs to foster a sense of belonging and combat isolation, such as congregate and home delivered meal programs; transportation services for medical appointments and errands; home-based care and assistance with daily activities. We also provide valuable informational resources on benefits, legal assistance, and housing options that are all aimed at promoting the well-being, independence, and quality of life for senior individuals within the County.
Misdemeanor Probation
The Misdemeanor Probation Division has two key activities supporting its purpose: Case Management and Probation Services. Probation officers maintain accurate, timely, and thorough records for each offender. The Misdemeanor Probation Program meets monthly with offenders to provide direction to help them successfully comply with all orders of the courts and tracks those offenders who are incarcerated.
Budget Summary
Funding Sources
Goals and Objectives
Please see the following key performance indicator data for each of the three Community Services divisions: Human Services, Senior Services, and Misdemeanor Probation.
This graph shows the results of Human Services Customer Service Survey. The division goal is to achieve an average score of 3.75 out of a possible score of 4. Human Services currently averages 30 respondents a month since the survey’s inception in March of 2021. The survey contains 3 questions that have a score of 1 through 4 and it is currently being offered to all clients who receive service(s) from any of our team members. The purpose of this score is to generate relevant customer feedback throughout the year. The goal is to ensure every customer has the option to provide feedback and their feedback is listened to.
This graph shows the Senior Services Visitation Data on an annual basis. The divisional goal for 2022 was to achieve a 5% increase in senior center visits over the previous year. Because of how successful we were in surpassing this goal in 2022, we increased our 2023 goal. This KPI reports month-by-month cumulative customer visits of all Pasco County Senior Centers with trend data going back to 2018, including COVID-19 closures. This does not include congregate drive-thru meals. We continuously search for innovative ways to attract new clientele to our senior centers and retain those that are already enrolled.
This graph shows the percentage of Misdemeanor Probation's initial appointments with defendants that were scheduled within two weeks of sentencing. This is an internal performance measure set to ensure that timely instruction and guidance is provided so defendants have the most time possible to comply with orders of the court. Standard was set to two weeks to allow our court partners time to generate and provide us with the sentencing paperwork, for us to schedule and mail an appointment notice to those defendants not seen directly after court, and for the defendant to plan to report as scheduled. The 90% target remains an appropriate goal despite being achieved most months over the last year, as appointments have now gone back to in-person. Data is currently being compiled for the remaining months up to present date.